Menopause and Premenstrual Syndrome

It used to be that the majority of women began menopause in their mid-forties to early fifties. However, in the last generation, things appear to have changed and it now seems that woman’s hormones can begin to take a change in her mid-thirties to her late forties, yet the cessation of periods (menopause) not experienced until her fifties.

Natural menopause occurs when the ovaries naturally decrease their production of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone; there are no menstrual periods for 12 consecutive months; and no other biological or physiological cause can account for this.

Common changes associated with menopause (natural or induced) include, night sweats, mood swings, vaginal dryness, fluctuations in sexual drive (libido), forgetfulness, trouble sleeping and fatigue, probably from loss of sleep.

Hot flashes are a major complaint of menopausal women and is the most common reason why women seek some type of treatment to provide them with relief.

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) is obviously linked with the monthly hormone cycle. There is a list of dozens of complaints but the most common symptoms include: nervous tension, irritability, weight gain, fluid buildup, headache, backache, depression, loss of libido, fatigue and sore breasts that occur each month in the days just before the start of menstruation.

There are two important things to understand about PMS: Yes, symptoms are real and No, you are not crazy.

Today, millions of women are seeking new approaches to menopause and PMS. They want to replace drug therapy with its negative health risks with natural alternatives that can provide them with a safe and natural approach to their hormonal and overall health and wellness.

Obviously, there are thousands of natural hormonal and dietary supplements on the market today however; many of these products have been synthesized in a laboratory to mimic that of the body’s true chemistry. A good example of this is natural progesterone.

Many women use products with natural progesterone in them thinking they are using a natural alternative to HRT drugs, when in fact natural progesterone is synthesized progesterone, which in most cases is derived from extracting diosgenin from either soy or wild yam. It may well have the same molecular structure and identical to a woman’s true body progesterone, however natural progesterone is a synthetic progesterone and it is not the same as a woman’s true progesterone which the body produces itself.

Although, natural progesterone has helped many women to cope with symptoms associated with menopause and PMS long-term use could prove to be unfavorable to a women, just as research has discovered with HRT drugs.