Acne and Menopause 

The shift in hormones experienced during menopause can cause acne where it didn’t exist before. Find out what to do to help yourself.

Menopause comes with changes, both emotional and biological. It is when a woman stops menstruating for over a year that she goes through menopause and there are many symptoms associated with this condition. Skin problems, muscle and bone weakening, hot flashes, mood changes and joint pains are some common complaints. Some women experience acne during this menopause period.

Menopause and Acne: Causes

Do not be alarmed if you witness acne during menopause, as it is quite common. Acne is linked with a menopausal woman taking HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) treatment. The HRT has progestin in the treatment and can cause the skin to breakout in a rash or acne, if excessive androgen is produced. However, treatment is possible through a form of Vitamin A, called retinaic acid. Apart from acne during menopause, many women suffer from discomfort caused due to flaky or itchy skin. This condition called, seborrhea, is considered a close cousin of initial acne. Topical creams, especially those containing progesterone, are helpful in clearing it up. Estrogen use should be limited for those wishing to prevent the breakout of acne, as estrogen used in a cream form can result in skin discoloration, rashes, as well as oily skin. Any change in the normal hormonal setting can trigger off acne during menopause. It can be due to issues like imbalanced nutrition or emotional dysfunction, like unresolved relationships or lack of physical exercise that affects the metabolism, and thereby disrupts proper functioning of hormones.

Menopause and Acne: Treatments

Menopause and acne are problems that have led many women to resort to counseling for clarification as a menopause related issue. Health care practitioners acknowledge that this skin eruption may happen due to the change of life. Menopause is medically considered as a stage in a woman’s life, during which significant hormonal changes take place, and a woman slowly loses her fertility, or ability to conceive.

The reason for hormonal dysfunction is linked with the female sex hormones: estrogens and progesterone production decline and lead to problems in the skin and organs. Thus, when menopause sets in, there is a gradual shutdown of the ovaries and the hormone deficiency is permanent. This hormone deficiency triggers off other typical symptoms of menopause and mood swings, hot flashes and adult female acne occurs. To further understand the underlying causes of adult female acne, it is necessary to follow how one of the strongest androgens, testosterone, causes the skin to produce more sebum. Sebum is actually skin oil, the increased production of which is responsible for blocking skin cells, and making it difficult for a woman to slough off dead cells. When these skin cells are caught in the pores and hair follicles, already filled with excess oil, it results in pimples and acne. A plug of waxy oil and skin cells is formed, and this causes inflammation and infection. If not treated in time, the pimples become a full-blown case of acne.

 Natural Menopause Relief Secrets.

Written by women for women!

Get Rid of Acne - Naturally

… and they absolutely work whether you have teen or adult acne; whether you suffer from acne on your back, shoulders or chest or if you suffer from female related acne such as menopause acne or acne due to monthly cycles.

Common Treatments For Acne 

Although acne is not life threatening, it can have devastating consequences on a person’s self-confidence and social behaviour. 

Hormones and Acne

Hormonal acne can also flare up suddenly during menopause. This happens due to reduced estrogen levels and the increased production of the male androgen hormones, which are responsible for the oil production within the pores. 

The Right Acne Skin Treatment

So what is the best acne skin treatment? The best way to deal with acne is to approach fef it from several angles. Luckily there are lots of options around, it is just a case of finding the most suitable acne skin treatment for you.  

Menopause and acne in women need not be a cause of distress any more because the estrogen deficiency causing acne breakouts, loss of skin firmness and texture are a cosmetic problem which has new treatments and effective cures available today.

Technorati Tags: Acne, estrogens, hormone deficiency, menopause, Skin problems

Hot Flashes and Insomnia

Hot flashes may seem relatively harmless, but when you consider that they can actually cause insomnia for a lot of women, you start to realise just how debilitating they can be if left unchecked. Their relationship with insomnia is when a woman experiences a hot flash during the night, which naturally wakes her up rather suddenly.

One of the more debilitating symptoms of hot flashes is their impact on our ability to get a good nights sleep. A deep and uninterrupted night’s sleep is too long overdue for many postmenopausal women. Many women say they just lie awake, unable to go to sleep or stay asleep, and worrying about being alert for the day ahead.

