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Here's a Hot Flash

How to Manage Menopause Naturally

By Kelly Burgess

The saying goes that life is not a destination; it's a journey. Well, the opposite can be said about menopause. Menopause is the welcome end of the long journey called perimenopause that can be incredibly challenging for any woman.

While there are probably some women out there who breeze through menopause and perimenopause without breaking a sweat, the majority will suffer at lease some level of symptoms. These symptoms can range from those that are widely recognized, such as hot flashes and mood swings, to the less common: joint pain, constipation and skin rashes.

Comparing menopause to the end of a journey is a helpful way to understand the facts about the period (no pun intended) in a woman's life that is currently lumped together under the catch-all term "menopause."

The word "menopause" literally means "the end of menses." At this point, many of the uncomfortable symptoms of the past five or 10 years end, and a woman begins to feel like herself again. It's the period leading up to menopause, called "perimenopause," when these problems manifest themselves.

Perimenopause – which Sue Spataro refers to as "the change before the change" – generally begins a full five to 10 years before menopause. Spataro, a registered nurse, is the founder and administrator of HotFlash!, a Web site devoted to helping women through every stage of menopause.

"The average age for menopause in this country is 51," Spataro says. "This means that 50 percent of all women will experience it before 51, and the other 50 percent will experience it after age 51. I would say many women begin to experience perimenopause anywhere from their early 30s to late 40s. There are even women who may experience perimenopause at the tail end of their 20s."

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