MENOPAUSE!!! part 1

 Maureen Mennor Nwaezigwe

Crazy strange headaches, hot flashes and bad moods? yea you got it girl!

This most likely does not fit into the imaginations and fantasies you had about being a grown woman when you were having your wild imaginations, but, hey it has crept in on you like an unwanted visitor. Me, when I thought about it in the past it was with excitement; you know, the thoughts of no more menstruations  very month seemed like a relief to look forward to...no more pads, no more occasional stained clothes...little did I know that menopause iz a zrong zometin lol!

Last month one of the ladies in my group came to my office and confided in me that she just bought "Agbo" a special herbal mix to fix the sudden inconsistency in her menstrual flow, she had experienced it some months back and used this same "agbo" and blood flowed, so she wants to try it again. The first thing I asked her was her age. She's is 47years old. She has not had sex for a long time  and so pregnancy was out of it. I told her not to take the herbal mix because nothing was wrong with her, I then took the time to explain menopause and the fact that that's what was happening to her. I am taken aback with how unmindful most ladies are about this thing. It does not seem to cross our minds at all. So what is MENOPAUSE? well, lets ask google for a proper definition shall we:

"Menopause is a stage in life when you stop having your monthly period. It's a normal part of aging and marks the end of your reproductive years. Menopause typically occurs in your late 40s to early 50s. However, women who have their ovaries surgically removed undergo "sudden" surgical menopause." 

There you have it from google, although I must add that it starts earlier for some, as I recently learnt of a married woman in her 30s who is looking for the fruit of the womb but her period is not regular. There are three stages to this thing, there is the perimenopausal phase, the menopause stage and the post menopausal stage, lets delve into these in part 2.