Menopause-the end of a woman's menstruation-is named from the Greek word mens, menaing "monthly," and pausis, meaning "cessation" (Canadian Women's Health Network, 2006). Menopause occurs as a natural part of the aging process in a woman when her ovaries no longer produce high levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone and she can no longer become pregnant (Canadian Women's Health Network, 2006). Although a woman's first menstruation starts on a single day, the changes that lead up to menopause occur gradually over a period of several years, with the average age of occurrence being 52 and the age range being between 42 and 56 (Canadian Women's Health Network, 2006). The standard gauge indicating that a woman has begun menopause is that she has not experienced a period for a full year (Canadian Women's Health Network, 2006).
Menopause has been viewed from different perspectives down through the centuries. In the 19th century, Victorian physicians took it as sign of sin and decay, and in the 20th century with the advent of Sigmund Freud's psychological theory, it was regarded as a neurosis (McCrea, 1983). McCrea (1981) points out that in the 1960s, when synthetic estrogen became available, physicians reinterpreted menopause as a "deficiency disease" (McCrea, 1983). McCrea (1983) asserts that four themes pervade the medical definition of menopause: that women's potential and function are biologically destined, their worth is based on their attractiveness and ability to have children, that rejection of the feminine role cause physical and emotional havoc, and that aging women are "useless and repulsive." These views led physicians and the pharmaceutical industry to promote estrogen therapy "as a way of avoiding menopause and preserving youth and beauty," launching what has been termed the "medicalization" of menopause, but by the mid-1970s, estrogen therapy was being linked to cancer and other health problems...