IngentaConnect Menopause, a global perspective

Authors: Giuseppe Benagiano¹; Francesco M. Primiero¹

Source: Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Volume 2, Number 3, May 2001 , pp. 204-211(8)

Publisher: Reproductive Healthcare Ltd

Abstract:

This paper attempts to provide a global perspective of the menopause as a period in a woman's life. It is growing in length, year after year and there is a need to place these years in the overall context of ageing. There are many fallacies about ageing. The most serious is the view describing old people exclusively as a burden for society, when in fact they can and should be considered as a resource. Women live longer almost everywhere in the world. Growing evidence indicates that the process of ageing differs in a considerable way in the two sexes. This difference may, at least in part, be due to sex-related differences in the regulation of stress response mediators. In addition, variability in the mitochondrial genome also displays a sex-specific impact on longevity. Restricting the discussion to longevity in the female, a paramount role must be given to sex hormones in improving a woman's ageing. Indeed, it is the fall in oestradiol production that qualitatively changes the ageing perspective in the human female, since oestrogen secretion plays a major role in guaranteeing a woman's psycho-physical equilibrium during the fertile period. These considerations represent the philosophical basis for post-menopausal hormone replacement therapy.

Keywords: AGEING; HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY; LONGEVITY; OESTROGEN SECRETION; POST-MENOPAUSAL; SEX HORMONES

Document Type: Review article

Affiliations: 1: Istituto Superiore di Sanità and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University "la Sapienza", Rome

The full text electronic article is available for purchase. You will be able to download the full text electronic article after payment.

$38.34 plus tax