PERIMENOPAUSE, It shows up sooner than you think, LET'S TALK....

Are you experiencing mood swings & irritability, poor mental health, sensitivity to noise, feeling anxious, overwhelmed, emotional, like you have brain fog? Experiencing bouts of forgetfulness, or you can’t focus, feeling like somethings not quite right, random onset acne, or sleeplessness, fatigue, lack of motivation? Or maybe weight changes, having a hard time losing weight around your midsection? Or just weight struggles in general? How about vaginal dryness or low libido? Perhaps you have changing or altering menstrual cycles?

Guess what you’re not dying, you’re probably experiencing perimenopause and man it can be an overload, and just as a side note the least common symptom in perimenopause is a changing and altering period, but most of us might expect that would be the first sign.

Perimenopause can make you feel like you have lost control over your health and well-being, and if you don’t know what the signs and symptoms are for Perimenopause this can be an incredibly scary stage of life.

So many changes and not knowing the cause is a terrifying state, which is why I thought this was a great topic to write about.  Personally, I have been experiencing a lot of these symptoms in the last few years myself, but I definitely felt them come crashing down in the last 3 years…. This led me to the journey of learning more about perimenopause, how we can better regulate it for ourselves, and to bring awareness about it for other women who may be experiencing the same thing.

What is perimenopause?

Perimenopause is a stage in a woman’s life, generally in their mid 30’s to early 40s, where she starts to go through hormonal changes in her body…… perimenopause, the precursor to actual menopause, (which has its own set of special experiences).

Perimenopause is essentially when hormones start to fluctuate, especially our estrogen, which is our more stimulating hormone.

Our hormone levels can fluctuate drastically day to day which can have symptoms anywhere from bloating to life debilitating anxiety and depression. Some more common symptoms that women can experience during perimenopause are hair loss, UTI’s (more frequently), and you might even notice changes in your body odor. Our Estrogen can be high one day and low the next. And another Hormone that can be disrupted or low in this stage is our progesterone, which is our calming Hormone.

When does Perimenopause start?

That’s a good question. It starts at different times for different women and the symptoms can be everything or just a few things, it is case specific depending on the woman.

Perimenopause can begin as early as your mid to late thirties.  Most women start to notice symptoms in their 30’s but they can become more pronounced in your 40’s.

Menopause occurs after 12 consecutive months without a menstrual cycle generally around 51 years old (depending on the woman this could happen earlier or later).

I can tell you no one wants to shout from the roof top about their perimenopause, but it’s amazing how once you start to talk about it, you open a door for other women to share their experiences and ways they were able to deal with it.

Is there a way to naturally regulate our hormones in perimenopause?

If you go to the doctor, it will generally lead you to a blood test, a low hormone reading and, most likely, synthetic hormone replacements which can produce a multitude of other issues down the line (just read the pamphlets about possible side effects on anything your given).

Is there a place for hormone replacement therapy? Yes 100%, but there are other options out there to help support our bodies during this phase of life and I think it is imperative to try to start by implementing natural ways to support our body's through this journey in order to have a better quality of life.

Every individual is different, choose the route that works best for you <3

A Quick Personal Note, I had children later in life, my first being born at 32 years old, my second at 36 and being pregnant, growing a baby, birthing a child and raising young has a tremendous amount of changes on its own, physically, mentally, emotionally and hormonally….. A lot of the early symptoms I had experienced I chalked up to motherhood, I didn’t realize that I was in the beginning stages of perimenopause and for awhile I felt so consumed that I didn’t know what to do or which way to turn.

Before I even realized what I was going through I new that I needed to focus on things that I could control to lower my stress and balance myself both mentally and physically.

Stress is a leading factor to so many issues, being involved in the health & fitness industry for over 20 years I knew my first step to bettering my own health was to focus on my own physical and mental repair and reducing the stress that I could control.

I switched from heavy workouts and excess loads to Yoga and Pilates, I incorporated breathing practices, grounding and cold plunges, I focused on intermittent fasting, clean eating (whole foods), incorporating more Phyto-estrogen foods, on improving my circadian rhythm (ensuring I was sleeping at the right times to allow my body to repair and be in its natural state), and trying to abstain from any harmful substances like alcohol.

Slowly and surely my stress became more manageable, and I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. While all of that was in play, I was still experiencing stresses that I couldn’t necessarily control but because I was focusing on altering my habits my stress became less daunting.

