Women must go through this "devil period" in their lives

When women reach their forties or fifties, they often experience some uncomfortable symptoms, such as menstrual disorders, facial flushing, palpitations, insomnia, depression, emotional instability, and irritability. And when these symptoms appear, it may be a sign that you have reached menopause. October 18th is "World Menopause Awareness Day". The World Menopause Medical Association hopes to use this commemorative day to call on the whole society to pay attention to the health of middle-aged and elderly women and take action to carry out menopausal education and health care. However, what exactly is menopause? How should we go through menopause safely and happily?

The transition from prosperity to decline

The "menopause" that people often talk about generally refers to the transitional period when a woman's ovarian function gradually declines to complete disappearance. The series of clinical symptoms caused by physiological and psychological changes during this period are called "menopausal syndrome", which refers to a series of syndromes caused by fluctuations or decreases in sex hormones before and after menopause in women, mainly characterized by autonomic nervous system dysfunction, accompanied by neuropsychological symptoms. Zhang Xiaojun, chief physician of internal medicine at Beijing Longfu Hospital, said in an interview with a reporter from China Consumer News that the function of female ovaries gradually declines to complete failure, and the estrogen secreted by the ovaries will gradually decrease. There are more than 400 estrogen receptors in the female body, distributed in almost all tissues and organs of the body, and are controlled and dominated by estrogen. "Once estrogen decreases, it will trigger degenerative changes in organs and tissues, leading to a series of symptoms. This is what people often call 'menopause'."

Zhang Xiaojun told reporters that Chinese medicine constitution theory believes that menopause is a special physical state in the life process and a turning point when the physical state changes from prosperity to decline. Menopausal syndrome in women often occurs between the ages of 40 and 60. Common clinical symptoms include hot flashes, sweating, irritability, palpitations, insomnia, or depression and forgetfulness. According to clinical symptoms, the occurrence of menopausal syndrome is the physiological changes that occur in women before and after menopause, when kidney qi gradually depletes, Chong and Ren meridians become deficient, essence and blood are insufficient, menstruation is about to stop, and menopause occurs. However, due to physical, mental or other factors, some women are unable to adapt to these physiological changes for a while, causing the yin and yang to lose balance, the internal organs' qi and blood functions to be disturbed, and a series of internal organ dysfunctions to occur.

High incidence of symptoms

According to estimates by the United Nations World Health Organization, by 2030, there will be more than 1.2 billion menopausal women in the world. Among them, there will be more than 210 million menopausal women in my country, accounting for about one-seventh of the total menopausal population. Assuming that menopause occurs at around the age of 50, and given the current average life expectancy of Chinese women at 74 years old, life after menopause will account for nearly one-third of a person's life. As life expectancy increases, Chinese women will spend more than 30 years after menopause.

At present, the topic of menopause has become a topic of widespread public concern. People often regard the paranoia, bad temper, suspicion, and mood swings of menopausal women as normal manifestations. In fact, these symptoms are manifestations of the morbid psychology of menopause. Survey data show that in my country, the incidence of menopausal symptoms among women is as high as 60% to 80%; in Europe, as many as 94% of women suffer from one or more menopausal symptoms, and nearly two-thirds of women's menopausal symptoms seriously affect their quality of life. At the same time, menopause is also one of the reasons for the significant increase in many diseases. Many diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, Alzheimer's disease, gynecological tumors, etc. will attack women at this time.

Urban white-collar workers often have early menstruation

Emotional out-of-control, menstrual disorders, neurasthenia, a mess... This is the "early menopause" woman played by Zhou Xun in "My Early Menopause Girlfriend". With the increasing life and work pressure of modern people, "early menopause" women are appearing more and more in real life.

Due to extensive participation in fierce social competition and facing tremendous work and life pressure, women's menopausal symptoms generally occur earlier. Statistics show that the average age of menopause for urban women in my country is 49.5 years old, and for rural women it is 47.5 years old. But in the past 20 years, the age of menopause for women has been advanced by 2.02 years. According to Zhang Xiaojun, in some large cities in my country, it is common for women to enter menopause around the age of 40. Among urban white-collar workers aged 30 to 40, nearly 30% have varying degrees of "early menopause".

Studies have found that a woman’s age of menopause is not only related to genetic factors and marital history, but also to whether she breastfeeds after giving birth. Zhang Xiaojun believes that in addition to work and emotional pressure, the occurrence of "early menopause" is also caused by the enthusiasm for weight loss, long-term contraception, multiple abortions, etc., which lead to accelerated organ aging and endocrine disorders, and will also aggravate the symptoms of "early menopause".

"The early onset of menopause is related to many factors, such as the huge competitive pressure faced by modern professional women, complicated interpersonal relationships, fast pace of life, frequent staying up late, disharmonious sex life, frequent family changes and heavy tasks of educating children." Zhang Xiaojun believes that behind the apparent success of modern women, there are more setbacks and hardships. Often after their efforts, the sense of loss rises rapidly, and mental stress also affects the endocrine system, leading to premature ovarian failure and various menopausal symptoms. "Some women lose weight excessively to maintain their figure, which can cause endocrine disorders, menstrual disorders, premature menopause or even premature aging, because women need to maintain enough fat in their bodies to have a normal menstrual cycle." Zhang Xiaojun pointed out that women who are keen on losing weight often do not take in enough cholesterol and calcium, and lack necessary nutrients in their bodies, which can easily lead to accelerated aging of their internal organs. This is also an important reason for early menopause.

There is a way to get through it smoothly

Menopause not only affects people's physical health, but also their mental health. Therefore, it is necessary to master certain methods to relieve menopausal symptoms in order to improve physical and mental state and achieve the goal of smoothly passing through menopause.

Zhang Xiaojun believes that in order to smoothly go through menopause, the first thing to do is to make good psychological adjustments. When people reach menopause, their emotions become very sensitive. Sometimes they get angry over trivial matters and even suffer mental breakdowns. At this time, people around them should be understanding and considerate. For people in menopause, try to maintain a calm attitude and accept menopause as a special stage in life without having too many concerns. In addition, you can participate in more cultural and entertainment activities, do what you like, and cultivate your sentiments.

To go through menopause smoothly, you also need to maintain a regular schedule. Zhang Xiaojun pointed out that people entering menopause should have sufficient rest time, avoid staying up late, and maintain good sleep. If you often stay up late at night, your body will suffer from loss of yin and blood, internal accumulation of internal heat, and accelerated aging. A good sleep can eliminate a day's fatigue and make your body and mind happy. Because after entering deep sleep at night, the body will automatically adjust the balance of physiological functions and the balance of the nervous system, so a regular schedule is helpful in improving menopausal conditions.

In addition, make adjustments to your diet. Zhang Xiaojun pointed out that people entering menopause should control their diet reasonably and pay attention to nutritional balance and the combination of coarse and fine foods. People in menopause are prone to obesity because endocrine changes during menopause cause the eating center to become disordered. Therefore, it is necessary to control your diet, especially the intake of high fat and sugar; at the same time, the menopausal diet should limit salt and increase calcium and iron.