Post menopause

The Post menopause is the phase of a woman's life after the menopause. She will then no longer have menstrual periods and has lost her fertility, but is not yet in the last phase of life, the senium.

What is the post menopause?

A human's life cycle differs from that of most other mammals in many ways. Aging female mammals are too old to give birth for a very short time in their lives. In humans, on the other hand, the postmenopausal period takes decades.

Postmenopause starts when menopause is over. The woman had her last menstrual period and there are no more menstrual periods, intermenstrual bleeding or spotting. Your ovaries are inactive and you will not ovulate again. This also changes the hormone production in the postmenopause considerably, the estrogen level is now consistently very low.

This also harbors health risks such as the possible onset of osteoporosis, which can develop in the course of postmenopause. Further physical changes caused by the postmenopause are thinning head hair, skin aging, increasing vaginal dryness and, in some cases, decreasing sexual interest.

Postmenopausal women are no longer fertile - but it is believed that from now on, as grandmothers, they will have a significant positive effect on the survival of the offspring of their own children. Such grandmother behavior as in humans is almost unknown in the animal kingdom, which is why it is assumed that humans go through such a long postmenopause for precisely this purpose.

Menopause usually begins in the 40s and postmenopause starts after the last menstruation (menopause) has occurred. An exact determination of the beginning of the postmenopause is therefore only possible in retrospect, since after a menstrual period it cannot be precisely determined in advance whether it was really the last bleeding.

Function & task

For women, the entry into postmenopause means a progression of their individual aging. From the age of 40, pregnancy is riskier for women. From an evolutionary point of view, the decline in fertility could also be due to the fact that, without the technical progress of the last few centuries, women might have died in their 40s before the child would have been able to take care of themselves. Today, thanks to modern medicine, there are still many pregnancies from the age of 40.

The postmenopause seems to be of use to people, because women are still fit enough at the time of their postmenopause to actively help raise children. The presence of a caring and experienced grandmother could have been one of many human evolutionary advantages.

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Illnesses & ailments

Postmenopause, like menopause itself, is accompanied by physical changes. Most of these changes occurred for the first time during the menopause and now it becomes clear whether they are permanent or not.

During the postmenopause, women learn about their natural physical changes. Some are small things, for example the structure of the hair changes and it becomes darker, especially with light hair colors, as a light hair color is much more closely related to the estrogen level. The aging of the skin becomes more apparent, the skin becomes wrinkled and drier. Many women gain weight after the menopause.

Changes with a pathological value are more important. The now constantly reduced hormone level can lead to cardiac arrhythmias, increased fragility of the bones with a risk of osteoporosis, hot flashes and similar phenomena even in the postmenopause.

Hormone replacement therapy started during menopause may need to be continued through postmenopause. However, it is known that such therapies increase the risk of developing various cancers such as breast cancer.

The premature postmenopause is also medically relevant. Systemic diseases that impair the function of the ovaries can also represent premature postmenopause, which is when a woman begins to show signs of menopause before the age of 40.