The most classic symptoms of menopause include night sweats, difficulty sleeping, vaginal dryness, depression, and mood swings. A United States study showed nearly sixty percent of women had hot flashes as early as two years before menstruation stopped. Other symptoms in the per menopause/menopause time frame include poor handling of stress, a more obvious pre-menstrual syndrome, weight gain, water retention bloating, and problems with memory. These symptoms are related to the changes that are occurring in the body with the reducing levels of estrogen and progesterone.

Menopause can last one or two twelve month mistral cycles before menopause runs through its course. Most cases of menopause do how ever run there course in the twelve month cycle. There are a few cases of menopause that do last longer then the normal twelve month cycle.

Menopause can be managed with diet and exercise. Exercising strengthens the muscles and bones and helps circulate the blood. It gives a better mental outlook and aids in a better nights sleep. Exercise can also give relief as well as a calming effect; reduce stress and increase vitality, concentration and alertness. Weight lifting exercises can help against bone loss and osteoporosis. It also improves posture, balance and muscle tone.

The question as to whether or not to use hormone replacement therapy has now become a very complex issue. Thirty percent of menopausal women in are taking hormones, commonly given to relieve the side effects. In the Women's Health Initiative over fifteen thousand women were studied for almost six years, but the study was prematurely stopped when it was discovered that the combination of estrogen/progesterone replacement therapy resulted in an unfavorable risk to benefit analysis.

There is no doubt that the therapy did benefit women's hot flashes and other menopause issues. Unfortunately the study also revealed a definite increased risk of developing endometrial uterus cancer, breast cancer, blood clots, and a risk of stroke and heart attacks. There was also question as to whether the use of hormone replacement therapy could be linked to gallbladder disease, ovarian cancer, colon cancer and even an increased incidence of memory loss. Some of these risks were directly linked to the time hormone replacement therapy was taken. In laymans terms, the longer a person takes hormone replacement therapy the higher is the risk of possibly conceiving one of these deadly diseases.

A lot of women studied experienced positve results from eating soy products. Because soy contains isoflavones, a natural plant estrogen, this can help offset the drop in the bodys estrogen that occurs when going through menopause. In turn this can relieve hot flashes and night sweats. Sources of soy include tofu, soymilk, soynuts, soybeans and soy protein powders. Black Cohosh, Vitamin E and herbs such as Dong Quai, Evening Primrose Oil and Red Clover diminish hot flashes, night sweats and other symptoms.