Many younger women may be wondering why hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is used by so many older women. They may wonder if HRT is something they should consider when the time for menopause reaches them. Menopause, however, does not have the same effect on every woman. Some women sail through menopause like it’s a breeze. With little to no symptoms, they journey through the sunset of their reproductive cycles. Other women, however, experience symptoms so severe they may consider HRT as their only option.

Common Symptoms

The years before menopause are known as perimenopause. During these years, you may begin to experience some of the symptoms of menopause. It is also during this time when you should begin to research your options as to whether hormone replacement therapy is a route you would like to take. Perimenopause can begin in a woman’s late 30s to her 40s. During perimenopause, your ovaries begin to shrink. This process causes the once normally regulated levels of estrogen and progesterone –the two hormones responsible for regulating the menstrual cycle—to fluctuate heavily. The most common sign of perimenopause is an irregular period, often with irregularly heavy bleeding. The symptoms of perimenopause can last for several years.

You may also experience other symptoms, the most infamous being hot flashes, in which you may become heated, flushed, or sweaty in a short period of time. You may have sleep disturbances, night sweats, or urinary tract infections due to the fluctuating levels of hormones. These are all classic symptoms of menopause, but all should also result in a trip to your doctor to ensure that they are indeed caused by menopause and not another infection or illness.

When Does it Happen?

Menopause is considered to have occurred when a woman has been period-free for a year. This assumes that the woman’s periods have stopped naturally and not as the result of medications taking during illness or of pregnancy or any other diseases or ailments that may have caused the menstrual cycle to stop. When a woman has truly undergone menopause, she will have no more periods, not even spotting.