"Having eyes like saucers" is what my grandmother used call it. Insomnia plagues more than 56 percent of postmenopausal women, and it’s not a new problem.

A girl friend of mine once suggested to me that the reason women wake during the night is so they can "keep the fire going", referring to a state of affairs during our ancestors time thousands of years ago. Personally I’m not so sure, but even Shakespeare wrote about it in Macbeth where he enlists the services of a physician to treat his wife’s insomnia: "Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Race out the written troubles of the brain; And with-some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuft bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart."

Impact of Hormone Replacement Therapy

So we know insomnia and hot flashes have been with is for centuries, but it seems to have escalated dramaticallescalated dramatically just recently during the last few years. Many people believe it to be related to the HRT scare that was publicized a few years back - where the clinical trials suggested that the risks of using hormone replacement therapy greatly out numbered the benefits.

Many women are now being plagued again with menopause symptoms and problems they thought they had left behind. But there are still a lot of options that can provide effective solutions to these issues.

Even though insomnia is a fairly common experience for post menopausal w This can help narrow down your options and make your decision easier omen, there isn’t a "one size fits all" solution. As with every other symptom of menopause, you need to determine how it’s affecting you, and what the best cause of action will be. Don’t simply start popping sleeping pills to get through - they only offer short term solutions at best.

The first approach should be to consult with your health care practitioner or doctor and review your medical history. This can help narrow down your options and make your decision easier. For some women, some form of hormone replacement therapy may still be the best short term answer.

Insomnia - Is It Age Related

It’s well known that as we get older, our sleeping patterns and habits go through changes. We tend to spend more time in the first two stages of sleep. Stage one is called transitional sleep, and stage two is light sleep. Both are non rapid eye movement (NREM) stages of sleep.

The deep sleep comes in stages three and four, which are also known as Delta sleep patterns. These stages are where we get the most benefit. They are deep states of sleep were we are totally unconscious and fully "under". Stage five is also called REM or Rapid Eye Movement sleep, which is where we dream.

As we get older, typically into our fifties, we tend to spend more of our sleep time in stages one and two, with the obvious consequences - sleeping lighter and more prone to be woken up. So we get tired earlier in the day, and tend to wake earlier in the morning. But there are always options open to us to enhance our sleep time, not matter how bad it has got.

First task on the list to figure out where we are having problems and what is causing the disruption to our sleep process. Do you have difficulty falling asleep, or do you drift off easily only to wake up soon afterwards. Are you continually wakening during the night, or just wake to early in the morning? Are the hot flashes causing you to wake suddenly, or do you experience one almost immediately you awaken?

Can Natural Herbal Remedies Help

Somet herbal products might be beneficial. Some specific herbal menopause remedies could be the answer, or over-the-counter sleep aids might help for awhile, but don’t rely on the sleep aids too much - it’s never that simple. It’s better to create a new sleep pattern, a new routine that signals the body that it’s time to sleep.

How To Stop Hot Flashes From Disrupting Your Sleep

If your hot flashes are causing your insomnia, you need to find out what is triggering them. For some women it’s having a dream in the middle of the night that brings it on, for others it could be something as simple as a "spooky" noise like the heating system switching on. Rather than treating the symptoms with sleeping pills, look for the triggers and manage those.

It’s not a matter of your body working against you, it’s that you’re finally working with your body.

In many cases, the solution can be as simple as changing your diet or your routine. Allocating 30 to 60 minutes last thing at night to winding down and relaxing can be time well spent. Relaxing in a darkened room is a great way to unwind and help your body produce its sleep hormones like melatonin. Don’t do anything stimulating before bed - like exercise, or hot showers.

Menopause and Insomnia

The recognition that the etiology of insomnia is often multifactorial rather than attributing sleep problems only to the absence of estrogen is key to the evaluation and subsequent treatment of "menopausal insomnia."

What’s your sleep number?

These strategies are part of a larger approach called cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) which in a small study, was found to significantly improve anxiety, depression, partner relationships, sexuality and hot flashes.

