The symptoms of menopause include:
- During menopause a woman’s brain and mood can be affected causing: depression and anxiety;
- sleep problems which lead to tiredness, fatigue and/or dizziness; brain fog leading to reduced concentration, poor information retention and a reduced ability to learn; unexplained mood swings, irritability and emotional outbursts.
- These symptoms could impact on an individual’s performance in terms of coping strategies or the pressure of dealing with deadlines and priorities. They may also experience a lack of confidence, anxiety or panic disorder.
- Women can experience hair loss or hair can become thin, lacklustre and brittle.
- Women can have mouth problems such as bleeding gums or a dry mouth. This can lead to bad breath. They may also experience taste changes and strange oral sensations including a burning tongue.
- A woman’s heart can be affected, causing palpitations and an increased risk of heart disease.
- A woman’s lungs can be affected as they may develop new allergies or existing allergies can become worse. For example, asthma, hay fever, dermatitis.
- A woman’s abdomen and gut can be affected as they may gain weight, develop bloating, abdominal cramps, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), sickness or nausea and women can experience urogenital problems which bring about greater urgency and/or more frequent trips to the toilet.
- Women can have irregular periods or unpredictable pre-menstrual tension, heavy or painful bleeding, water retention and bloating.
- Women can suffer from general skin itchiness and formication (this has been described as feeling like something crawling about under the skin), allergies such as dermatitis and thinning skin. Also, nails can become dry and brittle.
- Women can develop problems with their muscles, joints, nerves and bones. This can lead to muscle pain and weakness, joint pain, osteoporosis / loss of bone density and nerve function may be affected.
- Women can suffer from sudden changes to body temperature, which might include daytime sweats and hot flushes, sudden heat or redness in the face and neck, or night time sweats and flushes.
- Other symptoms of the menopause (of which there are at least 34 recognised as part of the menopause and up to 80 possible symptoms) can also include loss of libido, vaginal dryness and/or atrophy, weight gain, incontinence, breast pain and headaches.