
No matter how you look at it, every woman will sooner or later enter menopause. Menopause is a natural phase that every woman has to face in her life. Menstruation becomes more irregular and eventually disappears at the end of menopause.
What is menopause?
A woman is born with many eggs that are located in the ovaries. The ovaries produce hormones during the fertile period and this starts the menstrual cycle, in which the woman uses the eggs. During menopause, the production of the female sex hormone estrogen decreases and the body says goodbye to the fertile period. In the beginning, the woman gets her periods closer together and she experiences them more intensely, blood clotting can also occur. After that, the periods gradually disappear.
Actually, something similar happens that a woman also experienced during puberty. Due to a change in the production of hormones, the body seeks a good balance and she can have physical and mental symptoms due to fluctuations in hormones.
What are the stages of menopause?
There are 3 stages in menopause:
- Premenopause: The period before the last menstrual period, during which the amount of estrogen changes.
- Menopause: the last menstrual period.
- Postmenopause: the period immediately following menopause when the body is trying to regain a good balance.
What changes can happen during menopause?

A woman usually experiences the changes between the ages of 45 and 55 and several changes can occur:
- Fluctuations in the amount of estrogen and progesterone in the body. This can be accompanied by irregular bleeding, hot flashes, poor sleep patterns, muscle and joint pain, mood swings, no interest in sex, depressive thoughts and headaches.
- Increased production of the hormone Ghrelin in the body, which can make a woman hungrier.
- Leptin function is affected, which affects appetite and the feeling of satiety.
Contraception during menopause
Specialists recommend stopping the contraceptive pill during menopause because there is an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer. However, the contraceptive pill can help with menopausal symptoms such as heavy or irregular periods, hot flashes and sweating attacks, because the pill contains the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. In addition, a woman notices less when she is in menopause because she experiences monthly artificial bleeding.
When is a woman sure she has reached menopause?
If she has not menstruated for a year after stopping the pill. A woman can use another contraceptive method during that year, such as a condom or an IUD. On average, a woman can stop using contraception when she reaches the age of 52, because the chance of pregnancy is still very small at that age.
Onset and duration of transition
The onset and duration of menopause is different for every woman. The period between an irregular menstrual cycle and the last menstrual period, or menopause, is on average four years. However, menopause is not complete until a woman has not had a menstrual period for a year.However, menopausal symptoms can last five to even ten years and the burden of these symptoms varies from woman to woman. The last menstruation is between a woman's fortieth and sixtieth year of life and the average age is 51.
How can a woman influence the menopause herself?
- A woman is more likely to go through early menopause if her mother also went through it.
- The contraceptive pill can partly control menopausal symptoms, but has no influence on the time at which menopause starts.
- On average, a woman will enter menopause two years earlier than her peers if she smokes a lot (more than a pack a day).
- Postmenopause begins immediately after a woman has her ovaries removed and can be accompanied by severe menopausal symptoms. Menopause can begin somewhat earlier if the uterus is removed, but usually this does not happen.
- Natural predisposition (some women have a rare hereditary abnormality in the female sex chromosome).
- Rare autoimmune kidney disease such as Addison's disease.
- Past treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Personal experience
Every woman has a different experience of menopause. Are you (almost) in menopause? Then it can be Svensson transition package help you with menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes.