Are You Navigating the Symptoms of Perimenopause?

When I was in my mid-forties I started experiencing a number of seemingly unrelated symptoms – weight gain, brain fog, sore joints, and fatigue. I tried all sorts of one-off fixes – diets, exercise programs, and magic pills – without success. It wasn’t until my period started changing and I experienced hot flashes that the penny dropped and I connected everything to perimenopause. Did it happen like that for you too?

I wonder why there isn’t more talk about perimenopause? After all, it happens to all ladies, although it’s true that some have more challenges with it than others.

Perimenopause (and menopause) is the bookend to puberty, the reproductive part of our lives. So it includes a lot of hormone changes as the reproductive hormones – primarily estrogen and progesterone – naturally decline.

But the real challenge comes with how those changes impact our wellbeing. Like mood swings, inability to sleep, extreme fatigue, joint pain, digestive issues, hot flashes, night sweats, low sex drive and weight gain. What’s up with all that? Why can’t we just wind up our periods and call it a day?

There are two paths for getting help with perimenopause. The medical path and the lifestyle path. Unfortunately, many doctors are not well equipped to help. The American Association of Retired Persons reports most medical schools and residency programs don’t teach physicians in training about menopause. To make matters worse, a recent survey found that just 20% of ob-gyn residency programs provide any kind of menopause training.

When asked, 3 out of 4 ladies reported they did not get adequate treatment when they brought perimenopausal and menopausal concerns to their doctors. And 84% of women say their symptoms interfere with their lives and some are even debilitating.

One of the main areas where doctors should be able to help is in prescribing Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Even though treatment has changed dramatically over the past decade, many doctors are unaware. The new body identical treatment is administered in patches or gel and poses none of the earlier health concerns for breast cancer and heart disease. The topical delivery method means that the liver is completely bypassed, and that absorption through the skin dramatically changes the health risks. Dr. Louise Newson, The Menopause Doctor, goes so far as to encourage women to consider taking body identical HRT for the protections it provides against heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

The other path to get help with the symptoms of perimenopause is through lifestyle. There is a lot that lifestyle habits and behaviors can do to demystify the changes. It turns out the healthy practices of diet and exercise that ladies maintained before perimenopause are unlikely to suit them very well once they enter perimenopause. As our nutrition needs change, so does our digestion. We no longer need all the protein we used to eat, and our sensitivity to sugar and processed foods heightens. Bloating, brain fog, joint pain and weight gain result.

And with hormonal changes to our muscles and joints, the type of exercise and movement that is beneficial also changes. Even if you have always been athletically active, the fatigue and joint pain can make ambitious workouts very difficult. In fact, high impact and anaerobic exercise can cause stress to the system and result in the production of cortisol, the stress hormone. The timing and type of movement you choose take on new importance.

Hormonal changes impact sleep, especially when combined with food choices and stress. So figuring out new sleep hygiene habits are vital to being able to restore the body each night with quality sleep. As we sleep, the body is busy removing dead cells burning fat and rebuilding tissue. The brain catalogues the day’s experiences and builds up memories. Without adequate sleep, the body is stressed when it cannot carry out these maintenance functions and produces cortisol in response. That in turn stimulates appetite, which produces more insulin leading to fat production (and stubbornly stored around the middle). So getting enough good sleep is vital to being able to adapt through the changes of perimenopause.

And finally, mindfulness – getting your head in the game is so important. As it happens, the mind can only focus on one thing at a time. So if you control some of the things you tell yourself and make them positive things, you will benefit from that. Rather than tell yourself that you’re a lazy slob or beat yourself up because you don’t have enough willpower, you tell yourself that you’re an intelligent woman and the goal is achievable. Meditation is a great way to calm the mind, focus on positive things and create endorphins. This can really help to create positivity, reduce cortisol levels and help with sleep.

Are you satisfied with the support your doctor has been giving you for the symptoms of perimenopause? Some symptoms are best resolved using HRT. But many more can be resolved by taking a lifestyle approach.

The beginning of my perimenopausal journey didn’t go well, and I’m determined to help ladies navigate this chapter of their lives so they can take control of the next decades and live their best lives.

To find out how you can navigate the symptoms of perimenopause, click the button to book your free call with Dyna Vink, Health and Nutritional Coach.

WHAT'S GOING ON WITH MY HORMONES?

We’ve all heard the phrase “Oh, it’s just my hormones acting up”. But what does that really mean? From the time of puberty, women produce reproductive hormones estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. These hormones fluctuate during the monthly cycle. Some women feel these fluctuations more acutely with PMS. But this fluctuation changes as women reach mid-life.

Once women reach their 40s, these hormone levels start to drop, and that causes a decline in fertility. This change in hormones is more noticeable to some women than others. But all women notice a change in their periods as they become longer/shorter or lighter/heavier.

The real challenge with hormone decline is when they become imbalanced compared with each other. So what are the common symptoms of hormonal imbalance?

Weight gain
Tender breasts
Fatigue
Hot flashes and night sweats
Muscle weakness, aches, tenderness, and stiffness
Joint pain
Change in heart rate
Sleep disruption
Anxiety and mood swings
Brain fog
Low libido and vaginal dryness

Some women move through the hormone changes of perimenopause and menopause without much problem. But most women find that symptoms interfere with their quality of life. So what can be done? Although this change in hormone production is a normal process, there are some foods than can increase the levels of imbalance. They include:

Red meat, especially grain fed
Sugar (all 60+ varieties)
Dairy products
Caffeine
Processed foods

These foods interfere with hormone receptors, cause inflammation (in the body and brain) and affect the metabolism. So by removing them from your diet, many of the symptoms can be reduced or eliminated.

Lifestyle Approach

Making different food choices, combined with other lifestyle choices can make a significant difference in a woman’s quality of life. Other lifestyle approaches include making it a priority to get restorative sleep. Building hormone appropriate movement into the day is another lifestyle approach. Mindful meditation and other mindset techniques are very helpful to reduce stress and promote quality sleep. Taking a holistic approach to health and wellness is key to providing natural support for changing hormones.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

The medical approach of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) has come a long way in the past 20 years. Synthetic hormones delivered orally came with some unsettling health concerns attached to them. They elevated risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular illness, so prescription times were limited to only a couple of years.

But body identical HRT has changed all that. The delivery method is via patch or gel and this means the hormones are absorbed through the skin and into the blood system. Drawing on this different form of metabolization makes a big difference to the health risks. In fact, body identical HRT is now recommended as long-term protection against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Body identical treatment is also highly customizable to deliver the right levels and combination of estrogen and progesterone. This makes them much more adaptable to individual symptoms, reactions and tolerances.

While many women embrace the lifestyle approach to hormone balancing, perimenopause and menopause, there is no reason not to combine it with the medical approach of HRT. Whatever the choice, it’s great to contribute to much-needed conversation about hormones, perimenopause and menopause and the options that exist to navigate the symptoms, restore vitality and achieve a brilliant quality of life.