World Menopause Day 2014 - Prevention of Diseases After Menopause

World Menopause Day is celebrated on 18th October – year after year – all over the world. The theme for world menopause day 2014 is ‘prevention of diseases after menopause’.

Life after Menopause

Menopause in simple terms is when a woman experiences complete cessation of her menstrual cycle. While the definition of menopause might seem simple, this phase comes loaded with a host of problems and issues for women. After menopause, women are prone to an increased risk of the development of chronic diseases. There is nothing simple about it. But that doesn’t mean it can’t me made simple. Now that is the key to living a good and healthy life after menopause.

Menopause doesn’t suddenly creep up on unsuspecting women. It is a gradual phase that can take years to manifest. The perimenopausal years can be filled with erratic period cycles, hot flashes, mood swings, night sweats and many other problems. But this is just the beginning. The symptoms worsen as the phase progresses and finally the menstrual cycle completely stops. Medically a woman mustn’t have had her periods for a year for it to qualify as menopause.

After the menopause a woman has to deal with risks such as osteoporosis, weight gain, depression, mood swings, loss of lubrication in the vagina, frequent urination, fatigue, irritability, memory loss, hair fall, more hot flashes, more night sweats, insomnia, changes in appetite and more. The list can seem never-ending. And to call it that won’t be amiss.

Menopause for women is life-altering. Not only do they have to deal with perimenopausal symptoms for years, they have to deal with various health issues, complications and completely transform their lives to deal with symptoms of menopause.

But are all women equipped to deal with life after menopause or even the years leading up to menopause? This is where the significance of World Menopause Day comes up.

The day – does it matter?

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The International Menopause Society (IMS) fixed October 18^th as the World Menopause Day. The aim to designate a day for menopause was to make nations rise up to the challenge to make menopausal health an important issue and work towards raising awareness and fund more research into this area. The idea was to also make women aware of the health issues after menopause and ways to prevent them.

Menopause day was instituted in 1984 but it is only in recent years that more and more people are becoming aware of it and media has also begun to highlight the event.

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IMS has done incredible work to bring awareness to life after menopause all over the world. But this isn’t enough. It is important for communities to come together to work towards building a society where menopause is not a taboo topic. It is up to the nations especially developing nations, to launch awareness campaigns to make their womenfolk aware of menopause, what it means and how to make lifestyle changes to improve the quality of their lives after menopause.



Source-Medindia