Perimenopause usually happens to women that are nearing their menopausal stage and because there are symptoms that can hinder the woman’s normal flow life perimenopause treatments must be sought. Perimenopause is the stage wherein a woman experience early menopause symptoms before the menopause age of 51. Symptoms can be severe, mild or recurrent and they are categorized in three types. There are the perimenopause symptoms that affect the physical condition of a woman and she may experience weakening of the body, drowsiness, vaginal dryness, hot flushes and sweating.

 

There are also symptoms that can affect the psychological state of a woman suffering from perimenopause and she may experience major depression, anxieties, post-partum depression or premenstrual syndrome (PMS). When these two types of perimenopause symptoms occur, most likely there would also surface behavioral disorder symptoms like wanting to be secluded from the rest of the people, staying away from fun activities and even avoiding sexual contact. These symptoms are brought about by the declining level of estrogen and progesterone level in a woman’s body and the result is a hormonal imbalance that can affect the woman’s physical, physiological and mental health. This is why an accurate perimenopause treatment is essential so that the transition from being productive to unproductive stages could be handled well.

 

Would it be normal that women should worry about experiencing perimenopause?

Women should not worry too much about the occurrence of perimenopause stage because it can last only for about a year to a maximum of eight years while having irregular menstruation during this period or show symptoms that can be irregular. On the other hand, perimenopause can also serve as a conditioning state so that the woman can be ready for her incoming menopausal age. When a woman reaches the age of 51 or above and her menstrual period stopped for a year that means the onset of menopause symptoms has occurred.

What are the doctors’ advices about the perimenopause treatments?

• Women should not refrain from having healthy lifestyle to reduce the symptoms of menopause. They should always stick to eating healthy balanced diet, having regular exercises, turning away from bad habits like smoking, heavy drinking, and even avoiding heavy caffeine that can fuel stress.

• Hormone therapy can be advised but since some women are complaining of side effects, low dose hormone therapy can help and this would not induce side effects.

• Taking low dose birth control pills is also another option. Birth control pills contain high levels of female hormones that can balance the hormone level of menopausal women.

• Some women also suggest that meditation and taking natural supplements can be used as perimenopause treatments although there are still no studies to prove that this is really effective.

• For vaginal irritation and dryness, vaginal lubricants can alleviate the dryness and also low-dose vaginal estrogen which can be recommended by the gynecologist.

• Sometimes when some women have negative reactions to estrogen-progestin treatment, there is also the estrogen-testosterone therapy that can be the alternative but this form of therapy is not yet approved by the FDA and studies are still underway.

• Bioidentical Hormone Replace Therapy (BHRT) can be used as an alternative to HRT. The hormone components of it is made from natural food particularly soy or yams. However, there is still no concrete evidence to prove this therapy as an effective perimenopause treatment.

• When the perimenopause symptoms subside and there are still some symptoms left, hormone therapy can also be used as a short-term treatment.

 

For many years, HRT (hormone replacement therapy) is used in the treatment of menopause symptoms and believed to protect coronary heart diseases in women. However, there are findings that taking it for a long period of time can increase the risk of blood clots, stroke and heart diseases in women. Other than that some women attest that they have developed breast cancer, cardiovascular problems, ovarian cancer, blood clotting and reported cases of neurological problems.

 

So, since there seems to be existing contradictory indications to every treatment, a woman seeking treatment for her menopause symptoms must always rely on her doctor’s advises. Perimenopause does not generally affect all women and some women can have it only for a few months while other can have it in less than ten years. Within this period, symptoms may also vary. There could be perimenopause bleeding or just perimenopause spotting and some women think this is already a part of their early menopause stage and don’t mind it all.

 

In any way, there are no exact perimenopause treatment that can eliminate the symptoms of menopause but only alleviating methods to ease the pain, discomfort and effects of the menopause itself.