Menopause is a natural part of the life cycle. Our current understanding is that during menopause, hormone levels that were once regular and cyclical each month, reduce in amounts and become irregular and erratic. These changes produce a somewhat chaotic environment in the body and cause normal function to be disturbed. This manifests as symptoms such as weight gain, insomnia, hot flashes, and mood swings,

Why the weight gain? With aging, decreased physical activity and increased calorie intake can add pounds to the body. Poor food choices as one attempts to “feel better” that include too many refined grains and sugar adds calories and brings on insulin resistance. This causes increased fat deposition. Additionally, the stress of poor sleep and hot flashes can increase cortisol levels and add to insulin resistance and increased fat deposition.

Why might you have insomnia? Like the sex hormones, melatonin (a hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle) levels tend to drop with aging. With lower levels sleep may be a problem. Night sweats are also a common contributor to restless sleep.

Hot flashes? Estrogen also has an impact on your body's temperature regulation. A sudden fluctuation can trigger a hot flash, one of the best-known menopause symptoms.

Mood swings? Fluctuating estrogen levels and low progesterone associated with menopause can precipitate mood swings. Typically the cells in the brain (and most other tissues of the body) have receptors on their surface onto which estrogen attaches and this sends a message to the cell to behave in a certain way. During youth and prior to menopause the estrogen levels have a monthly pattern and produce a regulating harmony within the cells and body. With menopause, estrogen levels fluctuate and generally reduce. Those receptors thus get erratic communication and this causes the cells to become unstable. This may lead to mood swings and the other symptoms listed above.

Another significant factor is this equation is that our environment is full of chemicals that can also bind to the estrogen receptors on cells. Since they can act like estrogens but aren't really estrogens, we call them pseudoestrogens. Pesticides, plastic/petro related chemicals, certain medications, and heavy metals all can have this effect. Depending on the person's exposure, these noxious substances may compete for the estrogen receptor and block the already low level of estrogen being produced and make the patient's symptoms worse.

Imbalanced hormone levels can become increasingly complex, because sometimes the level of a hormone is not as important as its ratio to the other hormones. To relieve menopause symptoms, we talk of "balancing" hormones rather than merely increasing them.

In order to get a fuller understanding in each patient of what is actually underlying her symptoms, a test of her hormone levels is very important and enables us to get a more exact diagnosis of hormone deficiency or imbalance. Then hormone replacement can be done safely and monitored so that the problem symptoms of menopause can be handled and the patient is free to enjoy this period of her life rather than suffering through it.

More Information – 35 Menopause Symptoms