http://www.care2.com/greenliving/menopause-prepare-treat-and-embrace.html
Menopause: Prepare, Treat, and Embrace
By Julie Tilsner, Natural Solutions
I was having a typical conversation with my friend Debbie that led to a shocking revelation. We were laughing and complaining about getting older–our more frequent mood swings, the changes in our hair texture–when suddenly Debbie whispered, “It’s because we’re in perimenopause.”
“Perimenopause?” I hissed. “We’re too young!” Nope, Debbie said. Mid-40s. Wait, I’m just getting used to being in my 40s, a mom of two, a real grown-up. How could menopause be just around the corner? And why am I so horrified by the mere mention of it?
While in theory I want to embrace these wise woman years when they come, in reality menopause (in our culture at least) suggests not-so-graceful aging, accompanied by withering and a loss of femininity and purpose. Is that what my friends and I have to look forward to? Surely there are other ways to approach this transition, I thought. I don’t want to have my mother’s painful menopause. As it turns out, I don’t have to.
The perils of perimenopause
For my mother the onset of menopause was pretty typical: Her first period at 13, menopause complete by age 52. Shortly after she turned 47, her periods–always 28 days apart–became erratic. Within the year she was walloped with hot flashes, insomnia, weight gain, and virulent mood swings. “I didn’t even recognize myself,” she told me. She figured she was entering menopause because all of her friends were experiencing similar symptoms, but she was unprepared for the havoc these gnarly side effects were wreaking on her life. “I honestly thought I was going out of my mind,” she said.
Miserable, my mom turned to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to ease her symptoms–and it worked for her. But because the 2001 Women’s Health Initiative study showed that continued use of HRT increases risk of breast cancer, strokes, and heart disease, I don’t see it as an option for me. Frankly, it scares me, and as someone who gave birth to both my kids naturally, I prefer taking a more natural route.
While experts agree that women generally mirror their mother’s experience in menopause, they also say that lifestyle choices, health, and attitude can trump genetics. After talking to dozens of leading integrative doctors and other women who’ve been through it, I now know that there’s another conversation I should be having with my mom and my friends–and it’s not the one about how much menopause is going to suck.
Our bodies, ourselves
Medically speaking, menopause occurs one year after a woman’s last period and marks the end of her fertility. Perimenopause–the four to seven years leading up to menopause–is a time of wildly fluctuating hormone levels, which can spark a variety of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms.
“Think of [perimenopausal] estrogen levels as the Dow Jones industrial average,” says Mary Jane Minkin, MD, a professor of ob-gyn at Yale University. “Estrogen goes way up, then it comes crashing down.” Levels stabilize after menopause, and most of the uncomfortable symptoms go away, she says.
Many of us have come to dread the inevitable march toward menopause, equating it with crazy-producing symptoms we read about or watch our own mothers go through. The move from our fertile years into “withered old age” strikes fear in those of us who were raised to equate female worth with youth and attractiveness. From a holistic standpoint, however, the transition into menopause is a powerful opportunity for self-discovery and renewal. It’s a natural process of a woman’s reproductive cycle, a transition from the childbearing years–not a condition to be “cured,” as Western medicine would have us believe.
Nevertheless, some women experience one or many of the following symptoms, sometimes relentlessly:
Hot flashes and night sweats. Both are a form of vasomotor (the constricting and dilating of blood vessels) instability. Hot flashes can come on at any time, day or night, and may or may not involve sweating. Night sweats, as the name suggests, involve excessive sweating in the evening, usually while you sleep. Experts surmise these temperature spikes are a response to the body’s search for estrogen.
Insomnia. When estrogen levels drop, the adrenal glands, which are designed to balance estrogen and many other hormones, go on high alert and pump out cortisol, a stress hormone that triggers a fight-or-flight response. Their heightened state upsets our circadian rhythm and disrupts our otherwise normal sleep patterns.
Weight gain. Fat cells carry estrogen, so our bodies produce more of them to replace the lost hormones, says Holly Lucille, ND, RN, a naturopath based in Los Angeles and author of Creating and Maintaining Balance: A Woman’s Guide to Safe, Natural, Hormone Health (Impakt Health, 2004). This causes sudden weight gain for many women regardless of how little they eat or how much they exercise.
Irritability. During perimenopause, estrogen spikes and progesterone drops, creating intense anxiousness and irritability. Overtaxed adrenals also play a role in extreme mood swings.
Brain fog. Profound shifts in hormone levels, much like the ones we experienced during puberty and pregnancy, can make organizing thoughts and finishing sentences challenging.
Loss of libido. Lower estrogen and testosterone levels conspire to flatten our desire–at least temporarily. Some women experience vaginal dryness, which can make intercourse painful. Others have problems with body image, which prevents them from feeling desirable.
Depression. Fluctuating hormones, including a drop in mood-enhancing progesterone levels, can bring you down. Add a foggy head and sleepless nights to the equation, and this low feeling can turn into a bad case of the blues.
Doctors say these symptoms appear to be hammering women harder nowadays because of our lifestyle choices. “There are very few women who breeze through menopause without any symptoms,” says Tracy Gaudet, MD, director of the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine and the author of several books, including Consciously Female (Bantam Books, 2004). “Just about every woman will experience some symptoms. And while you can’t control those symptoms, you can influence them.”
How? By being in good physical and mental health before the transition begins. In other words, if you have a high-stress job, only exercise sporadically, forget to eat or scarf down junk food on the go, and have no down time at all, you’re moving into menopause already depleted–and things will only get worse. “You’re doing yourself a big favor if you’re healthy going into menopause,” says Minkin. “That isn’t to say you’re not going to have challenges. But I tell my patients it’s best to hit the ground running.”