Growing Through Menopause

Other symptoms that can compound any emotional symptoms include insomnia and fatigue. Insomnia is sometimes partly caused by the discomfort of hot flashes in the middle of the night keeping the sufferer awake. 

Managing Hot Flashes 

Physical activity like brisk walking, light exercise helps to prevent hot flashes, depression, and stress, and it helps natural relief from the problem of insomnia. 

Menopause and Insomnia

This condition occurs during menopause because it is a side-effect of other menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and general physical and mental discomfort. When your body is dealing with night sweats, it’s easy to have your sleep ..

Diet also plays a part. Some hot teas - cinnamon tea, for example - might induce hot flashes and should be avoided. Carbohydrates actually increase sleep hormones, so that low-carb diet might be a culprit. Mom was right. Warm milk does induce sleep. But skip the cookies. Wheat toast should be just the ticket to help usher you into dreamland.

For more information visit insomnia and hot flashes

By Mike Spencer Published: 10/25/2007

Technorati Tags: diet, herbal products, hormone replacement therapy, hot flash, insomnia, menopausal, menopause, treatment

 Treating hot flashes  is only one thing to look foward to.  Here you are going to find out about treating Menopause and Depression.

Menopause is the stage of a woman’s life when she has to pause the activities of her life. This is not easy for any women to get rid of her responsibilities and set aside her regular activities. Menopause is the phase when the resistance of a woman’s patience is concluded. Menopause is the phase that brings so many changes in a woman body. The changes occur in a body because of decrease in production of essential hormones. Menopause causes pain in the body muscles, change in menstruation cycle, inadequate sleep, stress and depression.

During menopause women may experience mood swings, change in moods for no reason. The cause of depression is the stress of menopause. The symptoms of menopause have adverse affect on a female body. Women become restless due to disturbance while sleeping. At the same time, women have to deal with her family, friends, finances and work. The normal activities look like over burden on life. Because of the drastic change in the body female feel depressed and stressful.

The changes in the body are the result of the organs that stop producing the hormones to balance the biological activities. The essential hormones like estrogen and progesterone, which controls the brainwaves, temperaments, menstruation cycle of a female body, become inadequate in the body. As a result, the female feel depressed. Depression is the state when a person thinks deep about any impression and this deep thinking results as depression. In depression, a female may feel ignored, over exhausted, Helpless to share her physical problems. Because of this feeling, the female may feel of attempting suicide. Thinking negative about events, pessimistic about life, unusual anger or crying is the beginning symptoms of depression. Women who have a history of mood swings in past are relatively more prone to face serious depression during menopause.

Females who had taken surgical treatments for menopause are having higher side of risk of having depression. If a woman has a smoking habit, she is considered more at risk for depression during menopause.

Depression should not be ignored considering it as a normal mood swing.

Depression is a very serious problem that occurs due to hormonal changes in a female. Depression can lead a person to feel like worthless and ignored in life. A worse depression can turn into suicidal act. Depression is the phase when a being undergoes deep thinking in passive terms. Female should take proper medication to cure it. The medicines should not be stopped without consulting the physician. Some behavior therapies are also available to control the emotions during depression. During menopause, hormone replacement therapy is helpful source to restore the lost hormones to overcome the depression.

Dealing With Depression 

As we grow older, our bodies tend to undergo a number of biological and chemical changes. The hormonal levels in our body normally remains balanced in younger.   

Omega-3s ease menopause related depression 

Jean-François Huppé. omega-3 depression. Omega-3s ease psychological distress and depressive symptoms often suffered by menopausal and perimenopausal women, according to researchers at Université Laval’s Faculty of Medicine. 

Menopause And Depression

It can be confusing when trying to determine if you’re suffering from depression, simply going through menopause or experiencing both. This is because many symptoms of menopause and depression are very similar.

Menopause And Depression

This feeling of loss of control can lead to symptoms of depression. As the symptoms of both menopause and depression worsen they start to feel that their is nothing they can do and a feeling of hoplessness falls over. 

BeyondMenopause - Find the facts when it comes to hot flash headache, sign and symptom of menopause and natural menopause treatment.

Technorati Tags: depression during menopause, experience mood swings, hormone replacement therapy, hot flashes, treatment