Menopause: Be Proactive
While most women don't give a lot of thought to menopause until their life is disrupted by uncomfortable symptoms, many are proactive and want to educate themselves as to how best to prepare for this next stage of life, what to expect, and how to support themselves going forward. There are many benefits to doing this, not the least of which is diminishing or eliminating menopausal symptoms altogether.
These women may have positive menopause models in their lives, or may have seen their mothers go through hell and are determined that it will not be the same for them. Or, they may just be women who pay attention to lifestyle and stress and do their best to support themselves at all times.
Given that most women feel that menopause is something that happens 'to' them, and something they have very little control over, it is not widely known that stress is generally what precipitates many menopausal symptoms or makes them worse. The body will always prioritize survival over reproduction, and since being under stress is a matter of 'survival' for the body on a hormonal level, this diminishes the amount of sex hormones we have available. The lack of, or imbalance of, our sex hormones is what leads to the symptoms of menopause.
Many symptoms that are natural to experience in the menopausal years - hot flashes, heart palpitations, sleeplessness, thinning hair, painful sex, depression, aching joints - would be considered signs of illness at any other time of life, and many women truly do fear that they have become ill and are in danger of dying. Or they see it as the 'new normal' and fall into despair.
As humans, our bodies are made to adapt and as women, we can always seem to add 'one more thing' to our list if necessary, so we often do not even know the level of our own stress. More times than I can count, a woman coming to my office will write on her intake form that her stress is minimal, but when we go into the details of her life, she is overworked, sleep deprived and running on caffeine. Like the old adage of the frog and the pot of water, if you were to drop the frog into a pot of boiling water, it would jump out, but if put into warm water and slowly heated up, it would adapt and die.
The simple process of understanding what is happening in your body and taking control of stress, prioritizing sleep, good food and gentle exercise, as well as creating rhythms for yourself, goes a long way toward preparing your body to move into menopause without falling into the downward spiral of stress, lack of hormones and disruptive symptoms. Supplementation with a little natural progesterone when levels fall, also creates a buffer zone for the body and makes the transition to menopause an easier one.
The benefits of being proactive are evident. You will see the path ahead, understand what is happening and know the simple actions you can take to lessen symptoms. It will put you back in the driver's seat.
