Week 5: Introduction and Literature Review

Hello everyone! This is the one and only Joleen, and I am back with another blog post! This week, I focused on emailing and calling my participants to ensure they were on track. I also answered any questions they had and asked them if they felt any changes in their sleep from the Qigong. After, I began to write the introduction and literature review sections of my paper using both the notes I took last week and some new notes. I know that last week I said I would talk about the SPSS program and how I input my data for it to be analyzed, but then I realized that I never discussed menopause in great detail. So today, I will explain more about menopause, its causes, effects, and its relationship to insomnia and Qigong. 

Menopause occurs twelve months after a woman’s period stops. It usually begins around the age of 50 but this varies for everyone. Even though this process happens to all women, its effects may disturb everything from sleep to everyday behavior. A woman knows that she is about to enter menopause when she experiences some of its symptoms, such as irregular periods, hot flashes, chills, night sweats, and mood changes. Irregular periods are the most common symptom and are a positive sign that a woman is in the perimenopausal stage. This is also when the body begins to use energy differently. Hot flashes are sudden feelings of heat in the body and are usually accompanied by becoming flushed red blotches, and heavy sweating. 

There are several causes of menopause. The first is when reproductive hormones naturally begin to decline. In a woman’s late 30s, her ovaries start to produce less estrogen, and fertility declines. In the late 40s, period frequencies start to fluctuate and the period of the period will vary each time a woman is on her cycle. This occurs until the ovaries stop producing eggs and the woman has no more periods. During menopause, doctors often recommend women avoid caffeine, exercise, and maintain a healthy diet by eating more fruits and vegetables. 

Hot flashes are also part of the main reason why many women struggle with having good sleep quality. Some hot flashes are so strong that they can force a woman to wake up. Night sweats keep women up and they often struggle to fall back asleep after waking up. 

The effects of menopause vary for every woman. While most women simply exercise more and stay in cooler environments, some women need treatment for severe symptoms. Treatment comes in many forms, but the most common is hormone therapy, which helps to make up for lost hormones. Estrogen Progesterone Hormone Therapy uses doses of estrogen and progesterone to help decrease the severity of hot flashes and prevent osteoporosis. However, there are some risks associated with hormone therapy, such as blood clots, increased chance of strokes, and even cancer. Thus, hormone therapy should only be used when necessary and under the supervision of a doctor. 

Whew! That was kind of long, wasn’t it? Since exercise has been shown to decrease the severity of such symptoms, I hope that my research on Qigong will help many of my participants. Next week, I promise we will discuss SPSS and how I use it to enter my data. Until next time!

Sources:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/menopause/symptoms-causes/syc-20353397#:~:text=Menopause%20is%20the%20time%20that,51%20in%20the%20United%20States.

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/menopause/what-menopause

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21841-menopause