Menopause and the early signs of menopause is just a part of life. The symptoms that follow are physiological changes that occur in the lives of every woman. Menopause is a normal and natural body change in a woman, and this may halt the menstrual cycles each month. Menopause occurs in a woman, as she grows older. A much more simple way of putting this is “the change” in the life of a woman.

The early signs of menopause are clues to the commencement of the symptoms of menopause. It generally occurs in women aged between 40-50 years. If a woman younger than 40 experiences the symptoms of menopause, this is usually referred to as a sequence of a future event.

Some of the early signs of menopause, or perimenopause and premenopause may be:

Mood swings
Depression
Chronic fatigue
Headaches
Monthly cycle changes
Body hair change
Pain, aches and cramps
Yeast infections
Blood sugar fluctuations
Water retention
Night sweats
Sleep pattern changes
PMS increase
Love life interest loss
Vaginal lubrication decreases

Below are a few early signs of menopause, and with it are the reasons behind them.

Monthly Cycle Changes

These cycles are determined by the ovaries of a woman. Hormones allow women, during ovulation, to produce the egg. Menopause modifies a women’s cycle, resulting in hormonal imbalance. However, this can also occur in a woman, way before menopause, and the reason could be that the woman has poor nutrition and diet.

PMS Increase

This occurs in every woman at the start of puberty. During menopause, the PMS could either increase in intensity or in frequency. PMS is a very common form of imbalance, and intensifies during menopause. Women, who experience PMS very early in life, will experience severe effects before they enter the stage of menopause.

Depression and Mood Swings

This is not something that is just in your mind. Research has shown that hormonal changes affect the moods of people. There are hormones that can make a person passive while others make them more relaxed. Some hormones can also make a person energetic and active. When a person enters menopause, the hormonal imbalance affect the emotional state of the person, and this can cause aggressive behavior, mood swings and depression.

Hot Flashes

Does the lack of estrogen in a woman's body during menopause result in hot flashes? If it is true then hot flashes should continue from the start of menopause to the end of a woman's life. But this does not happen. The truth behind hot flashes is that, it is the result of the woman's body trying to deal with hormonal imbalance by boosting the metabolism. In addition, a woman's adrenal glands get the wrong signals because of these imbalances and this comes down to a lot of unwanted energy being pushed out.

Pains, aches and chronic fatigue

Aches, pains and chronic fatigue are symptoms that result from other warning signs. If you suffer from a lack of sleep and depression, these could lead to pains, aches and the result is low energy. Older women try crash diets in order to stay looking young and slim. However, it has been proved that crash diets can drop energy levels, because they lack nutrition.

Vaginal lubrication decreases

When a woman's estrogen levels drop during menopause, this causes a drying and thinning of the vaginal walls, leading to less lubrication. Intercourse becomes painful and this could result in this activity coming to a stop. There is also a chance that the cause could be that the woman does not consume enough water, and the simplest solution to this problem could be increasing the water intake.

Love life interest loss

This usually is the result of a lack of estrogen. Hormones are the fuel that is needed for sexual intercourse. With hormonal imbalance, most women lack the desire to have intercourse. This coupled with depression- that comes with menopause- can leave the most beautiful woman feeling unattractive and old.

Dawn M. Olsen is an Advocate for Better Women’s Health through Education, Recipe Developer, Soy Food Enthusiast and the Author of "Menopause A to Z - A Definitive Guide to Modern Menopause available online now at a http://www.menopauseatoz.com Find out more about how to deal with early menopause symptoms.