Estrogen is a natural hormone that is produced by the body.  Females begin producing what is called estrogen in the ovaries as their bodies mature from childhood to adulthood.  As the ovaries produce estrogen, a female begins her childbearing years.  She produces an egg each month and if not fertilized, the egg will be flushed from the body along with the lining of the uterus that the body prepared for nurturing a baby.  This is the menstrual cycle that occurs every 28 days (like clockwork for most women).

Once the menstrual cycles begin, they continue uninterrupted,  except for pregnancies,  until the woman’s body starts to wind down the cycle of the childbearing years.

As the body ends its decades-long production of estrogen, the ovaries will stop releasing the egg each month, and the body will stop preparing for a pregnancy that is no longer able to happen.  The lack of estrogen is a change that the body will try to adjust to and will in most cases cause symptoms.  As the body makes its adjustments, the symptoms of menopause abate naturally.  The problem is with the symptoms associated with this change, not with menopause itself.

Dr Susan Love’s Hormone Book says:  “Only a minority of women have menopausal symptoms that are severe enough to require medical therapy.  Only one of six women experience really bothersome hot flashes, one of eight women rates her night sweats as really bothersome, and fewer than one in thirty rates vaginal dryness as really bothersome.   Half of the women going through menopause have no hot flashes at all.

So, if you can make changes in your lifestyle, as eating and drinking healthier foods and beverages, and exercising on a consistant basis, that would be a great place to start.