Our cultural understanding of menopause has reached mythological proportions. The hot flashes and migraines are the stuff of legends. But for many women, the experience of menopause goes far beyond the physical manifestations of a body in limbo. For them, the effects of menopause live and reside inside their deepest emotions and their everyday mental functioning.
Faulty memories, severe depressive episodes, and emotions out of control -- these, too, are symptoms of menopause, and more and more researchers are beginning to unfold the biological foundations for these effects. Most studies center on the star of the hormonal show, estrogen.
Estrogen is the hormone responsible for distinctly female physical features, like breasts and menstruation. Estrogen levels rise during puberty and remain fairly stable for most of a woman's adult life, until she reaches menopause. During menopause, estrogen levels begin to decrease. Menstrual periods stop, and bone mass begins to decrease.
As early as the 1950s, doctors began prescribing hormone replacement therapies to menopausal women to regulate their estrogen levels and alleviate the tormenting effects of menopause. But a large scale study conducted in the 1990s seemed to connect increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and death to hormone replacement therapies. Many doctors (and women) decided to proceed with caution.
