If you are an adult female, I am guessing you have heard the word “menopause”. And if you are not already experiencing this inevitable journey, don’t worry, you will! It used to be that when I heard the word menopause, I thought of older women. However, I have learned that aging is not always the culprit. The journey that brings us there will be different for many of us.

Let’s start with basic anatomy 101 and what causes menopause. A woman is born with several eggs, which are stored in the ovaries. The ovaries make the hormones progesterone and estrogen, which control menstruation and ovulation. According to the Mayo Clinic, menopause is the time that marks the end of the last release of your eggs, which means no more periods! You will be diagnosed after you have gone 12 months without a menstrual period and for most there are no other medical reasons as to why you stopped menstruating.

Sounds simple right? Well, not all menopause are created equal. If you go the natural way you will go through “perimenopause” which typically starts several years before menopause. During perimeno-pause your ovaries gradually make less estrogen, which lasts up to the point when the ovaries stop releasing eggs. Throughout the last one or two years, women start to notice menopause symptoms because of their estrogen levels dropping.

In the perimenopause phase, you could experience some if not all the following symptoms:
Vaginal dryness
Hot flashes
Night sweats
Weight gain and slowed metabolism
Loss of breast fullness
Sleep problems
Irregular periods
Mood changes
Painful intercourse
Urinary symptoms

Every woman is different when experiencing “the change” and the severity of symptoms can range depending on the cause of menopause. Studies show for those who experience this journey naturally, the symptoms may not be as intense as for a woman who experiences an “induced” menopause.

Induced menopause is described as menopause caused by a medical treatment. Certain drugs and radiation therapies can cause damage to the ovaries which also induces menopause. The surgical removal of both ovaries, known as “surgical” menopause, is the most common cause of induced menopause. A hysterectomy, the removal of the uterus, but not the ovaries, does not cause menopause.

Surgical menopause forces menopause to happen quickly. In fact, the day of your surgery is the day you start menopause. Menopause induced by drug treatments, allow the ovaries to shut down over a short period of time, which may lessen the symptoms of menopause to some degree. The most gradual transition would be during perimenopause when hormones wax and wane.

There is help for the symptoms woman experience during menopause. Many women look for relief in an all-natural product, and don’t want to add any chemicals to their body that might produce unwanted long-term side effects. Some natural herbal treatments include black cohosh and progesterone cream for symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats and poor sleep quality.

Postmenopausal women may find some relief from unpleasant symptoms of menopause, but doctors rarely discuss vaginal atrophy and the problems associated with it. Vaginal atrophy symptoms may include vaginal dryness, burning, painful intercourse, urinary tract infections, incontinence, and shortening and tightening of the vaginal canal.

Although there are some prescriptions and over-the-counter products, most contain estrogen (which cannot be used safely by many breast cancer survivors) or are full of chemicals or other unwanted fillers that can cause long term damage to the vaginal area.

Hip Hemp’s In the Pink products contain all natural, organic botanicals, with no estrogen or added fillers of any kind. These were designed with simple plant-based ingredients that are sure to keep your body healthy and give your skin the elasticity it once had.