Get Ready For Menopause

Have a more optimistic approach to life during -- and after -- menopause

The symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes and loss of libido, are still the same, but today's women are taking a modern approach to menopause.

"Women are becoming more accepting of the physical and emotional challenges that are associated with menopause and accepting them as natural transitional changes," says Karen Giblin, founder and president of Red Hot Mamas. "They're focusing on feeling good and looking at menopause more positively."

Menopause: Technically it means the absence of a menstrual period for one year. But the term is often used to describe the changes taking place in a woman's body as she approaches the end of her reproductive years. Every woman goes through menopause differently. Experts estimate that roughly 75% of the female population reports experiencing some symptoms of menopause and 20% to 25% of women ultimately seek medical treatment for those symptoms.

"For many women, perimenopause is much harder than menopause," says JoAnn Pinkerton, MD, medical director of the Midlife Health Center and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "Because it is not well described, people are not expecting it. And symptoms vary from month to month, so it's hard to get a handle on it."

"When it was four months before it was due, we started to remind them," Feldstein says. The goal, she says, was to encourage women to have a mammogram at least every 24 months (although some organizations urge annual mammograms).

Due to the fluctuations of estrogen and testosterone taking place during perimenopause and menopause, women may experience a wide range of symptoms, including:

• Irregular periods
• Heavy bleeding
• Worsening premenstrual syndrome
• Sleep problems
• Hot flashes
• Vaginal dryness
• Loss of libido