Unusual Symptoms of Menopause

When asking women what the normal symptoms of menopause are, most would answer the same thing. However, a small number of women do experience unusual symptoms of menopause, which can make dealing with the change of life more difficult and frustrating. If you are heading into the menopausal years and notice things outside of the "norm", you should take time to talk to your doctor to ensure the symptoms are not related to something other than menopause. Once any other problem has been ruled out, you can then focus on dealing with the symptom.

As you probably know, menopause is described as the end of your monthly period but only after 12 consecutive months. Therefore, the three to ten years prior to that time when all the symptoms begin showing up is actually called peri-menopause. The symptoms experienced during this time compared with regular menopause are different and again, typically the same for most women. Even so, you will begin to notice strange things happening within your body, which is usually nothing to worry about.

For starters, the majority of women going into menopausal years will start to notice they no longer sleep as well. They may feel mentally sluggish, having trouble with focus and concentration, and even experience short-term memory loss. Other more common complaints include moodiness, hot flashes, night sweats, anxiety, and depression. Keep in mind that while these are considered the normal symptoms, they can develop slowly or come on immediately.

Additionally, the intensity of the symptoms will vary from one woman to another. Therefore, while your sister may have difficult symptoms that come on all of the sudden, you may have very slight symptoms that develop over time. You may also have a friend or family member that only experiences the common things whereas you find you have unusual symptoms of menopause, which can be aggravating to say the least. Again, the symptoms associated with the change of life depend on the woman.

Obviously, as the body no longer produces normal levels of the hormone estrogen, things happen. For example, you may notice breast tenderness, which is not a symptom shared by many menopausal women. You may also suffer from bleeding. Now, it is normal to see changes in the bleeding pattern as you approach menopause but if you start to have heavy bleeding, bleeding after intercourse, or bleeding after you have stopped having a monthly menstrual cycle for 12 consecutive months, this should be checked. It might be that nothing is wrong but this would be considered an unusual symptom of menopause.

Bleeding during these times could also be a sign of something else going on within the body to include non-cancerous growths in the lining of the uterus or uterine fibroid tumors. In more rare cases, bleeding after full menopause years could be the sign of cancer. Therefore, this should be closely monitored and if you have any concern whatsoever, talk to your doctor rather than wait to see if it goes away. The worst thing you could do in this instance would be to ignore it. Instead, just have your doctor check to make sure everything is fine.

The good news is that unusual symptoms of menopause are indeed rare. However, you will likely experience things that not every woman has to deal with such as vaginal dryness, itching of the skin, and even thinning hair. Remember that the majority of symptoms, whether unusual symptoms of menopause or those considered normal, are typically treated without much effort. Most often, symptoms are produced because of the lower estrogen levels so by using hormone replacement therapy or natural remedies to replace the lost hormones, you can deal with the symptoms much better.

The great aspect of normal and unusual menopause symptoms for women today is that your options for relief are vast. Years ago, the options for finding relief were few and far between. Even when hormone replacement therapy was announced, that soon led to concern as well with more and more women developing various types of cancer. However, today we see many new prescription drugs and natural remedies that can make this change of life better. Therefore, if you begin to notice things that do not fall within the normal range of symptoms or you have any concern, never assume anything, and while things probably are okay, you want to pay attention to your body for any telltale signs of impending problems.