menopause

   The several years, in the late forties or early fifties, when the great birth reservoir of potential ovarian follicles has been reduced to only a few, many with innately poor hormone-sensitivities (which is perhaps why they are still remaining...they never heard the clarion call of FSH). As fewer follicles are capable of fully-programmed function, corpus luteal fragilities start to show as diminished progesterone levels...later, even the pre-ovulatory estrogens start to diminish. The pituitary, sensing first the progesterone wobbles, then, maybe a year later, the erratic estrogens, tries to jump start the ovaries, sending increasing levels of Luteinizing Hormone (LH)...with diminishing results. Since the brain (hypothalamus) is actually controlling things, it is sending out higher levels of pituitary stimulating hormones, which the pituitary matches with its blood-carried trophic or gonadotropic hormones...in this case, LH. What the pituitary hears from the hypothalamus is TYPE of brain chemical, MAGNITUDE of chemical, and, as much of this is being pulsed, FREQUENCY of the chemical. At a certain point, the gonadotropic-releasing-hormone sent out by the hypothalamus is so loud and frequent that the pituitary starts sending out things like TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) and somatotropins (growth hormone) as well as LH...hot flashes, changes in food cravings, sleep cycles, skin texture...whatever. Like old partners in an ancient dance whose music is ending, the hormonal imbalances are the reverse of those experienced by the woman years ago in menarche. As above, so below. When the dust settles, the metabolic hormones have found a new interaction, anabolic functions have been transferred from the ovaries to the adrenal cortex, and that reservoir of stored estradiol still present in the "Womanly Flesh" of the breasts, thighs, hips and buttocks, started many years ago, maintains a low blood level, diminishing over the following years, easing some of the estrogen-binding tissue into the change.