By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
In a woman’s life journey, menopause is the period when menstruation or menses permanently stop. The word comes from the Greek rootword “men-” meaning “month” and “pausis” (cessation), literally meaning “end of monthly cycles”. Most women reach menopause at age 45 to 55. I am one of those “most”. I had menopause at age 52.
Some women, though, have menopause at age 40 and I know one who was still menstruating at age 59. So there’s no hard and fast rule. But all women will have menopause, it is a normal process or phenomenon, it is not a disease to be treated. Dr. Melissa Conrad Stoppler in Menopause (Perimenopause) in medicinenet.com stated “As a ‘rough rule of thumb’, women tend to undergo menopause at an age similar to that of their mothers.” Daughters, it is important to talk about these matters with your mom, alapo/ikit.
Medical dictionary says that a woman is declared menopause if twelve months have passed without menses. Why twelve months? Because one other reason your menses stopped is that you are pregnant. Indeed, I have met women who thought they were already menopause only to discover that they were still fertile. Thus we have what we call “menopausal babies”.
Age of menopause is not related to age of start of menses. Meaning if you started menstruating early, you may still have menopause at age 60.
Why do menses stop permanently? Because the ovaries have stopped producing estrogen as it has no more eggs. The number of eggs in the ovaries are already there at birth unlike men’s testes who constantly produce fresh sperm all throughout their lives. So in women, by the time these eggs are exhausted, then there is no expected pregnancy so no need to undergo the cycle of menstruation.
After the eggs are exhausted, the ovaries have finished their job – that of reproduction. Again, this is the wisdom of nature. I don’t know about the men, but for us women, I don’t imagine it fun giving birth to a baby at age 60 and beyond. Give us a break. That also will not be good for our limited resources. We’ll really have a runaway population because by that time also, our children will be having babies of their own. We Igorots have a term for that cycle of the universe- “subsublat”.
However, although the ovaries no longer produce estrogen, there are other organs in the body that does the job and these continue to provide the necessary estrogen for women to continue living fully. What science has found so far that manufacture estrogen are the liver, breast, adrenal glands.
Just as in all natural processes, menopause comes to us gently. There is a transition period termed “perimenopausal period” which may occur as long as 10 years before the onset of menopause. In traditional Igorot society, there’s no word for menopause. I presume because it is a normal phenomenon and not problematic. In our local studies, Igorot women in the past just felt that their menses became erratic then stopped. For some women, their regular menses just stopped coming. As to their feelings during this transition period, they didn’t notice any difference. They were just as happy, strong and as sexually active.
Presently, we hear about perimenopausal and menopausal women having hot flashes and mood changes. Studies show that these are related to unhealthy diets, especially those rich in dairy and sugar. Again, “dairy” means all those containing milk and its milk products- cream, cheese, butter. The trouble doubles because dairy products don’t taste as tempting if not mixed with sugar. If you doubt this, try drinking milk straight from the cow.
Menopause, then, is just an end to the reproductive role of women. But only in the biological sense. Someone said that at menopause, we no longer give birth to babies but we give birth to a new self. In these complicated times, we, women, have innumerable options of how to spend the rest of our lives. Some women at the time nearing or at menopause reinvent themselves. Some pursue dreams that were put on hold during the child-bearing and child-rearing years. Instead of just serving their own family, many women reach out to others, volunteering their time, talent and treasure to church and community. Some go back to mothering – mothering “apos”- it’s a back subject J. Happy Women’s Month!
“May God who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other.” Romans 15:5
