Table of contents:
- Menopause symptoms
- How does menopause affect the brain?
- 1. Decreased ability to remember
- 2. Changes in brain structure
- 3. Menopause causes stress and depression
If you are between 40 and 50 years old and then your menstrual schedule becomes irregular, then you may be experiencing menopausal symptoms. Menopause is a natural process that occurs in every woman who gets older, and it is a sign of the end of your fertility. A woman can be said to be experiencing menopause if she has not had her period for 12 months after her last menstrual period.
Then after you go through menopause and menstruation has stopped, some body functions will change and in some cases cause disturbances to the health of the body. One of them is impaired brain function. How come?
Menopause symptoms
When you experience menopause, the various symptoms and signs that appear beforehand, viz
- Irregular menstrual schedule
- The vagina becomes dry
- Night sweats
- Sleep disturbance
- Moods are volatile
- Experiencing a hot sensation in the upper body (hot flashes)
- Weight gain and decreased metabolism
- Hair thins and skin becomes dry
- Reduced breast density
ALSO READ: Why Menopausal Women Are at Risk of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis?
How does menopause affect the brain?
1. Decreased ability to remember
The decline in the ability to remember is related to the menopause process that occurs in women. This is evidenced in a study conducted in 2013 involving 2300 women for 4 years. When they went through pre-menopause, the researchers tested their memory abilities. Then the known result is a decrease in the ability to remember, whether it is in the verbal or non-verbal aspects. The researchers attributed this to the decreased levels of the hormone estrogen that occurred in women who were present at this time.
The decrease in the hormone estrogen is the aspect that affects a woman's ability to remember. It can be said like that because some respondents were given injections of the hormone estrogen during the pre-menopausal period and then the results of their memory ability tests increased and were higher than the group of women who were not given estrogen injections.
2. Changes in brain structure
It turns out that when a woman experiences menopause, changes in brain structure occur. The changes that occur are changes in the white part of the brain, which mostly consists of myelin, a part of the nervous system that plays a role in sending signals between nerve cells. Changing the whites of the brain can cause signals to be sent over a long time, resulting in a person taking longer to think or make decisions.
A study found that a woman who experienced hot flashes or a burning sensation in the body more and frequently, tended to have a greater change in white brain than women who did not experience hot flashes.
ALSO READ: This Is What Happens To A Woman's Body During Menopause
3. Menopause causes stress and depression
Menopause has been known to cause mood swings, emotional instability, and depression. Some women find them feeling very depressed and very depressed. Perimenopause is a time when women have estrogen levels that are not normal, rise and fall. When estrogen levels become low, this condition will directly affect the work of the hormone serotonin - a hormone that functions to regulate emotions and mood - as well as a person's cognitive abilities, not only that, changes in body function will also occur, such as slower metabolic processes and an increase in cholesterol levels in the body.
This side effect of decreasing estrogen also results in sleep disturbances, night sweats, and vaginal dryness. When a woman experiences these conditions, not a few of them feel depressed, become very sensitive, and face this time with high emotional feelings. So they are prone to experiencing depression, excessive sadness and anxiety. With depressed and depressed conditions, the brain function and even the structure of the brain will slowly change at a later date.
ALSO READ: 6 Facts You Need to Know About Menopause
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