Menopause and perimenopause

Menopause and perimenopause.

Unfortunately these two words are dreaded in western society and have bad connotations, yet for some women, they never seem to think about these words and graciously flow through those years. Adopting and accepting each new stage of our life and looking at it from a point of new possibilities rather than a dreaded sign of aging. We may be able to reduce the speed of aging but we cannot, stop the natural transition of our social position within society, in this regards it works the same for males. Mentally fighting against this creates more problems than it solves, especially when you are one of those women who seem to have pulled the short straw in terms of (peri)menopausal symptoms. There is good news and bad news, the good news is that with the correct lifestyle changes this can be a thing of the past, the bad news is that it take a certain amount of commitment, certain supplement alleviate, speed up the reduction of these symptoms and in some cases are a plain necessity.

Menopause and perimenopausal symptoms are to some degree expected within the western world but not this has much more to do with our lifestyle not being conducive to graceful aging (male and female) rather than just a part of being an aging women.

Oestrogen reduction is often blamed, certainly this hormone is one of the biggest changing factors as the ovaries slowly start to produce less hormones but there are more hormones with greater or equal importance.

The problem with oestrogen is that we only need a tiny amount at any time in our body, it needs effective removal by the liver, if for whatever reason this removal is impeded, problems occur. Middle weight gain, increased risk of oestrogen dependent cancers, reduced thyroid function, oedema, tiredness, foggy brain, insulin problem by the fact that is it opposes progesterone, which is the hormone we want and has great positive and anti aging and anti depressant effect (retaining bone density better than oestrogen) when there is a correct oestrogen/progesterone balance.

Two organs that work in harmony with the ovaries through a women’s life are the adrenal (stress gland) and the thyroid (metabolism gland) when either of these is compromised in function it almost expected there can be major or minor menstrual or menopausal symptoms. This is not just but the lack of correct functioning but more the common reason of why we have problems with these glands that creates the issues. Supporting these 2 will invariably reduce menopausal symptoms, when applied correctly. This is not a one case fits all this needs to be decided on individual based of presenting symptoms and/or on diagnostic results.

A low thyroid function (hypothyroidism) has many of the same symptoms as perimenopause, together they can magnify the transition in a unwanted way. The adrenal slowly begin to take over from the ovaries to maintain the desirable hormones in from perimenopause to menopause. A lifelong of excess stress can reduce to capacity of the adrenals to function optimally and therefore reduce its capacity to fully serve its function it is meant to perform going into (peri)menopause. A stress is anything that forces our body to work to maintain balance, a bad diet is an equal bad stress as a mental stress.

Xenoestrogens and endocrine disruptors are chemical substances, plastics found in most drink bottle, tin can lining, certain pesticides, even found is some receipt paper. These have the ability to, as the name suggest, disrupt endocrine function, and increase the bad type of oestrogen, further disruption the delicate hormonal balance, further increasing the risk of a unpleasing menopausal transition.

Solutions:

Adopt a diet

-Aim for 10 fruit and veg daily

-Quality protein

-NO sugar soda drinks NOT ONE, cheating is a word this means doing something that you are not meant to do to give you a benefit. These drink do nothing more good than tickle the tongue and destroyed to body invariably.

-have a breakfast with quality protein, protein shake, eggs, good handful of nuts in porridge.

-reduced alcohol to only social situations.

-no more than one coffee daily (ideally non)

-Eat good fats (good fat do not make you fat)

-stress management

-liver support

-check thyroid function (doctors often don’t test for the right hormones)

-check for adrenal fatigue.

Supplements:

Vitamin D, B6, Zinc

Progesterone cream

Herbs:

Vitex Agnus castus

Asparagus racemosa (black cohosh)

Withania somnifera

Seek professional advice before buying (mostly because if you don’t you are likely to buy something you don’t need, it will not work and you will waste money)

Other helpfull therapies:

Accupuncture

Metabolic typing

Herbal medicine

Nutrition

For menopause with a strong stress element the below therapies can be extremely effective

Mind- body  therapies

Psychotherapy

Hypnotherapy

If you feel inspired and want to make a change but do not know where to start, make an appointment with a therapist, the therapy room has a free service which can help you decide what therapy is best for you. Call or email us.

The Therapy room Team,

Autor: Robert Tempelaar