Contributed by Cindi Pearce, Catalogs.com Info Guru

Estrogen is the main hormone in women, responsible for the menstrual cycle and all of the physical and emotional components of being female.

Estrogen defines the characteristics that differentiate women from men: facial hair, storage of body fat, development of breasts and bone density.

Estrogen levels often go crazy during the period right before, and then during menopause. Here are the top ten symptons of crazy estrogen levels … a sure sign that life is changing.

10. The grand finale

The first sign that you may have that your estrogen levels are about to plummet and all but disappear from your life for ever more (AKA menopause) is that you have too much of it. Before it takes a powder, estrogen engages in a big, fat grand finale, and you are surged with it, which causes those damned hot flashes and night sweats, and wild mood swings, the crying jags and rampant PMS symptoms. This is called estrogen dominance and occurs when a woman’s hormones are fluctuating like the stock market. If a woman is not producing enough progesterone, which is the other female hormone that rules our life, estrogen is not kept in check and runs amuck. Even young women can experience this, particularly right before their menstrual period, and this is what makes them crazy. Estrogen is good but too much or not enough estrogen is just plain evil and debilitating.

9. Chin hair

Are you noticing less hair on the head and more on your chinny chin chin? That’s because your estrogen is dwindling while your testosterone level is simultaneously gearing up. Women have testosterone, too. Testosterone is the male sex hormone that makes men, well, men. It makes them aggressive and hairy. Testosterone puts hair on your face and your chest and in places that most women would prefer that it not be, and it deprives men and women of the hair on their head. It is the rare 75-year-old man or woman, although they certainly do exist and are the fortunate ones, who have a bountiful head of thick, luxurious hair. Testosterone has a way of making that virtually impossible for the majority of us. However, testosterone is not all bad. More on that later.

8. The chub affect

The body changes in ways that we wish it would not. Most menopausal women gain weight because their metabolism slows, and they get lazy and are not exercising enough. However, the loss of estrogen is itself one of the reasons for weight gain. The body needs estrogen and when it is no longer being provided by the ovaries, which have died and gone to heaven, it will find it elsewhere. Fat is a source of estrogen. The fat particularly likes to glum onto your mid-section. Are you looking like an inner-tube suddenly? Even if you do not gain weight, you may notice that your body has reconfigured itself. Your arms and butt are smaller but your belly is bigger. Women start to gain weight in their midsection when estrogen disappears, just as men naturally tend to do.

7. Jiggly bits

Your skin …. What is that ugly crap hanging underneath your arms and what in the world is going on with that jiggly, crepey goop on your thighs? Argh! Estrogen helps keep your skin and hair youthful. When it is gone … well, the rest is history. Skin loses its elasticity and its ability to bounce back after being stretched, by weight loss or a pregnancy. Older skin is thin skin. It does not heal as quickly as it once did, and you may find that you are bruising easier because of the fragility of your aging skin.

6. Sex -less -ness

Sex. What’s that? Who cares? The kids are gone, you and your partner have the place to yourself, but the thought of engaging in ardent Tantric or any kind of sex makes you yawn. The male is equally as uninterested because he is probably going through his own version of menopause or man-o-pause (technically called andropause) and his testosterone levels have dipped to near obsolescence. And then when you actually summon the energy to engage in sex, it hurts, because your insides are drier than the Sahara desert, and your legs will not bend like they used to because your joints are no longer lubricated and limber. Read a book instead.

5. Testosterone

Testosterone … you have it now, whereas you didn’t have much when you are younger. Use it. Initiate boundaries, say no, say you do not give a damn, and it is not up to you to save the world (or even your adult children who have been sucking you dry for years.) Become that tough broad that you always admired and wanted to be.

4. Move over madonna

There is something about becoming less of the Madonna and more of the Matriarch, that infuses you with strength, determination and a tremendously wicked sense of humor. You are older. You are wiser. It is not as though you are quaking in your boots over what your neighbors think about you or even your co-workers or boss. You know the score and sometimes you simply do not give a damn. You pick your battles carefully. Leave the virulent stand-offs to the younger generation.

3. No more Walgreens runs

Throw away your tampons and pads. You may want to have an official burial.

2. No ore babies

Throw away your birth control, although you do not want to do this until you have gone 365 days, or a full year, without a menstrual period. Do not get caught up in the vagaries of “the chance of life” and end up being a 50-year-old mother of an infant. Ironically, a woman is considered both menopausal AND post menopausal on the same day: One year after her last menstrual period.

1. Feeling the need to … CELEBRATE!

Celebrate. You have survived years of pregnancy scares, menstrual periods that threatened to bleed you dry and stain every article of clothing that you own. You have endured morning sickness, hemorrhoids, big bellies, labor, breastfeeding, diaper changing, the baby blues, a body that is post-pregnancy mush and years of child-rearing. It’s all behind you now.

Let’s toast!