1. Hot flashes, flushes, night sweats and/or cold flashes, clammy feeling2. Bouts of rapid heart beat
3. Irritability
4. Mood swings, sudden tears
5. Trouble sleeping through the night (with or without night sweats)
6. Irregular periods; shorter, lighter periods; heavier periods, flooding; phantom periods
7. Loss of libido
8. Dry vagina (see note)
9. Crushing fatigue
10. Anxiety, feeling ill at ease
11. Feelings of dread, apprehension, doom (see note)
12. Difficulty concentrating, disorientation, mental confusion
13. Disturbing memory lapses
14. Incontinence, especially upon sneezing, laughing; urge incontinence (see note)
15. Itchy, crawly skin (see note)
16. Aching, sore joints, muscles and tendons (see note)
17. Increased tension in muscles
18. Breast tenderness
19. Headache change: increase or decrease
20. Gastrointestinal distress, indigestion, flatulence, gas pain, nausea
21. Sudden bouts of bloat
22. Depression (see note)
23. Exacerbation of existing conditions
24. Increase in allergies
25. Weight gain (see note)
26. Hair loss or thinning, head or whole body; increase in facial hair
27. Dizziness, light-headedness, episodes of loss of balance
28. Changes in body odor
29. Electric shock sensation under the skin and in the head (see note)
30. Tingling in the extremities (see note)
31. Gum problems, increased bleeding
32. Burning tongue
33. Osteoporosis (after several years)
Notes: Symptoms 1 and 2 are clearly related to increased activity in the autonomic, sympathetic nervous system. Symptom 8 (Dry vagina) results in painful intercourse. Symptom 11 (Doom thoughts of death, picturing one's own death. Symptom 14 (Incontinence) reflects a general loss of smooth muscle tone. Symptom 15 (Itchy, crawly skin) Feeling of ants crawling under the skin, not just dry, itchy skin. Symptom 16 (Aching, Sore joints, etc.) may include such problems as carpal tunnel syndrome Symptom 22 (Depression) has a quality different from other depression.
The inability to cope is overwhelming. There is a feeling of a loss of self. Hormone therapy ameliorates the depression dramatically. Symptom 25 (Weight gain) is often around the waist and thighs, resulting in "The disappearing waistline" and changes in body shape. Symptom 27 (Shock sensation) "Take the feeling of a rubber band snapping against the skin, multiply it (exponentially, sometimes) radiate it. Put it in the layer of tissue between skin and muscle. The location of mine originates around the back of the neck at the base of the skull. It is a precursor to a hot flash." Symptom 28 (Tingling in the extremities) can also be a symptom of B-12
deficiency/diabetes. The tingling can result from an alteration in the flexibility of blood vessels in the extremities.
This list of signs of menopause was developed by women on the internet "menopaus" mailing list based at Hershey Medical Center, Hershey Pennsylvania (list owner and founder, Judy Bayliss). (January 1996).
The purpose of this list of signs is to inform women and their physicians about menopause so that appropriate action can be taken, to evaluate the effectiveness of several herbs, hormones or drugs, or wait it out. Menopause is not just hot flashes. The hot flash is a cardinal sign, but not the only one, nor does it occur in everyone. Varying subsets of signs occur in each individual. A common experience of the women who developed the list is a misdiagnosis by a physician or psychiatrist and often years of anxiety about the symptoms and inappropriate treatment. The sudden on set of these signs can be disturbing. The realization that "This is menopause" can be a healing relief. An estimated 15 out of 100 women between the ages of 45 and 55 will have debilitating symptoms caused by lowered ovarian hormones and they will consult a physician for help. However, most women will not have a difficult menopause and will enjoy entering a new phase of their lives.
One goal of the women who developed the list of signs is that physicians have a card in their top desk drawer with these 31 signs written on it. The list should be scanned whenever a woman over 30 consults an internist, gynecologist, neurologist, oncologist, surgeon, or any other specialist.The primary goal is that this list of signs and their notes reach every woman so that it is there when, and if, she needs it.
Signs 1-13 are the major, most common signs of peri-menopause and menopause. They are the signs that a woman most often consults a physician about. Signs 1-16 are the most responsive to estrogen replacement therapy, or progesterone or testosterone. These signs are not simply a matter of aging. They are seen in young women after the ovaries are removed.
Some of these signs may be symptoms of medical conditions that should be checked such as hypothyroid and diabetes and depression with another etiology.
