Abstract

The climacteric covers the gradual ending of the reproductive period and results from failing ovarian production of oestrogen. Symptoms associated with it may precede or follow the menopause, which is a single event during the climacteric, and they are therefore better called climacteric rather than menopausal symptoms. They include hot flushes; depression or emotional instability, sometimes with insomnia as the most prominent feature; and dyspareunia. Changes in libido apart from dyspareunia are often of psychological origin and are probably caused as much by ageing as by a fall in oestrogen production. Though obesity often develops at the time of the climacteric it seems not to be specifically related to it.