Depression

Women are more likely to be blue during their menopause and premenopausal years. As hormones drop, estrogen decreases, causing many women to feel bouts of unreasonable sadness and hopelessness. Some women experience sudden mood swings and fears, resulting in depression.

Depression is a disease caused by biological factors. However, menopause can trigger feelings of sadness among 8-percent to 15-percent of premenopausal women. Stressful life events - such as illness or death of elderly parents, job changes, children growing up and leaving home, financial problems or divorce often occur at midlife and cause anxiety.

The common symptoms of depression include constant unhappiness, loss of energy, loss of enjoyment and interest in things that used to bring you pleasure, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, uncontrollable crying, insomnia, fatigue, headache, irritability, change in appetite and sexual problems. Depression should not be dismissed as a usual occurrence in the later lives of women. When left untreated, severe depression can lead to thoughts of suicide and even suicide attempts.

Depression is treatable. There are several things that you can do to help yourself get better, such as:

• Getting support from family and friends.
• Spending time with your loved ones.
• Performing regular exercise.
• Managing stress in a healthy way.
• Getting enough sleep.
• Consuming a healthy diet.
• Making time to do what you enjoy.
• Giving yourself a break.

Along with these self-adjustments, treatments to soothe depression include prescription medication, hormone replacement therapy, herbal remedies and dietary supplements. Estrogen replacement therapy provides relief of minor physical and emotional symptoms, and it also helps to prevent osteoporosis. Herbal remedies are used often to help depression due to the fact that herbs have little or no side effects.

Depression is a common menopausal problem. In a few cases, depression has been associated with increased risk for heart attacks.