Menopause And The Brain

Written by Liana Badea Wednesday, 27 April 2011 04:04

New researches has been done on menopause and led to the conclusion that menopause starts in the brain.

New researches has been done on menopause and led to the conclusion that menopause starts in the brain.

The North American Menopausal Society consider a woman menopausal when she didn't had her period for 12 consecutive months. The most frequent menopause symptoms are hot flashes, depression, anxiety, fatigue, mood swings,insomnia, joint pain, loss of sex drive, all caused by hormonal fluctuations.

Menopause is a very studied subject, as there are real changes in a female body at this stage in her life. Researchers and doctors are beginning to understand how these changes happen. This is an important step in trying to come up with more effective treatment solutions.

It is a fact that menopausal symptoms are causes by the hormonal imbalance, which starts in the ovaries. But new researches suggest that some menopause symptoms are not ovarian, they begin in the brain.

The idea behind this statement is that hypothalamus and the pituitary gland stop reacting normally to estrogen in some women when they reach menopause.

The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are two parts of the brain that have important roles in integrating the nervous and endocrine system. The pituitary gland releases hormones that control the body's endocrine system, while the hypothalamus is receiving messages from nerves and integrate that into endocrine gland responses. The hypothalamus is more or less the communication link between the nervous system and the endocrine system. The hypothalamus regulates the secretion of various hormones by controlling the pituitary gland. Doctors believe that pituitary respond to lower estrogen levels, but there is a lack of sensitivity to estrogen in the hypothalamus.

All these findings may lead to further researches that will help doctors establish what type of menopause a woman might have and help prescribe non estrogen medication to reduce the menopause symptoms that a woman experience as she enters this stage of life.