Menopause in the United States is very different from menopause in other countries. How is it that a biological change can vary so much around the world? Different cultures describe menopause in different medical, social and spiritual terms, and the physical outcomes of menopausal women vary immensely from culture to culture.

Among other factors, nutrition heavily affects physical health in general and menopause in specific. The standard American diet, and its influence on hormones, may turn out to be a large risk factor in several kinds of cancer, especially cancers that strike the aging population.

Please watch the following video clip and answer the corresponding Follow-up questions.

Menopause

1			How do hormonal changes affect both men and women as they age? How do these hormonal changes relate to the incidence of various cancers?
2			What assumptions underlie the traditional Chinese diagnosis of a "blood deficiency"? How do these assumptions differ from the American understanding of menopause?