Menopause

Menopause is the stage in the female life cycle during which menstrual cycles stop. On average, menopause occurs at age 51, and generally takes from five to seven years from start to finish. For years, the menopausal stage was rarely talked about in public. Beginning in the 1960s, physicians began treating menopause aggressively as a medical problem, using estrogen hormones. Contemporary debate focuses on the wisdom of long-term estrogen use and the search for the best way to address problems linked to menopause.