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Menopause - Coggle Diagram
Menopause
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Background
- Animals’ fertility and reproductive success slowly decline with increasing age.
- In most species, reproductive capacity diminishes with age but can continue to up until old age and death.
- Humans are “evolutionary oddballs”
- Unlike most mammals, human females can live decades after no longer being able to give birth.
- We go through menopause > a post-reproductive period.
- Share the trait of menopause with a handful of sea creatures.
- Humans, beluga whales, short-finned pilot whales and narwhals go through menopause.
narwhal
- Medium-sized tooth whale living in the Arctic.
- Male possesses a large tusk from a protruding canine tooth. It has millions of sensory nerve endings for the brain to detect things in the seawater.
- Males are thought to communicate with each other about the waters they’ve travelled through, by rubbing their tusks together.
- Tusk > sexual dimorphism.
- Females live longer than males > around 115 years.
short-finned pilot whales
- Tropical and temperate oceans.
- Deep, high-speed sprint dives to chase and capture large squid.
- Extraordinarily social > doing most activities together as a unified pod.
beluga whales
- Easily recognisable because of its echolocation organ shaping its distinctive head.
- Also known as the sea canary due to its high-pitched calls, sounding like whistles, chirps, and clicks.
killer whale
- Live in matriarchal pods.
- Offspring live with their mothers for their entire lives.
- Males mate outside the group.
- Females can reach up to 90 years old > 4 generations can live together in a pod.
Menopausal Symptoms
- usually starts around age 50, but can be much earlier without a clear cause
Skin, mucosal and hair changes
- Reduced skin thickness
- Reduced elasticity, reduced hydration
- Increased wrinkling
- Hair loss
Weight and metabolic changes
- Weight gain
- Increased visceral adiposity
- Increased waist circumference
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Urogenital system
- Vaginal dryness
- Vulvar itching and burning
- Dysuria
- Urinary frequency
- Urgency
- Recurrent lower UTI
Sexual function
- Decreased sexual desire
- Dyspareunia
Central nervous system: may be related to low estradiol
- Vasomotor system > hot flushes, night sweats
- Sleep disruption
- Depression and anxiety > common in early menopausal years > most likely in those just after menopause.
- Cognitive changes > modest decline in memory and concentration
- Migraine
Men
- Don’t experience hormonal changes like women.
- Testosterone levels drop very gradually, about 1-2% each year
- Unlike the relatively rapid drop in estrogen that causes menopause.
- Men can father children well into old age.