The Role of Your Hormones

As you've probably learned by now - beginning in puberty and until the start of menopause - the ovaries produce two primary hormones, estrogen and progesterone. These are the hormones that play an integral part in regulating your period. And when we talk about the hormones of menopause, these are the ones we're referring to.

During the years just before menopause, there is a gradual reduction in your production of estrogen and progesterone. Eventually, you don't produce enough hormones to regulate your period and it stops altogether. And once your period has completely stopped for one year, menopause is considered to have started.

For many women, experiencing hot flashes can last for several years. This is from the first early symptom to the last.

Surgical menopause, of course, is different. If both of your ovaries are removed, menopause is immediate - there's no gradual anything - and the symptoms can be severe.

But whether menopause has occurred naturally or because you've had surgery, your estrogen levels have dropped and you've begun to experience hormonal changes, which can affect not only your body, but your state of mind as well.