My mom is finishing up her menopause right now, so most of what I know is from reading her menopamplets and watching her freak out. Menopause, a more STDesque name for it is climacteric, is when a woman's ovaries slow down their estrogen and progesterone production. A woman's ovaries stop producing eggs and the woman stops getting her period (This part my mom seems to like). Before you get full blown menopause you go through perimenopause, which lasts 5-10 years. With peri you miss a period here and there, get the night sweats and hot flashes of menopause, but it's not as severe. When my mom was just beginning peri she wasn't sure if she was just crazy or really was starting "the change" so I used to secretly turn on the bum heater in the car and then watch as she tried to calm herself down and not get upset about the hot flashes. It was so funny, even she thought it was funny. The part she didn't find funny was when menopause really kicked in. You know it's menopause when you have not had a period for 12 months. The mood changes were drastic and really upsetting for her and since her menopause was pretty rough she had to have her ovaries removed. Without the estrogen your skin loses elasticity and starts to wrinkle and sag. Your bones get brittle and osteoporosis becomes an issue. Different women suffer in different ways, regardless, it's definetly a tough time. A time to put up with mom's/wife's hormonal insanity.
since i was talking about my mom I didn't mention any of the vaginal dryness kinda stuff, but ya, it seems that happens also.