Your Diet For Menopause

Since calories can pack on easier during menopause and the risk factors for certain types of diseases can go up, a menopause diet is a good time to control the foods which aren't so good for you. Avoid taking fatty foods as much as possible will keep your heart and cardiovascular system healthy and also help to cut your risk of conditions such as diabetes and cancer. Besides it is also a good idea to cut back on your consumption of alcoholic drinks and caffeinated beverages.

To have a proper menopause diet, you should replace those choices with healthier options such as decaffeinated green tea and bottled water. Rather than frying your foods, go for the baking or broiling which will add less fat and keep the good stuff packed inside. You should also toss out the less nutritious choices such as potatoes and go for the sweet potatoes and yams which are packed with nutrients instead of empty calories if you want to relieve your menopause symptoms.

Fresh vegetables and fruits are always important to include in any diet particularly when you experience menopause. Furthermore you should try to stay away from sugary and fatty foods as well as those which contain caffeine or anything which has no nutritive value. However you should understand that there is no single food which includes all of these nutritive values, so you need to ensure that you are eating a nutritious and well balanced menopause diet regularly in order to relieve the menopause symptoms.

Why Do Women Need Progesterone?

Menopausal women use progesterone in hormone replacement therapy, women who experience PMS (premenstrual syndrome) also respond well to natural progesterone. Progesterone is known to aid conception and is also produced through out pregnancy. Progesterone plays a lot of roles in women the chief of which is to balance the effects of estrogen, if estrogen is not checked it results in the symptoms listed under estrogen dominance. During menopause the level of progesterone may drop to almost zero in some women while that of estrogen drops to about 40-60% which is still okay to put an end to the menstrual cycle. The use of progesterone after menopause would help to argument the overall hormone balance, because progesterone is the precursor to a lot of steroid hormones.

Premature Menopause, Symptoms And Diagnosis

How Is Premature Menopause Diagnosed?

First, your doctor will most likely perform a physical exam and draw blood to rule out other conditions, such as pregnancy and thyroid disease. He or she may also order a test to measure your estradiol levels. Low levels of estradiol, a form of estrogen, can indicate that your ovaries are starting to fail. When estradiol levels are below 36, it may signal that you are in menopause.

However, the most important test used to diagnose premature menopause is a blood test that measures follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). FSH causes your ovaries to produce estrogen. When your ovaries slow down their production of estrogen, your levels of FSH increase. When your FSH levels rise above 30 or 40 mIU/mL, it usually indicates that you are in menopause.

What Types of Health Issues Affect Women Undergoing Premature Menopause?

Like all menopausal women, women in premature menopause experience lowered estrogen levels as the ovaries stop most of their production of this hormone. Low levels of estrogen can lead to changes in a woman's overall health and may increase her risk for certain medical conditions, such as osteoporosis. Other health risks associated with the loss of estrogen include increased risk for colon and ovarian cancer, periodontal (gum) disease and tooth loss and cataract formation.

However, compared with women who go through natural menopause, women undergoing premature menopause spend a greater portion of their lives without the protective benefits of their own estrogen. This puts them at an even greater risk for the above mentioned menopause-related health problems.

How Is Premature Menopause Treated?

The symptoms and health risks of premature menopause as well as the emotional issues that may result from it can be managed with the methods similar to those used for natural menopause. Women dealing with infertility that is brought on by premature menopause may want to discuss their options with their doctor or with a reproductive specialist.

Can Premature Menopause Be Reversed?

No. Premature menopause is the result of an underlying process. Once the process has started, it's unlikely to be reversed.

This article was originaly published in WebMD and i just wanted to published here beacause i think it provide a really usefull informations.

Menopause Hormone Therapy

Postmenopausal women and physicians should no longer fear hormone. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) released yesterday its new clinical guidelines on menopause. According to the SOGC, took the hormone for less than five years are harmless and can instead help women get rid of troublesome symptoms such as hot flashes.

