Sex Q & A: What is Menopause?

Nn, Indonesia:

Dear Doctor,

I'm a teenage girl and has very limited knowledge about sex. I would like to ask you about what menopause is and what its influence is for women?

Dear Innocent Nn in Indonesia,

So, you're a girl who wanted to know about menopause. Menopause is the end of reproduction phase at women, marked by the halt of menstruation totally because ovarium has stop producing fertile ovums. This would also stop the production of basic reproduction hormonals such as estrogen and progestron which is marked by hormonal fluctuation.

Fluctuation, more or less is like a battery which is going to lose its energy. Sometimes it has big power, sometimes it loses its power completely irregularly. Usually a woman at this state is getting an irregular menstruation, the menstrual interval is changed into irregular period, sometimes once a month, twice a month, three times a month or even twice a week. The amount of blood excreted will also be various. Sometimes she excrete a lot of blood, sometimes just a little. This could be very annoying to women.

Another thing that we have to know about menopause is that there is a change is psychological state on women which is caused by the alteration of these hormons. We can see the example of psychological state alteration of a woman in her puberty. In puberty, woman's sexual hormons are developing and the alteration of her psychological state is happened when menstruation stop. Sometimeswe can also see this in a pregnant woman. The process is quite the same. The psychological problem in menopause are inconfidence, easily get upset, motoric disturbances, felt hot in the face and flushing. And then, she felt uncomfortable and there are also other disturbances such as skin disturbance, dry-skin, vagina secretion becomes dry which can cause pain when having sexual relationship. The urethra skin can also be thinning which can cause an urethral infection on women. Pains in muscle, bone and finally what we're afraid of is the osteoporosis (the reducing of calcium in bones).

These symptoms will not always affect women and they would affect women variously. About 30% of women that have reach menopause, reported get these symptoms. 70% of them didn't get any of these symptoms and didn't have any problem in their menopause. I hope you will be included in this 70%. Amien.