(McCrea, 1983).
This paper will examine the definition, causes, and symptoms of menopause, as well as its prevalence in the middle-aged and elderly. It will discuss the issue of the medicalization of menopause, and it will conclude with insights on menopause as we know it today.
Menopause is "the time of life when menstrual cycles cease," a transition that is caused by the body's reduced secretion of the ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone (Nelson, 2008, p. 760). There is a finite store of ovarian follicles, and when these have been depleted, the body's ability to produce estrogen and progesterone essentially ends (Nelson, 2008, p. 760). In addition to naturally-induced menopause, there is also menopause induced by surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation, in which the ovaries are removed or damaged by treatment (Nelson, 2008, p. 760); in these cases, menopause is not a long, natural transition but an abrupt and radical change that requires treatment by hormone replacement therapy. Natural menopause is far more gradual, giving the individual the time to adapt as menstrual cycles become shorter and more irregular and "follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) concentrations rise in response to decreased concentrations of ovarian hormones" (Nelson, 2008, p. 760). The menopausal transition is marked by missed menstrual cycles, which ultimately stop, along with ovulation, and in some women three consecutive months of amenorrhoea signals that menopause is near (Nelson, 2008, p. 760). The phase between menstruation and menopause is often referred to as perimenopause, in which the menopausal transition has already begun to take place.
The events that take place during the menopausal transition have been represented by various models such as the one developed at the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop, or STRAW, which identified seven stages of reproductive aging (Nelson, 2008, p. 760). These stages were su...