The original meaning of the word ‘menopause’ was originally limited to the last cycle of menstruation (similarly ‘menarche’ indicated the first cycle). However, the word has been extended to encompass all of the hormonal changes that take place in a woman’s body when she stops menstruating. This has created a good deal of confusion.

Premenopausue is used by few to point to the time whenever menstruation is natural and before hormone levels start to fall down. Few people says the word to point to the time with in the perimenopause before the final period.

Before and after the last actual menstrual bleed is called perimenopause and it starts after hormone levels have started to fluctuate and before they settle and there are no more symptoms due to this fluctuation. For the climacteric the above symptoms are same. It is more and more usual for women to refer to this time as their menopause.

Postmenopause actually starts the day after the last menstrual bleed and describes any time after that. It includes some of the perimenopause, and a woman after her last period is described as postmenopausal, although the term will not be used until a year after the last period because no one will be sure which the last one was until a year has passed. Ninety percent of women in the perimenopause who have not had a period for six months do not have another one.

Menopause, Estrogen and Other Female Hormones

The levels of progesterone and estrogen diminish it called menopause. During the menopause the supply and quality of eggs declines in midlife, hormone production from the ovaries becomes erratic. Approximately 28-day cycle estrogen and progesterone are produced and released until the menopause stage

Premenopausal. Estrogen levels peak in the first half of the cycle, then fall off after ovulation, as progesterone levels start to rise. Both levels decline if the egg is not fertilized, and this starts the menstrual bleed.

Perimenopausal. Estrogen is still being produced by the ovaries, but ovulation is sporadic, so progesterone is not produced every cycle and there may not be a monthly bleed.

Post menopause. Your body is not producing estrogen now, but there may be small amounts present in your system due to your fat cells breaking down androstenedione, which is better known as a male hormone.

How Estrogen Affects Bone Health and Osteoporosis

In the western world 50% the women at the age of seventy are seriously affected by osteoporosis, and just only 10 years after the average age of menopause i.e. around the age of sixty nearly 25% of women will have already brittle bones. This is clearly due to the level of estrogen circulating the blood stream. The increased risk of osteoporosis is a good enough reason to find menopause treatments, of some kind, to help protect your health well into old age.

Calcium is the chief element for the building of bones, and its metabolism is determined in part by estrogen, which has receptors in the osteoclasts and osteoblasts. As calcium moves through the bloodstream its available amount is regulated in part by two hormones, calcitonin and parathyroid.

Our bones store most of the calcium, and if at all blood calcium levels come down the parathyroid hormone will cause the bone and release calcium into the blood. After menopause, low estrogen levels make bone more sensitive to parathyroid hormone, making it more fragile.