: Anna Ghizzani
: Healthy Aging: Well-Being and Sexuality at Menopause and Beyond
: novum publishing
: 9781642681468
: 1
: CHF 6.10
:
: Lebenshilfe, Alltag
: English
: 140
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Menopause is a time of challenge for every woman as it causes discomfort and confusion for those who have little information about the changes in their bodies, emotions and relationships, and how to deal with them. The book discusses the impact of hormone deprivation, the psychosocial and relational aspects of this time of life along with age-related conditions such as osteoporosis, mood changes, vasomotor and cardiovascular problems, cancer survival, and the pros and cons of treatments, such as hormone replacement therapy. Armed with valid and helpful information about the inevitable changes and how to take the best from them, the book gives women the key to aging positively. To close the circle on couple sexuality, it adds biological and clinical considerations on male sexuality.

CHAPTER 1


What is Menopause?


An overview


Only recently has menopause become a subject of interest in itself, also to researchers. However, this should be no surprise. Indeed, at the start of the 20th century women in Europe had a life expectancy of just 48 years. This has gradually increased, thanks to progressive improvements in social and economic conditions in European countries. Today, unless one has a major metabolic disease, the average lifespan is 80 years; it is predicted that, in 2020, in the United States alone, there will be 46 million women over the age of 50 who could live another thirty years or so, namely a third of their lives, in menopause; according to UN projections, this figure is set to rise. In the year 2050, women aged 60 or over will make up 40% of the female population in Europe, and 23% of the global population, thanks to better and better living conditions. It is clear that in the Western world an ever higher number of older seniors, men and women, who have surpassed the age of 85, will maintain their intellectual vivacity, the product of a wellbeing that is more than just the absence of illness. By comparison, at the end of the second millennium, life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa was just 52, and in many African nations it actually fell by three years, owing to the AIDS epidemic.

In the Western world, the average age of menopause is 51 or 52, a figure that has remained unchanged in the last few decades. However, the age is lower in women who have a poor socio-economic level.

Menopause as a biological phenomenon remains the same, but as a subjective experience it is today very different from the past, thanks to the fact that living conditions in Western countries have greatly improved compared to the early 1900s. Continual social progress affords us a level of wellbeing never seen before, with good quality food, comfortable housing, and the possibility of accessing increasingly effective medical care. The peak of sophistication in the medical field, the miracle which tends to go unnoticed, is the possibility of early diagnosis and, in some cases, even prevention. This is not the best of all possible worlds, as I am well aware, but the well-being that Western society has achieved was unthinkable up until just a few decades ago.

The first manifestations of menopause (usually a major delay in the cycle, or a series of hot flashes) always arrive unexpectedly. I don’t know a single woman who has not said, somewhat agitatedly: “No, it’s not possible, it’s too soon! Doctor, what can it be?”

Many of these women, namely today’s 50-somethings, are in an active phase of their lives, or even “super-active”, because neither their working life nor their role in looking after the family has come to an end. There was a time when it was said that the years of menopause were emotionally difficult because they coincided with other important changes: children leaving