Perimenopause, Menopause, Post-Menopause and Natural Ways to Help
Horsham, West Sussex
What is 'Menopause'?
The female menopause is a natural time in a woman's life that takes her from a reproductive to a post-reproductive stage of life. It is often viewed as a negative time by many but it doesn't have to be this way. It is a time when our fertility hormone levels reduce as they are not necessary for our reproductive health and fertilisation and is a normal process as our hormones are designed to naturally go back to near pre-pubescent levels.
The female 'Menopause' as it is termed today can be seen as having 3 stages:
1. Peri-menopause
2. Menopause
3. Post-menopause
Perimenopause is the run up to the last day of the last period and can average around 5 years, but can last between 2 - 20 years. It can now start at the age of 35, and this is termed early onset menopause.
Menopause is technically only one day, it is the last day of the last period usually around age 52-55 but obviously you don’t know when that last day of that last period will be.
Post-Menopause is any time after the last period when ovulation has ceased and fertility no longer exists, usually classed as 12 months after having no periods.
A woman's lifestyle, stress levels, sleep, digestion, relationships and mindset will all have an impact on how a woman experiences the menopause.
The Female Sex Hormones
- Oestrogen – primary female sex hormone and is a fat-storing hormone.
- Progesterone – the key to women’s menstrual cycle and a fat-burning hormone.
- Testosterone – needed for good health, bone strength and fat-burning. Women usually have about 15%.
All 3 are steroid hormones and need Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) for production.
In our early youth and in our 20s and early 30s when progesterone levels are still high, the fat burning effects from Progesterone, makes it more difficult to gain weight. However, as Progesterone levels drop off during the perimenopausal years, when Oestrogen becomes more dominant, we see more of a weight gain, especially around the middle, even when you don’t change anything about your diet.
What are the General Symptoms of Menopause?
Our health is like a jigsaw and any lifestyle choices, diet and nutrition, exercise and relaxation choices all sit very closely linked and if anything is out of alignment, we start to get symptoms. Symptoms including weight gain are a sign our body is out of alignment, in terms of stress, lifestyle and this affects our hormone balance.
If a woman is experiencing high stress levels and fatigue, her adrenal glands will be working overtime to produce the stress hormones to help manage the fight/flight stress reaction. If a woman is then managing her stress with alcohol, smoking/vaping, eating processed or poor refined quality foods, then the kidneys and liver will also be working hard to process the toxins and this will affect her sleep, relationships at home or at work, ability to concentrate, weight gain and emotions. All this can have an impact on her health, symptoms and mindset.
During 'menopause', most women experience many varied common symptoms of menopause and also not so common symptoms, although a few women experience no symptoms or very mild symptoms and seem to breeze through menopause. While at the other end of the scale, some women experience very severe symptoms which can make their life an absolute misery for months or years on end.
As every woman is unique, her levels of hormones change depending on health, lifestyle, mindset etc. This means that every woman will experience different symptoms in different ways, some may be mild, some not so.
It's not as simple as just adding in extra hormones like estrogen, progesterone or testosterone or their synthetic counterparts, as women on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) or Bio-Identical Hormones can still get menopausal symptoms or added weight gain as the underlying cause(s) haven't been addressed.
Hormones fluctuate significantly daily/weekly/monthly going through perimenopause, so the key to managing symptoms is to manage the root of hormone production and that ultimately is the management of stress, lifestyle, sleep, mindset, gut health, diet and nutrition and dealing with any trauma or adverse effects of past events in life. When mind, body and soul is addressed as a whole, the body, whether in menopause or not, is able to work optimally and optimal health is the absence of symptoms or dis-ease.
Work With Me
I offer various Menopause Programmes which are all designed to improve stress and help you feel calmer to improve or eliminate symptoms of menopause.
Menopause Purify and Rebalance 4 week Programme
This is a small group programme (up to 8 women) to cleanse the liver and gut and replenish the microbiome of the physical body to improve health issues or symptoms, addressing any nutritional deficiencies.
2. Magical Menopause Naturally 12 week Programme
This programme is designed to be adapted according to each woman and their life experiences, to address menopause naturally, as every woman is unique.
The 12 week programme can be experienced either as a small group programme (up to 8 women) or as the ultimate 1-2-1 VIP programme to get optimal benefits.
There are 5 different parts to both 12 week programmes which will naturally and holistically address your whole mind, body and soul and by the end of the programme you will have reduced menopausal symptoms, reduced stress, feel calmer, be sleeping better, thinking with clarity, feeling more energetic to be more productive throughout your working day.
To work with me, please Contact me.
Health and Nutritional Support
There is so much varying advice on how to eat, what to eat and whether or not to supplement with extra nutrients.. Does this really change anything because do nutritional supplements really work and make much difference to our health?
If you're feeling confused about food, nutrition and nutritional supplements and whether or not you would benefit from adding extra nutrients into your diet, then read on.
Modern Living
Today many people are regularly bombarded with toxins from pesticides in food, food additives, preservatives, air pollution, heavy metals, drugs, chemicals in household products and stress. These toxins can accumulate in the body creating an imbalance that may result in any of the following:
Allergies / Fatigue / Obesity / Bad breath / Headaches / Sleep Disorders / Digestive Problems / Intestinal Issues / Mental Health Issues / Sinus Congestion Issues / Hormonal Imbalances / Fertility Issues
In addition, modern farming practices, long-term cold storage and irradiation treatment can seriously deplete the nutritional value of our food.
Our Systems
Our bodies are like a chain of independently linked organs and systems. Like a chain, our overall health is only as good as the weakest link.
System weakness may be inherited, influenced by the environment, or the result of injury. Lifestyle choices can challenge the body in many ways and is the greatest source of deterioration on the ten links in our 'chain of life' - the digestive, intestinal, circulatory, nervous, immune, respiratory, urinary, glandular, structural, and skin systems.
If any of these systems are weakened and that weakness is not addressed, over time other body systems may also be adversely affected.
Prevention
The approach to natural elite health is quite simple – to find the root cause and address it by looking at the foods you eat and your lifestyle and working out a regime for you.
For instance, the digestion system is key as this provides nourishment for the whole body. Poor nutrition, whether due to a bad diet or weak digestion, will quickly impact all the systems. Poor absorption and elimination (intestinal), will likewise have a wide reaching effect on your overall health and wellbeing.
Please Click here to enquire about a complimentary Health and Lifestyle call so you can find out which of your body systems are having an impact on your overall health and vitality.