Next: Prepping for perimenopause
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21 comments
add your comment »I'm 54 and have had minor menopausal symptoms. I do get hot flashes on occasion and have some trouble sleeping, not to mention vaginal dryness (any natural tips are welcome as I don't like commercial lubricants). I gained about 15 # during the initial phase of menopause and was getting real thick in the middle. I started walking (fast) 4-5 days a week averaging 3 miles per walk. A year ago I gave up gluten products (wheat, rye, barley, spelt), dairy (except butter), refined sugar (no asparatame for me), chocolate, and coffee. Have lost 30# and went from a tight 10 to a size 4. I feel great, have lots of energy, and my waist is small once again. All of my clothes are loose and even my feet have gotten smaller. You don't need a fancy diet or pills to lose weight. Just exercise using weights, yoga, walking, etc. and give up the above foods. I've always eaten organically, drank lots of water, regular sunshine for my vit D (sunbeds in the winter), and sleep. Regular vitamin D through the sun has also helped me let go of the weight.
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I read Susun Weed's Herbs for the Childbearing Year when I was pregnant and it just seems so fitting to me that I will bookend my moon cycles with her book on menopause -- thanks for the rec!!!! She had actually fallen off my radar screen for the past few years. I actually pulled out my HFTCY to go over again all the tips I found so helpful. Actually, some of the info in that book is also relevant now. I'll pass along the Women to Women Clinic's web site as having a very nice set of articles on menopause, perimenopause, and holistic health -- the clinic was cofounded by Dr. Northup, though she no longer practices there. Worth a read (along with Dr. N's Wisdom of Menopause): Perimenopause — the beginning of hormonal change
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Can someone tell me what Coffea is? And how I can obtain it? I have terrible insomnia and it's the only bad peri/menopausal symptom that I can't handle. I stay awake even with sleeping pills (yuck!) and melatonine. I need my sleep especially since I also have fibromyalgia ;-(
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About 10 years ago I became vegetarian, then 6 years ago vegan. My mother had horrible flashes, sweats, etc. and I have none of that. Right now the only thing that is wreaking havoc on my life is my stress/irritability. I'm looking for a better gyn but it's difficult in my area to find one who will prescribe bioidenticals - still searching. In the meantime, I've refused the synthetic Big Pharma junk pushed by my current gyn in favor of a plant-based OTC progesterone(since that seems to be the reason for my symptons - not everyone's). I was overweight before going into this and it's getting a bit worse but that's my fault- I have to tweak my vegan diet to exclude processed foods and include probalby 80% raw and I'll be fine. I look forward to menopause!!!
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Never take one-size-fits-all prescription HRT because one size does not fit all. I go to a holistic health care professional who takes regular blood tests to see exactly which hormones are low and which ones are ok, then she writes out a personalised prescription which is made up by a compounding chemist, to suit my own individual system. These are called bio-identical hormones and they do not contain mares urine as many commercial ones do, because these are plant based and have the identical hormones that our bodies produced pre menopause. I have no side effects and have never looked back. I swear by them.
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Thank you, Debrah R. for your suggestions. I will definitely check out the Susan Weeds book, yoga, Qigong, red clover and nettles. It seems everyone is unique and what works for one, doesn't for the other, but it's worth trying until you find the combination that works for you. Right now I'm taking Sam-e and a Black Cohosh supplement which has only given slight improvements. Many of the health food store supplements are so expensive. I try them for 2 or 3 months and if there's no improvement, I try something else. Maybe that's not long enough...? I can tolerate the hot flashes, it's the fatigue, irritability, and brain fog that's getting to me. I'm increasing the amount of exercise and cardio to help get rid that stubborn waistline fat. Anyway, thanks again for the tips.
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Well, you guys who breezed through it were very lucky indeed. I'm glad it's over. And the dreadful monthly visitor most of all, as you call it. Good riddance to bad rubbish! If there is one thing in Nature that is not perfect, this was it!
I really don't know if it is genetics, because my mom breezed through it, but certainly not me, even though I had always had a healthy nutritious life style, so I blame it on all the stress I was going through before and during that time.
Anyway, there was Promensil, that helped me quite a bit.
And here is a great website called womentowomen.com. It's a shame I did not know it at the time I was going through all that hardship.
Anyway, thanks for this article, not for me since I don't need it anymore (although I still have some hot flashes from time to time) but for all the younger ladies out there who need support and good advice.
PS. I stayed clear of hormone replacement. This sounds really bad and dangerous.
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I was one of the rare ones who breezed right through menopause with absolutely no "symptoms." It was right around the time that my Mom, a victim of severe dementia, came to live with us that I realized I had not bought any sanitary pads for a long time. I remember thinking that I was glad that was over because it was one thing less that needed attention.
That was 14 years ago when I was 50 and I still have never had one hot flash, one mood swing, no thinning hair (my dear Mom passed away at age 91 with the most beautiful, thick hair) no night sweats, nothing. I still feel wonderful -- and very lucky.
Genes may have something to do with the ease of menopause. Neither my Mom nor my sister had any "issues" with it either. I like this time of life. Of course, I have liked all life stages, everything in it's season, so this is no different. I hope younger women don't fear menopause or feel that it is an inevitable shopping bag of horrors, that's definitely not always the case.
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I am vary glad that I read you wrote Helen. I am 52 yrs old and I also " breezing through menopause". I am eating many fruits and vegetables but I can not loose many on my weight. Now I am going to see the site you mentioned and try your dietary lifestyle.Thank you.Edith
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Night sweats and hot flashes have been the worst for me. After much research, I've found a few things that help. For my helpful hints to combat night sweats go to Help For Night Sweats. The tips have been a real lifesaver for many of my clients.
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