New researches has been done on menopause and led to the conclusion that menopause starts in the brain.

The North American Menopausal Society consider a woman menopausal when she didn't had her period for 12 consecutive months. The most frequent menopause symptoms are hot flashes, depression, anxiety, fatigue, mood swings,insomnia, joint pain, loss of sex drive, all caused by hormonal fluctuations.

Menopause caught the attention of doctors, scientists and researchers, because of the multitude of real biochemical changes that take place in a woman's body when she stops menstruating. Beginning to understand how these changes happen is a big step in trying to find more effective treatment solutions.

Some of the most unpleasant symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes and night sweats, have long been believed to originate in the ovaries. But new research challenges that assumption, and instead suggests that menopausal symptoms, at least in part, may begin in the brain.

That's because the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland stop reacting normally to estrogen in some women.

The pituitary gland releases hormones that control many of the endocrine system's functions, while the hypothalamus controls the pituitary gland to release the hormones. The hypothalami-pituitary function is a critical part in the development and regulation of the body's reproductive and immune systems. Fluctuations in the hormones produced by each gland have various effects on the body. Estrogen and progesterone fluctuations produce menopausal symptoms. Researches discovered that in some women, pituitary responded good to lower levels of estrogen, while hypothalamus didn't respond properly.

These findings may lead the way to further research that will ultimately help doctors predict the type of menopausal transition a woman might have, and help to design non-estrogen medications that could help reduce symptoms that women experience as they enter this phase of life.

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