By publishing these guidelines, the SOGC has sought to silence the belief that hormones increase the risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease in post menopausal women.


In 2001, a study conducted in the United States had shown that after four years of hormone therapy, breast cancer increased by 26% in postmenopausal women. With the publication of this study, more than 50% of Americans have stopped their treatment.


SOGC analyzed data available to determine whether the hormone is so harmful. "We have noticed that the 2001 study was conducted mainly on women aged 60 to 70 years. The average age was too high! Especially when we know that age is the main risk factor for breast cancer and cardiovascular disease, "says the director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Queen's University, Dr. Robert Reid .

"We put women in front of exaggerated fears. Women were afraid, "says professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Laval University, Dr. Michel Fortier.

According to the SOGC, postmenopausal women who want to avoid bothersome symptoms should first change their lifestyle. Control weight, smoking and level of exercise is essential.

Dr Reid acknowledged that this method is beneficial for women with symptoms means. For those with strong symptoms, hormone therapy taken in the short term is a safe and viable option, "said Dr. Reid.

85% to 95% of women see their symptoms with reduced hormone. The risk of fractures related to osteoporosis as well as the risks of suffering from vaginal drying declining.

If the hormone is less than five years, the health risks are invalid, says the SOGC. If the treatment lasts for more than five years women see their risk of contracting breast cancer increased slightly. "The risk is greater for women who are obese or who smoke," said Dr. Reid.

Increased risk among women who gave birth after age 30

According to him, should be more concerned that mothers are becoming older. Studies have shown that mothers who had their first pregnancy after age 30 are more likely to suffer from breast cancer. A third of breast cancer could be eliminated if these factors were controlled.

As to the effects of hormone therapy on cardiovascular disease and stroke, the SOGC believes they are void. We know that the hormones slightly increased risk of clots in the legs. "But in this case, age is a risk factor even more important that the hormones," said Dr. Fortier.

As for the effect of hormones on memory, studies are contradictory. According to Dr. Fortier, only younger women will have their memory improve with treatment. "But we still can not recommend hormone therapy to treat Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Fortier.

Five Tips for a Healthy Meal

You may think this is off topic but it is not, the way we feed ourselves can impact the menopause duration and the starting of perimenopause too and for our health, many of us must improve the way we feed ourselves to have a healthy and better life but many of us don't realise that keeping things natural and simple is the perfect way to achieve this.

Here are 5 tips that you can all put into practice very easily.


1) Complete bread or cereal bread

If you have trouble to choose between cereal bread and white bread, start by choosing once in two cereal bread for starting. When the taste become usual for you, vary the breads type you take. For sandwiches also prefer cereal bread. Ideally for breakfast, eat jam sandwiches for example, I know it seem hard the first time but it isn't.

2) To cook, drop the butter and margarine in favor of olive oil

You must know that butter and margarine, the more they are hard at room temperature, the more they aren't good for health. In other words the softer the better.

If necessary, use a reduced fat margarine or butter on your toast, rice or potatoes and your other recipes.


3) Use frozen and canned vegetables and fruit

Eating 5 fruits and vegetables a day is not easy, so enjoy the forms of conservation type freezing or canning. They maintain very well the nutritional qualities of food, because vegetables and fresh food in the tray quickly lose their vitamins...

Quick and easy to prepare, frozen and canned vegetables can also vary more often, whatever the season, so you have more choice.

4) Beware of dairy products...

Some cheeses bring a lot of fat. You must limit or even avoid them on some menus. If you eat enough fat meat for example, do not finish your meal with a piece that contain cheese like pizza, quiche, gratin, pasta with cheese, etc.., because they already contain cheese, so you do not need to add it to the end of the meal.

The dairy desserts are not all equal: a cream dessert for example does not mean yogurt. The first is more caloric, the cheese also compared to yogurt is more caloric.


