Inflammatory Menopause, What is It?

Inflammatory menopause is a secondary side effect which occurs in women who ended their fertile life. This condition can go from mild to severe and is affecting a higher number of women in Western World. Common menopause coincides with the end of menstrual cycle and marks an important step in the life of a woman.

Unfortunately, this common and biological condition may be accompanied with inflammatory symptoms in various areas of our body, giving rise a still unknown and strange disease labeled as inflammatory menopause. What it is exactly and why does it occur? Read this short guide to find the answers.

Menopause Overview

Usually, in the life of a woman, menopause occurs between 45 – 55 years. As said, this condition is normal and physiological and is characterized by a progressive drop of female hormones and the permanent loss of reproductive capacity. In menopause, estrogens represent the most important part of this hormonal reduction.

Even progesterone diminishes, but it is the estrogen deficiency which can cause the so-called inflammatory menopause. The end of menstruations should be a sort of renewed freedom for women, allowing them to live a carefree sexuality without the fear of an undesired pregnancy and instead, what happens to many of them?

A strange, sudden, and annoying set of disorders that go from joint pain to vaginal dryness. These symptoms are all triggered by a systemic inflammation of the entire organism.

A disease is systemic when regards our entire body. Hence, inflammatory menopause regards the entire body of a woman, opening the way to further symptoms and future diseases linked to aging. But, don’t be scared by these words, I am also a menopausal woman who developed just the bad version of this condition, namely the afore mentioned inflammatory menopause.

I successfully managed this condition. For this reason, I want to help you overcome the inflammatory symptoms of menopause. Maybe you don’t know that menopausal inflammation is a transient condition you can treat and heal. Read more on Modernhealthinfo.com to learn how to defeat it.

What Causes inflammatory menopause?

With the arrival of menopause, female ovaries stop producing estradiol, the most important sexual hormone belonging to estrogens and responsible of menstrual cycle. This stop causes a deficiency of the serum estradiol in blood.

This hormone has a protective role against inflammation and it is just this deficiency that triggers an inflammatory response in an unlucky group of menopausal women. Indeed, estrogens protect hearth, skin, hair, bones, muscles, vagina, and intestine. However, they don’t not protect breast from cancer, because their structure causes an increase of breast cells. It seems, instead, that estrogens protect men from stomach cancer.

However, in menopausal women, estrogens deficiency may cause an inflammatory stress. Let’s see how the process starts.

Inflammatory Role of Estrogen Deficiency in Menopause

A study performed at the University in Ferrara revealed that estrogen deficiency may trigger inflammation in menopausal women who have a preexisting unbalanced autoimmune response. It is as if menopause unveiled an inflammatory condition already present in the organism of affected women, but asymptomatic before menopause.

Nowadays, women are subject to aggressive, external, and internal stimulus and these ones can trigger an unbalanced autoimmune response to the sudden hormonal change of menopause. The unbalanced immune response occurs in women with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, for example, or in women with an unbalanced level of estrogens before menopause. But, to discover this detail, we should have done hormonal dosages when we had still menstruations.

These conditions could make women prone to develop inflammatory menopause. A stressful lifestyle, anxiety, depression, bad diet, and pollution also cause inflammation in menopause. The above-mentioned causes trigger the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, a group of proteins that activate the inflammatory reaction in several diseases, in infections and even in hormonal deficiency.

Inflammatory Menopause Symptoms

If normal menopause is marked by hot flushes, night sweats, difficulty sleeping, irritability, reduced sex drive, gain of weight and swollen belly, inflammatory menopause is marked by an unprecedented level of inflammatory symptoms in particular areas of body.

The most affected part of the body of menopausal women are musculoskeletal system and mucous membranes. In the most severe cases, even brain and hearth are involved, but fortunately, inflammatory menopause does not reach so extreme consequences. As regards mucus membranes, menopausal inflammation affects vagina, oral mucosa, and intestine, but symptoms are visible on skin and hair, as well. These zones appear marked by a severe and unnatural dryness.

When vagina is too dry, menopausal women may be diagnosed with vaginal atrophy or vaginal dryness. This condition causes cystitis and painful sexual intercourses, making extremely complicated having sex. Cystitis, in turn, occurs when bacteria attack the tissue of bladder, impeding you to urinate regularly.

With Cystitis, to pee becomes a real adventure, because this disorder causes a frequent emission of burning urine! You may also suffer from urinary incontinence, because the estrogen deficiency shortens even the length of bladder, unfortunately! And, behold, the paradox: cystitis causes abundant production of pee, but with a short bladder, you become unable to hold it back.

With inflammatory menopause, women have also frequent vaginal infections, not to mention about intestinal symptoms such as Irritable bowel syndrome. The latter tends to worsen, too. Frequent are even oral inflammations and infections, with inflamed and swollen gums that are the sign of a systemic inflammation.

Conclusion

As mentioned, inflammatory menopause is a condition that affects your entire body. We covered the symptoms, what it is, and the role of estrogen deficiency. Indeed, this is a serious condition that requires you speak with your doctor to ensure the best possible outcome.