The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke
Menopause is when a woman is no longer fertile or capable of becoming pregnant. At this point, the ovaries stop dropping mature eggs that are capable of being fertilized. Menopause is actually an exact date; it is the day a woman has her last and final day of menstrual bleeding. But this exact date is not always known, so in order to confirm menopause usually a one year time frame without menstruation is usually recommended to fully confirm menopause. Until this entire year without menstruation has occurred it is best to stray on the side of caution as far as birth control is concerned, because it may still be possible to conceive at this time. It’s not uncommon for women to miss 2 – 3 months of bleeding only to then have a period, this is the reason for the one year confirmation time frame.
In most cases, menopause is a slow gradual decline in fertility, but in some cases such as with surgery or illness, menopause may happen suddenly. Women that experience a sudden menopause experience a sudden drop in hormone production that is known to bring on worse symptoms than symptoms usually experienced during a more natural menopause. Natural menopause usually occurs to most women in their 50s, but may occur any time naturally between 40 and 65 years of age. Prior to menopause, there is a phase called perimenopause. Perimenopause is sort of like a pre menopause phase that begins to mark the decline in fertility. It is during perimenopause that estrogen and progesterone production begins to become erratic, these are the hormones that are responsible for regulating menstruation and ovulation. Hormonal imbalance is also what causes perimenopause symptoms.
Prior to perimenopause, women menstruate and ovulate every month, but during perimenopause this slowly begins to change. While ovulation is still occurring, it may not happen every month, this makes it harder to conceive. Since natural menopause can happen as early as 40 years old, a lot of women may be surprised to find out that decrease in fertility can occur in their 30s. For most women it doesn’t happen until they reach their 40s, but 30s, although still fairly young, is still considered normal.
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