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If you skip a period, your body may not be making enough progesterone to break down the uterine lining. However, your estrogen levels may remain high even though you are not menstruating. At menopause, hormone levels don''t always decline uniformly. Production of estrogen and progesterone is erratic and unpredictable.Most women can tell if they are approaching menopause because their menstrual periods start changing. Perimenopause is a term used to describe this time. Perimenopause is what some describe as "being in menopause," but menopause itself is only one day in a woman''s life after she had not had a menstrual period for 12 consecutive months, and no other biological or physiological cause can be identified. Until 12 consecutive months have passed without alternativeestrogentherapy a period, a woman may still be able to get pregnant. Although the majority of women experience natural menopause, some women may experience induced menopause due to one of a number of medical interventions. Surgically removing alternativeestrogentherapy both ovaries (bilateral oophorectomy) alternativeestrogentherapy before natural menopause causes surgical alternativeestrogentherapy menopause. Induced menopause can also occur if the ovaries are damaged by radiation, chemotherapy, or certain other drugs. The rest degenerate alternativeestrogentherapy over the years. During the reproductive years, a gland in the brain generates hormones that cause a new egg to be released from its follicle each month. As the follicle alternativeestrogentherapy develops, it produces the sex hormones estrogen and alternativeestrogentherapy progesterone, which thicken the lining of the uterus. This enriched lining is prepared to receive and nourish a fertilized egg, which could develop into a baby. If fertilization does not occur, estrogen and progesterone levels drop, the lining of the uterus breaks down, and menstruation occurs. For reasons unknown, your ovaries gradually begin to decline in hormone production during your mid-30s. In your late 40s, the process accelerates and hormones fluctuate more, causing irregular menstrual cycles and unpredictable episodes of bleeding. By your early to mid-50s, periods finally end altogether. However, estrogen production does not completely stop. The ovaries decrease their output significantly, but still alternativeestrogentherapy may produce a small amount. Progesterone, the other female hormone, works during the second half of the menstrual cycle to create a lining in the uterus as a viable home for an egg, and to shed the lining if the egg is not fertilized.
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