The journey to menopause

Tomlin Paul, 50 and living better

Some
35 years ago, Mrs J started menstruating. At first, it took a bit of
adjustment to be able to deal with the monthly flow. But fortunately,
her periods were regular and quite predictable, so much so that the day
it did not show she knew she had to be pregnant. At some point, Mrs J
thought that it would be nice to get a break from this monthly
'visitor', but apart from her two pregnancies, she had no such 'luck'.


Mrs J is now in her late 40s and her monthly periods have started to miss that regular menstrual cycle.

Are you there yet?

"So, Doc, this is quite frustrating! What is going to happen next month and the month after that?" Mrs J exclaimed during a check-up to see if all was well.

At the end of her lament, I shared with her that she was not ill, but was actively on her journey towards menopause.

Many women like Mrs J have a lot of anticipation and even anxiety about the stoppage of their menstruation. But what her body says to her in her late 40s is all linked to the life journey that she started nearly five decades ago.

What happened to your share of eggs?

Back then, in her mother's womb, Mrs J was given two ovaries that were packed with approximately two million 'eggs'. OK now, take your mind off eggs as you know it! These eggs within the ovaries are very very tiny structures that carry a woman's genes and goes through some development before they are released. When on the outside, they can combine with a sperm which has her partner's genes to produce an activated or fertilised egg and eventually a full baby or infant.

By the time Mrs J had her first period at the age of 13, she had around 400,000 eggs available. From this time onwards, she did not realise it, but she was losing approximately 1,000 eggs per month as part of a natural process. Between 300 and 500 eggs develop fully and are released during the fertile years with the potential for pregnancy. Once menopause sets in, the ovaries stop developing and releasing eggs.

The disappearing period

Mrs J's monthly period was really a signal that her ovaries were active. In a year or two, Mrs J will most likely stop seeing her menstrual period altogether when her supply of eggs are exhausted. Out of the very generous gift of eggs with which she was born, she used only two to build a family with Mr J.

By the way, all this while Mr J's body had been making hundreds of millions of sperms every day since his teen years with no plans to fully stop production!

From what she told me, Mrs J has heard a lot from other women about this time of life and is hoping and praying that her journey will not be a rough one.

I will see her again soon to talk about what more to expect and how to manage it all.

Dr Tomlin Paul is a family physician at Health Plus Associates in Kingston; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com