5) Make efforts to change your menus

The food must therefore be balanced and varied. No food is bad; it is the excesses that are harmful. Meanwhile, each food is unique and provides different nutrients and different proportion.

A good way for varying food is to reduce the proportions in order to have a complete and rich diet. A traditional meal for example must be composed of: entry + flat (meat, fish or vegetables + egg) + cheese + salad + dessert. But to achieve this variety on a daily basis without weight, it is necessary to make small portions.

3 Menopause Type You Should Know

In the vast majority of women, menopause occurs naturally around the fifties. But some menopause are caused by or related to treatment of diseases. Still others occur after 50 years.

Menopause usually occurs between 45 and 55 years. Five per cent of women are menopausal before the age of 45 and the same proportion after 55 years. Menopause is considered early if it occurs before age 40 and later after 55 years.

The early menopause

The early menopause concern about 1% of women. They pose major problems because they are often very poorly supported psychologically. But we do not know yet how to prevent and deal with these women, who still have many years to live. There are even 0.1% of women under 30 years past menopause.

Some early menopause occurs for unknown reasons. A review should be conducted to find a possible genetic cause (fragile X syndrome, mutation receiver FSH ...), which could be the cause. We know in fact that many genetic alterations that may go unnoticed long, determine an accelerated aging of the ovaries and lead through it early menopause. Turner's syndrome (a single X chromosome) may also be involved in early menopause, but this genetic disease is generally already known. Finally, in a fifth of cases, a disease in autoimmune component may be involved.

The secondary menopause

Among other women, the cause of early menopause is obvious. Thus the case for patients who have undergone treatment that affect ovarian activity. Some treatments can induce symptoms similar to menopause (analogous to the synthesis of Gn-RH ...), but these events are temporary and disappear at the end of the prescription. These artificial menopause can result from a surgery that led to the ovaries removed because of cancer or cysts, an embolization for uterine fibroids have disrupted vasculature ovaries, irradiation of a small basin of chemotherapy anti-cancer ...

To limit this risk, doctors are trying to limit the actions that affect female fertility among cancer patients. Among girls or young women, various approaches are also developed to preserve ovarian tissue after treatment in order to maintain fertility and allow a pregnancy. If they are couples, these women may also apply for a donation of oocytes for a medically assisted procreation (PMA). The symptoms of menopause induced these are close to those of normal menopause (hot flashes ...) and expose them to 50 years with an increased risk of osteoporosis because of the absence of estrogen. This explains why doctors purpose hormone treatment for these women in a preventive purpose.

The late menopause

Menopause appearing after 55 years are quite rare. They seem to expose an increased likelihood of breast cancer, while the onset of menopause before age 45 seems contrary to represent a protective factor.

Zoom Into Perimenopause Changes

Menopause does not suddenly happen. It is preceded by a long period known as perimenopause. This period of menstrual irregularities preceding the termination of period and the years following the apparent arrest of the menstrual cycle.

Between 45 and 50 years menstrual abnormalities beginning to appear, this age varies depending on heredity and gynecological history.

Disturbances annunciator

This period preceding the end of your menstrual cycle and last from two to four years.

Corresponding to the declining production of female hormones, it is marked by menstrual irregularities

• Lengthening or shortening of the cycle;

• Change of abundance, frequency and duration of the the menstrual period.

Troubles before your menstrual period (or premenstrual syndrome congestif):

• Tension breasts swollen and painful (mastodynie);

• Abdominal bloating

• Instability of mood

• Insomnia

• Edema in the face, etc..

The uterus is a bit much bigger. The cervical mucus is abundant. These symptoms are related to the persistence or exaggeration of the secretion of estrogen and decrease (or disappearance) secretion of progesterone.

Perimenopause lasts four years on average and by definition continues during the 12 months following the latest menstrual period, in events that this don’t pose big problems, no treatment is necessary. However, if the troubles really hamper the quality of life, you should talk with your doctor. With him, the possibility of treatment can be addressed.