Menopause is the time in a woman's life when menstruation ceases. The associated decrease in the reproductive hormones can cause a wide variety of symptoms associated with the cessation of childbearing ability.

These symptoms can last from six months to two years and are commonly experienced by women who are not on hormone replacement therapy.

Hot flashes, mood swings, feeling bloated due to water retention, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies resulting from erratic hormone levels are all normal menopause symptoms (Wallis, January 24, 2001).

How Menopause Happens
During a woman's reproductive years, the monthly release of eggs from the ovaries provides a continual flow of progesterone and estrogen, hormones necessary to prepare the body for a successful pregnancy.

With age, a woman's body no longer releases the stimulating signals that induce ovulation of eggs from the ovaries. The result is a measurable decrease in the associated hormones and accompanying physical signs of normal menstruation. Unfortunately, this decrease in hormones affects the body's ability to maintain calcium levels and an increased loss of minerals from the bones results. The net loss of calcium from the skeleton is a combination of changes in calcium excretion and calcium absorption (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2000).