Few things remind a woman of her advancing age more vividly than the approach of menopause. Some women dread the impending cessation of the monthly periods and look upon it as the end of femininity and sexuality. Others welcome the end of the monthly nuisance and the freedom from the worry of unwanted pregnancies.

Far from something to be feared, menopause is the last stage of a gradual natural process which leads to menstruation stopping permanently.

Many women continue to live active and interesting lives as they had before menopause. Others have discovered new challenges at a time when their "change of life" coincides with their retirement from full-time work or the end of child-raising responsibilities as adult children become independent.

The average life expectancy of a Singaporean woman is about 78 years. Hence, you have a whole third of your life ahead of you on reaching menopause. You will cope better with menopause if you know and understand the changes in your body and are prepared for them.

The following information is aimed at helping you cope with the physical and emotional changes before and during menopause, so that you can be healthy both physically and emotionally, to live the fullest possible life in the decades ahead.

Starting from puberty, a woman's body undergoes a gradual biological process which leads eventually to the end of her menstruation. When a woman has not menstruated for a year, her menopause is considered to have completed, and she is said to have gone through a "change of life". This usually happens around the age 50. However, just as puberty starts at different ages for different people, so too the start of menopause. Smokers, though, tend to reach menopause earlier than non-smokers.

Your ovaries have many follicles which are like tiny pouches, each containing an egg. You are born with about a million eggs but by puberty, you would just have 400,000. Of these, only about 400 to 500 mature fully to be released during the menstrual cycle. The rest degenerate over the years.

During your fertile years, a gland in the brain produces hormones which cause a new egg to be released from its follicle once a month. The follicle then produces two sex hormones called oestrogen and progesterone. These cause the inner lining of the womb to thicken.

If the egg is fertilised and you become pregnant, this thickened lining would receive and nourish the fertilised egg, which would in turn develop into a baby. If the egg is not fertilised, the level of the hormones falls and the lining of the womb would break down, causing you to menstruate.

As you approach the age of about 40, your body produces less of these hormones. This period is the transitional phase called climacteric, or perimenopause. The amount of hormones produced at this time may be uneven. When that happens, your periods may become irregular and the bleeding may be unexpectedly heavy in some months. Eventually, the bleeding stops.

After menopause, your ovaries continue to produce oestrogen but in smaller quantities. Oestrogen is also produced by fat cells with help from a gland near the kidney called the adrenal. In fact, women who are overweight sometimes do not experience symptoms of menopause because of the oestrogen produced by their fat cells.

Apart from the biological changes, the menopausal years can affect you physically and emotionally, depending on how quickly the production of oestrogen in your body is reduced, your lifestyle and whether you are under stress, your relationship with your partner and the support from your doctor.

It is important that you recognise the changes as they happen and whether they are caused by hormonal changes or circumstances around you. Whatever the cause, you can learn to deal with it.

Each woman experiences menopause in her own special way. That is because although oestrogen and progesterone affect almost all tissues, everyone is influenced by them differently. Some women hardly notice any difference in their bodies or moods, while others find the change extremely uncomfortable and disruptive.