Here is an almost complete list of symptoms that women may have when they go through menopause.
No one has all these symptoms.
Many women just breeze through this transition whilst others have just a few symptoms that don’t need treatment.
Only women who are unable to cope with these symptoms need medical treatment.
• Irregular periods: A variation in their period cycles. Shorter and lighter periods, longer cycles sometimes heavy periods with flooding, prolonged periods, painful periods.
• Hot flushes: sudden explosions of heat starting at the chest moving up to the face. It just last seconds and may be followed by sweating.
• Night sweats: when hot flushes happen at night followed by episodes of sweating. There can also be cold sweats and clammy sensations.
• Irregular heart beats
• Anxiety especially at night which adds on to palpitations and gastric pain.
• Irritability, temper tantrums, mood swings, tearfulness.
• Feeling of doom, dread and depression. Women who have more intense premenstrual mood swings and post-natal blues and depression, have a higher chance of menopausal depression.
• Difficulty in concentration. Mental disturbances and mental confusion.
• Memory lapses, forgetfulness.
• Sleep disturbances, light sleep, disturbed sleep all adding on to tiredness the next morning.
• Loss of libido. No mood for sex and sexual pleasures.
• Dry vagina and loss of lubrication. This causes painful sexual activity which when added on to loss of libido makes a woman turn of sex completely. She may even experience chaffing of the vaginal skin, burning and tearing and bleeding of the vaginal tissue.
• Inability to control bladder, leading to incontinence especially when laughing, or sneezing. This is due to loss of muscle tone of the bladder.
• Extreme tiredness with no energy to do routine tasks. Finds it unable to get through the day. Restlessness and listlessness.
• Dry skin leading to itchiness and sensation of ants crawling. There can also be eye dryness and mouth dryness.
• Thinning of skin causing wrinkles and sagging of skin
• Increase in pigmentation especially over the face.
• Increased in small skin tags over the body.
• Aching muscles, joint pains, creaking joints and generalised body pain
• Breast tenderness and soreness.
• Headaches usually increasing in intensity may be secondary to sleep disturbances.
• Bloating and stomach disturbances. Flatulence and burping.
• Weight gain and lowered metabolism. It is usually the midriff area where the weight piles on.
• Increased sensitivity to certain foods that did not give problems before. Such as dairy products, gluten and wheat.
• New allergies to medication that was safe before.
• Start of medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol.
• Pre-existing medical conditions worsen such as diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol.
• Increased risk of coronary heart disease.
• Changes in thyroid levels.
• Hair loss or thinning, whitening of hair and increase in facial hair.
• Changes in body odour with bad breath.
• Dizziness, light-headedness and imbalance. Ringing in the ears.
• Tingling sensation over any part of body and under the skin.
• Gum issues with loosening of teeth and bleeding gums.
• Bone loss and osteoporosis.
• Changes in nails – softer and more brittle..
If I have these symptoms, does it mean that menopause is around the corner?
Symptoms of menopause usually occur in the 40s when the estrogen levels start going down. However some women begin experiencing these symptoms even in their 30s even though the actual last period may be at 50.