Understanding the Prozac Effect on Menopause

Menopause is a natural process, one that occurs at some point in all women's lives, usually after the age of forty. Menopause occurs due to a decrease in the function of the ovaries, and in addition to this there are also decreased progesterone levels, which means that any eggs that are released in the woman's body are much less likely to be fertilized.

There are actually four different stages to menopause, something that most women are not aware of. The first is pre-menopause which refers to the fertile or reproductive stage of a woman's life and which spans from the time of her very first period to the time of her very last period. After this comes peri-menopause which is the phase immediately before menopause and which is characterized by hormonal changes which often lead up to menopause over a few years time.

Menopause is what occurs when the woman actually has her final period and it is really the permanent termination of a woman's menstruation and her fertility. Because of this it is often a very traumatic event in the woman's life and can be incredibly damaging to her self-esteem and self-confidence sometimes causing severe depression.

Treating Menopausal Depression

Prozac can effect menopausal depression, which is one of the major symptoms for women at this stage of their life. But before you start any method of treatment for your depression during menopause it is important that you are well aware of what is involved with it and what the possible side effects are. Prozac is a powerful and commonly prescribed medication for depression treatment, and as with any other type of medicine there are certain side effects that are possible as a result of your taking of the drug.

The Prozac effect on menopause is especially important to understand because Prozac is such a strong drug. The main effect of using Prozac during menopause is because it helps relieve depression and other mood variations and can lead to a more normal life.

Prozac is an antidepressant and its main purpose is to affect the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain that control mood. It is actually recognized as being the first of an entirely new class of drugs, one that works by zeroing in on serotonin and blocking its removal from its site of action on neurons.

Shown to be extremely effective during menopause, Prozac and other antidepressants relieve the depression associated with menopause but do not aid in relieving the many other symptoms of this natural phase of life.