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00:17Hot flashes, irregular periods, mood changes, sleepless nights and brain fog.
00:23These are just some of the changes many women experience during perimenopause.
00:28The stage before menopause when hormone levels begin to change.
00:32Dr. Shireen Kalu, OBGYN at St. Augustine Private Hospital says the transition can begin as early as age 40,
00:41while menopause itself usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55.
00:46From 40 we start looking at the symptoms and menopause in our population where the period stops coming completely
00:55is between the ages of 45 and 55.
00:58Average age being about 52.
01:00She explains that fluctuating estrogen levels are responsible for many of the symptoms women experience during this stage.
01:08So what happens with perimenopause is the estrogen levels start fluctuating.
01:15So it starts going up and down, up and down, variable, and it's because of the low levels,
01:21when it goes down, it starts to make the patient get the symptoms of menopause.
01:27And while heart flushes are perhaps the best known symptom, Dr. Kalu says they are far from the only ones
01:34many women may experience.
01:37Heart flushes.
01:38So that's what you will hear mostly.
01:40Heart flushes.
01:41Heart flushes.
01:42Heart flushes.
01:43Heart flushes.
01:43Heart flushes.
01:45Heart flushes.
01:48Heart flushes.
01:50Heart flushes.
01:52Heart flushes.
01:54Heart flushes.
01:57Heart flushes.
01:58Heart flushes.
01:59Heart flushes.
02:02Heart flushes.
02:03Heart flushes.
02:04Heart flushes.
02:05Heart flushes.
02:05Heart flushes.
02:06Heart flushes.
02:07Heart flushes.
02:07Heart flushes.
02:09will tell you that they get these symptoms but they don't know how to interpret it changes in
02:13the gum then you have sudden mood swings like you just get angry very angry all of a sudden and
02:22you
02:22don't understand why well brain fog is a big thing as well one common misconception is that menopause
02:29means the end of a woman's sex life dr carlouz says that's not always the case although hormonal
02:36changes and the vaginal dryness can make intimacy uncomfortable for many women one big factor is
02:43sexual ability so some i have a few patients who actually get hypersexual during menopause so they
02:51want sex more which is strange most times women and men worry that when the women reach the menopause
02:59they're not going to feel for sex again so is it true the answer is yes you your libido does
03:06drop so
03:06you don't feel for sex as much and then because your vagina becomes dry it becomes painful so it's
03:15now psychological that a woman wouldn't want to have sex if she's predicting that she's going to have
03:21pain the good news that she says is that many symptoms can be managed with healthy lifestyle
03:27changes naturally like everything else lifestyle changes make a huge difference to symptoms so you
03:36would find that if you are not exercising your symptoms are worse so simple cardiovascular exercises
03:43on a daily basis makes a huge difference and then the dietary changes so stop the fried foods
03:50stop the sweets basically eat healthy see a nutritionist make sure you're eating healthy
03:54and yoga meditation tends to help as well and if lifestyle changes aren't enough there are effective
04:02medical treatments available we are using tablets patches if we can get our hands on it the gel so they
04:10have various forms of replacing the hormones which is called hormone replacement therapy with other forms of
04:17estrogen that are now now more bio-identical than what we used to get before so the side effects are
04:25less
04:25and it's more natural the ob-gyn encourages women not to dismiss the changes they're experiencing as simply
04:32getting older but to speak with their doctor early recognition and treatment she says can make the
04:38transition through perimenopause much more manageable i am charlotte kisto with tonight's health watch
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