Contents:
- Medical Video: Mark Gungor Tale of Two Brains Full
- Menopausal symptoms
- How does menopause affect the brain?
- 1. Decreased ability to remember
- 2. Changes in brain structure
- 3. Menopause causes stress and depression
Medical Video: Mark Gungor Tale of Two Brains Full
If you are between the ages of 40 and 50 and then your menstrual schedule becomes irregular, then maybe you are experiencing menopausal symptoms. Menopause is a natural process that occurs in every woman who grows old, and this is a sign of the end of your fertility. A woman can be said to experience menopause if she does not menstruate for 12 months after her last menstruation.
Then after you go through menopause and menstruation has stopped, then some bodily functions will change and in some cases cause disruption to your health. One of them is brain function disorders. How come?
Menopausal symptoms
When you experience menopause, various symptoms and signs appear beforehand, namely
- Irregular menstrual schedule
- The vagina becomes dry
- Sweat at night
- Sleep disturbance
- Mood changes easily
- Experience the sensation of heat in the upper body (hot flashes)
- Increased weight and decreased metabolism
- Thinning hair and dry skin
- Breast density decreases
READ ALSO: Why are Menopausal Women at Risk for Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis?
How does menopause affect the brain?
1. Decreased ability to remember
Decreased ability to remember is related to the menopause process that occurs in women. This was evidenced in a study conducted in 2013 involving as many as 2300 women over 4 years. When they experience a pre-menopausal period, the researchers test their memory abilities. Then the known results are a decrease in the ability to remember, whether it is in verbal or non-verbal aspects. The researchers attributed this to a decrease in estrogen hormone levels that occurred in women who were at that time.
Decrease in the hormone estrogen turns out to be an aspect that affects the decline in the ability to remember a woman. That could be said because some respondents were given injections of estrogen during the pre-menopausal period and then the results of the ability to remember were increased and higher compared to the group of women who were not given injections of estrogen.
2. Changes in brain structure
It turns out that when a woman experiences menopause, changes in brain structure occur. Changes that occur are changes in the white part of the brain which consists mainly of myelin, which is a part of the nervous system that plays a role in sending signals between nerve cells. Changing the white part of the brain can cause signals to be sent for a long time so that someone takes longer to think or make a decision.
One study found that women who experience more hot and frequent hot flashes, tend to have greater changes in the white brain compared to women who do not experience hot flashes.
READ ALSO: This is what happens to a woman's body at menopause
3. Menopause causes stress and depression
Menopause is known to cause mood swings, emotions become unstable, and depression. Some women feel they feel very depressed and very depressed. Perimenopause is a period in which women have abnormal estrogen levels, up and down. 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 - and a person's cognitive abilities, not only that, changes in body function will also occur, such as slow metabolism and increasing cholesterol levels in the body.
This side effect of decreasing estrogen also results in sleep disturbances, night sweats, and dry vagina. When a woman experiences these conditions, not a few of them feel depressed, become very sensitive, and face this period with a high emotional sense. So that they are vulnerable to depression, feeling sad and excessive anxiety. With conditions that are depressed and depressed, the brain functions slowly and even the structure of the brain will change later.
READ ALSO: 6 Facts You Need to Know About Menopause
