The Menopause—An Introduction

It is suggested that the menopause is an integral part of the process of aging in women, but has perhaps been more widely publicized and discussed in the last decade because of means for endocrine therapy.

Abstract

THE MENOPAUSE is an integral part of the process of aging in women. It is not a new experience in the life of women, but has perhaps been more widely publicized and discussed in the last decade because of means for endocrine therapy. Historically, the use of the word menopause appears to be of relatively recent origin. The Oxford English Dictionary quotes J. M. Good who stated in 1834 that “when menstruation is about to cease, the period is called the ‘change of turn of life,’” and cites Peaslee who in 1872 referred to “the 30 or 35 years of menstrual life, i.e. from puberty to the menopause.” An instructive treatise, “The Change of Life,” by Edward John Tilt (1) has a well-informed chapter on the physiology of the “change of life,” with statistical data which are useful today. This work was written before the clinical use of hormones and the author ascribes the multiform disturbances of the menopause to disease of the “ganglionic nervous system.”