Early Menopause: Trouble Even Before The Fortieth Birthday
If as a woman you suddenly find that you are having trouble sleeping at night, or feel cranky all day long or you feel particularly hot and are not your normal self. It may be time to suspect early menopause because these are certainly among the many common symptoms of this condition. In fact, symptoms of early menopause will typically start to show up in women who have not as yet reached their fortieth birthday and that are why this menopausal condition is referred to as early menopause, or even premature menopause.
A Rare Condition
However, early menopause is in truth quite a rarity among women and in fact it is believed that such a form of menopause only affects one percent of women, though it can still affect teenaged girls as well as women who have barely turned twenty. Some of the main reasons why early menopause affects these small minority of women is that it could develop as a consequence of having had the ovaries surgically removed, or because of chemotherapy treatment or even just because the ovaries have caused the condition.
Still, it must be said that the symptoms of early menopause are pretty much the same as those for normal menopause and among these common symptoms you can include night sweats, hot flashes, weight gain, sleep deprivation, mood swings, vaginal dryness and lower sexual urge, itchiness in the skin as well as aches and pains.
As compared to the times when our mothers had only one way to deal with early menopause (as well as normal menopause) symptoms, which was to bear the symptoms in silence, today there are many more options to avail of including taking prescription drugs as well using natural products. In fact, you could even try out the popular and tested means of treating all forms of menopause by undergoing hormone replacement therapy or HRT in which women are given drugs as well as medicinal preparations that help to restore the balance of estrogen (a hormone) to their proper levels.
Since hormone replacement therapy involves artificial means, it is sure to have its attendant side effects and risk factors including developing cancer as well as bleeding and thus should only be taken after the doctor has recommended it for your particular symptoms.
One thing for sure, and that is that there is no known reason why women develop early menopause symptoms though doctors do believe that hereditary reasons could be one reason. Other causes such as heavy smoking, too much stress and even a poor diet can bring on the condition. If you also consume too much of alcohol you could also risk developing early menopause.
The good news is that provided you treat your early menopause condition in good time and with the proper treatment method, it will not cause too many problems, and through hormone replacement therapy you could even regain your lost sex drive.
