Menopause
Menopause is the permanent cessation of menstruation which occurs a considerable length of time before the end of the lifespan. Menopause is a normal part of life. It is one step in a long, slow process of reproductive aging. For most women this process begins silently somewhere around age 40 when periods may start to be less regular.
In adult human females who still have a uterus, and who are not pregnant or lactating, postmenopause is identified by a permanent (at least one year’s) absence of monthly periods or menstruation. In women without a uterus, menopause or postmenopause is identified by a very high FSH level.
In human females, menopause usually happens more or less in midlife, signaling the end of the fertile phase of a woman’s life. Menopause is perhaps most easily understood as the opposite process to menarche, the start of the monthly periods.
However, menopause in women cannot satisfactorily be defined simply as the permanent “stopping of the monthly periods”, because in reality what is happening to the uterus is quite secondary to the process; it is what is happening to the ovaries that is the crucial factor.
Some types of surgery can bring on menopause. For instance, removal of your uterus (hysterectomy) will make your periods stop. When both ovaries are removed (oophorectomy), menopause symptoms may start right away, no matter what your age.
Postmenopause follows menopause and lasts the rest of your life. Pregnancy is no longer possible. There may be some symptoms, such as vaginal dryness, which may continue long after you have passed through menopause.