Menopause occurs when your ovaries stop releasing eggs and producing female hormones. This change in hormone levels can cause symptoms such as hot flashes, sleeplessness and mood swings.
Even if a woman has no obvious symptoms, it’s important to understand the effects of menopause and aging on your overall health. Loss of the female hormone estrogen can weaken a woman’s bones, for example, increase cholesterol levels that contribute to coronary artery disease, cause emotional changes, vaginal changes, and urinary tract changes.
Menopause is commonly divided into two stages:
Perimenopause. When a woman first starts to experience menopausal signs and symptoms like hot flashes, but is still having her period. Perimenopause may last four to five years or longer
Postmenopause. When 12 months have passed since your last period, you’ve reached menopause. The years that follow are called postmenopause.
Symptoms of menopause brought on by changes in estrogen may include:
- Irregular periods and changes in flow
- Hot flashes (sudden feeling of warmth that spreads over the upper body)
- Vaginal dryness and painful intercourse
- Night sweats
- Sleeplessness
- Mood swings
- Increased abdominal fat
- Bladder irritability and worsening of bladder control (incontinence)
- Vaginal infections
Our patients have access to the full range of gynecologic specialists needed to treat menopause-related conditions, including:
- Gynecology – for treatment of all conditions of a woman’s reproductive system
- Psychiatry – for treatment of mood disorders, anxiety and depression
- Urogynecology – for treatment of incontinence, overactive bladder, pelvic organ prolapsed
- Hormone Replacement Therapy – for treatment of hormone imbalances including bio-identical hormones
- Gynecologic Oncology – for treatment of cancers of the female reproductive system and screening for cancer
- A bone density test. To screen for low bone density levels that occur with osteoporosis
Fetal Medicine
These services include:
- Prenatal Evaluation
- Diagnosis
- Ultrasound
- Invasive fetal therapy
- Open fetal surgery