Because menopause means that a woman’s body is about to officially begin to age, many people take it for granted that later menopause means slower ageing.
According to the survey, the average age of natural menopause for Chinese women is 48.72 years old[1].
Therefore, many women in their 50s will have the idea of delayed menopause, and even feel fortunate that they are late in menopause, thinking that as long as menopause happens late Some, aging can come slower.
This is not the case.
If a female friend is over 55 years old and has not gone through menopause, don’t think that you are getting old slowly, because this is a late-onset menopause, which is caused by the excessive function of the anterior pituitary gland. associated with higher levels of estrogen in the body.
Delayed menopause increases the risk of malignancies such as breast and endometrial cancer.
Data report available:
Women over the age of 55 who have gone through menopause have a 50% increase in breast cancer incidence for every one year delay in their age at menopause.
Patients with a history of menstruation for more than 40 years are twice as likely to develop breast cancer than those with a history of menstruation for less than 30 years [2].
So if you are over 55 years old and have not menopause, you must go to the hospital in time to ask a doctor to do relevant examinations for yourself.
Also, women experience fluctuations or decreases in sex hormones before and after menopause.
This time can lead to a series of physical and psychological symptoms, including irregular menstruation, amenorrhea, hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, irritability, emotional agitation, dizziness , tinnitus, palpitations, osteoporosis and other symptoms similar to menopause[3].
If menopause makes you very uncomfortable, you can actually go to the hospital for help from a doctor.
The doctor will give corresponding countermeasures according to the specific situation, such as supplementary treatment of estrogen, which can effectively correct the health problems related to the lack of hormones.
But it is not recommended to buy estrogen to eat, especially health products containing estrogen, because the use of estrogen is not standardized, but it is easy to increase the risk of breast cancer risk.
Therefore, everyone must medicate under the guidance of a doctor.
If you have menopause, but you have a second period, it is not “returning to youth”, but may be some disease signals, such as cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, Fallopian tube cancer et al.
Postmenopausal uterine bleeding is a symptom and an early signal. It should be paid enough attention and should be checked by a doctor in time.
Menopause marks the end of a woman’s reproductive phase, just as puberty marks the beginning of the reproductive phase, usually occurring gradually between the ages of 45-55, end within 2 to 3 years [4].
Although menopause is an inevitable physiological process in every woman’s life, the age of menopause is affected by heredity, geography and climate, social pressure, smoking, family There are considerable differences between individuals due to the influence of various factors such as and psychological factors.
From a medical point of view, ovarian function has a vigorous period of about 30 years, and begins to decline after the age of 40, so about 95% of Menopause in women occurs before age 55[1].
How is menopause diagnosed?
It is called menopause 12 months after amenorrhea and is already at the age of menopause (over 40 years old). If menopause occurs before the age of 40, it is premature ovarian failure.
If you are younger than 40 years old and have amenorrhea for more than 4 months, you should consider the possibility of premature ovarian failure, and it is recommended to go to the hospital for a checkup.
Currently, premature ovarian failure in my country tends to be younger, and about 1% of patients have symptoms of premature ovarian failure just after puberty [5].
The occurrence of premature ovarian failure will not only affect women’s fertility, but also make women suffer from various discomforts caused by premature menopause.
At the same time, it will also increase the risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, tumor, causing greater harm to women’s physical and mental health .
Because premature ovarian failure is irreversible, it can only be detected and controlled early, mainly using estrogen and progesterone supplementation therapy to improve symptoms, and then maintain it until menopause.
So Zhimei would like to remind girls to take good care of themselves, menstruation is like a barometer of women’s health.
If you find that your menstrual period is abnormal for more than 3 months, you must seek medical attention as soon as possible to ensure your own health.
Reviewer
Liu Haifang| Deputy Chief Physician, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University
References
[1] Nie Chanshou. Investigation on the influencing factors of age at menopause in Chinese urban women [J]. China Maternal and Child Health, 2011, 026(008): 1191-1193.
[2] Liu Wanhua, Comparative Imaging of Breast Cancer [M]. Southeast University Press, 2017: 110.
[3] Zhang Li. Modern Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology Nursing [M]. Jilin Science and Technology Press, 2019:116.
[4] Chen Bingfeng. Diseases of middle-aged and elderly women and sex hormone replacement therapy [M]. Beijing Medical University Press, 2002:4.
[5] Fan Qingbo. The Complete Book of Common Gynecological Diseases, New 3rd Edition [M]. China Women’s Publishing House, 2018:236-238.
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