How To Find Your Flow In Perimenopause
Well the perimenopause has crept up on me sooner than I thought it would. This has led me scrabbling down a path of digging deep and learning. In the last few years, I had noticed some changes which I knew were stress and hormone related. I felt like these changes were not just happening to my body but to my mind too and I wanted to learn more and I wanted to make sure I got the support I needed.
I started to see changes in my periods which had always been heavy but they got heavier and there were times when there was flooding too, which was embarrassing and unmanageable. There has been a number of times I have had to change my clothes despite a moon cup and period pants, including a time in the carpark of the motorway services after bleeding through my menstrual moon cup, my period pants, my jeans and all over my car seat while driving back home on the M4. My cycle was no longer regular and would be in length anywhere between 21 days or 31 days so really hard to plan and predict and my bleed would sometimes last more than 7 days.
Because they were heavy I felt weak and drained after my bleed and then spent the next two weeks building and nourishing, only to have the same thing happen the next month, so I never felt like I was totally able to replenish myself as the cycle would just come round again and again. My GP offered to do an ablation which for me personally wasn’t something I wanted to go through. Instead I tried homeopathy, herbs and Ayurvedic remedies, I did my Perimenopause and Menopause Masterclass training with Naturopathic Doctors from Australia and America and started changing my diet and how I ate, I read books and studied hard to understand how I can support myself and my clients who are also going through this transition and struggling. My symptoms have definitely improved and are much more manageable but I am also aware that other symptoms could just be round the corner for me over the next few years.
What struck me is that the perimenopause is between 2-12 years before the phase of menopause. You are considered to be in menopause one whole year after your last period. That is a lot of years. A lot of months. A lot of weeks. A lot of days and hours to be out of balance and struggle with various symptoms that affect your mind, your body, your mental health, your work, your family and friends and your life.
This phase in your life can be overwhelming, chaotic, destabilising and fragmented. This phase can throw you off your feet, change who you are and how you cope with your day to day life. This phase can change you. I really wanted to re-frame this time that I am boldly stepping into.
So What If The Perimenopause is…….
a healthy transition in your life to better physical, mental and emotional health.
a time of unveiling to find the inner wisdom buried deep within you. A rebalancing of the self and a shift towards heart centred self-care and self-compassion.
a time to reflect on your own health and the journey life has taken you.
a time of reflection on where you need to bring more love and care to your health to further transform.
a time to move your own needs higher up on that list. To re-fill the bucket, to repair the bucket even and recharge the batteries.
a time to acknowledge what depletes you and practice boundaries and space so that battery charge stays full.
a time to heal those wounds, to gently soothe the scars and see the wrinkles as the stories and memories that make you who you are but don’t necessarily have to define who you will be.
a time to come face to face with your inner critic, the self-sabotager and bow and let them leave the room so you can step forward in a new direction where you will shine.
a time to reach out to those who you want by your side, to support you. Seek out the helpers, the healers, the professionals who can guide you in your inner and outer work and be there while you dive deep, dig hard and then plant those new seeds of wisdom.
a time to seek your own enlightenment, gratitude, compassion and deepest love so you can now fully shine your very brightest and finally be you.
I am committed to investing in myself, my self-care, my time are you?
A quick low down on what Perimenopause is:
Perimenopause is not just a time of fluctuating hormones in a chaotic, overwhelming, avalanche for the body and the mind but actually a time of transition of low progesterone which can affect our brain, our mood and wellbeing and also how we respond to stress. It then comes into a time of temporarily high oestrogen which can affect our histamine levels, making us more sensitive and reactive. Then finally into a time when oestrogen levels drop which has a significant effect on our insulin metabolism.
Do you know whether you are in perimenopause yet?
You can tell if your progesterone is low if your cycle is less than 21 days or longer than 45 days. If the bleed flow is longer than 7 days and if the cycle has no sustained body temperature rise. You can also test your progesterone with a blood test in the luteal phase of your cycle. The luteal phase is around 2 weeks between ovulation and the first day of your bleed. Find out more about testing here.
Progesterone actually makes us feel calmer, more grounded. It nourishes our brain and supports our stress resilience. We really miss this hormone when our levels start to drop. Oestrogen levels can fluctuate and these can cause symptoms of excess oestrogen stored in the body like sore, swollen breasts and mood swings and then oestrogen withdrawal symptoms like night sweats and migraines. As I said it’s a time of highs and lows which have a profound effect on how our body and mind respond to these changes.
There is not a blood or urine test which can diagnose perimenopause - But ticking at least 2 or 3 symptoms or more can help to indicate whether you are in this phase.
Symptoms of perimenopause:
Changes in your cycle; longer, shorter, heavier, or more painful
Hot flushes in the day
Night sweats
Finding yourself over thinking, more anxious and less resilient to stress
Irritability
Mood swings, finding yourself more tetchy, grumpy, low in mood and more difficult to shift to the lighter shades of joy. Feeling more teary and emotional.
Brain fog and fatigue
Insomnia -waking up around 3am for no reason and finding it difficult to get back to sleep.
Breast tenderness
Hives or rashes
Nasal congestion
Heart palpitations
Tinnitus.
Skin pigmentation (melasma)
Finding it more difficult to lose weight and feeling more bloated and holding more water retention.
Vaginal dryness, loss of libido, stress incontinence, more prone to UTIs and bladder urgency.
Whether you choose or are able to take HRT or not, this time of change can be overwhelming for the mind, body and the soul. The symptoms of this transition is affected by what you eat, what is in your environment, your gut microbiome, circadian rhythms, exercise and environmental toxins.
It is a time to reflect on what you need to bring more balance to your life, a time to bring in the support for your future health, a time to reconnect with who you really are, how you have got here and step into who you want to be.
So if you are experiencing symptoms that are effecting your health and wellbeing then there is definitely lots you can do to support and bring more balance to yourself. If you would like personalised support on this then do consider booking in a 3 month package with me so I can guide you with the many ways you can support yourself. Find out more about my 1-to-1 consultations here. Or you may like to consider joining me on a PAUSE RETREAT. A day to pause, reflect, learn and connect with other women who are also in this phase of their life and learn the many ways you can support yourself.