I’m in full-blown perimenopause and now I am tightening up my routine. It is important to me to give myself the best outcome during this stage of life. From all the books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to and information I’ve researched, these are the top key things you can do to help support yourself through perimenopause, keep in mind it is a balance in all things and each one leads into the next or overlaps, lets call it “the circle of perimenopause management”.

The first step is understanding and acknowledging that you are having these symptoms and beginning this transition period in life.

Perimenopause is a critical window for your long-term health, the shifting hormones won’t just alter how you feel day to day, if left untreated they can impact your future risks of other illnesses.

As you lose estrogen it can affect how your body processes insulin which will make blood sugar regulation more challenging, as well your estrogen plays a protective role in your heart health. As your levels drop your risk of high blood pressure, cholesterol imbalances and cardiovascular diseases rise, and in recent studies there have been links to hormonal changes and brain health including memory & cognitive function.

Let’s not forget osteoporosis, estrogen & progesterone play an important role in our bone density, our declining hormones can lead to bone loss which in turn can make us more susceptible to fractures.

The decisions we make today to help deal with our declining hormones will shape how we feel 5 years from now, they will be the deciding factor on your quality of life.

Get a Blood test, find out what your hormone levels are and start from there.

Ways to Support our Bodies through Perimenopause, this is not a one-fits all approach, I don’t know your current health or underlying conditions and I am not a doctor, just a health enthusiast. Always consult your health care practitioner for any medical advice (I highly recommend seeking the aid of a naturopath if it is within your budget).

Balancing & Replenishing your Minerals, the spark plug of life, are you low? Minerals are required for so many functions in our bodies including hormone production, metabolization of the hormones, and detoxifying our body. During perimenopause our body’s demand for minerals skyrockets, all the fluctuating hormones that we experience create stress in our body and we burn through minerals faster than we can replenish them. When our minerals are unbalanced, you can feel it, either in the form of fatigue, mood swings, joint pain, low libido or trouble sleeping.

Some of the key minerals that play a role in our energy, mood and libido include Magnesium, (which helps your body to relax), and it also helps our body produce estrogen (our calming, feel-good hormone). If your magnesium levels are low, you might start to feel stressed or anxious.

Other important minerals are sodium & potassium, these minerals help our body to regulate hydration, energy and our stress response. Low sodium & potassium can cause nervous system dysregulation. If our sodium is too high (relative to potassium) our body can enter a state of fight or flight which will cause us to release more cortisol (our stress hormone). Too much cortisol can leave us feeling depleted, disconnected & drained.

Zinc supports our testosterone which fuels our vitality and desire. Low testosterone can show up as a lack of motivation, low drive or low libido, (these are just a few of the minerals I have covered).

Check in with your health care practitioner on ways to evaluate your mineral imbalances, and from there you can investigate replenishing your minerals.

For my self I created a blend of Celtic salt (sodium), magnesium citrate and potassium chloride to add to my water during the day, the amounts you need fluctuate based on person to person, but I started with ½-1 tsp of my blend per day. As well I incorporated a methylated multi vitamin so that my body could readily absorb it.

Other minerals you can get through supplementation with a multi vitamin or additional vitamins but again the ratio needed can fluctuate based on the person.

You can look up the recommended daily intake and start there but I also highly recommend seeing a naturopath to get a more precise analysis to know what you need.

Number one, support your adrenals with minerals, prioritize replenishing sodium & potassium with electrolytes, there are many brands out there to choose from.

Reduce your Stress- now this is easier said then done but it is so imperative to your overall health, I have lived through many seasons of my life with stress that is out of my control which taught me to manage the stress that is in my control. The physical stress on the body (the way I workout), the internal stress on the body (from the things I consume) and the emotional stress (from situations I was in or people I was around). Everyone’s journey to manage their stress is different but finding peace in this life is imperative to our overall wellness.

What can cause stress? Overloaded schedules, never ending to-do lists, emotional stress from friends or family members, relationships, work, lack of sleep, poor nutrition, inflammation, underlying conditions and just life in general.

Look at the things that create stress in your life and see which ones you have control over and try to reduce them.

Incorporate physical activity (this also plays a role in reducing stress) in whatever way suits you best, for me I took a break from heavy weights and focused on Yoga & Pilates for over a year which helped me to balance myself both physically and mentally while creating a sense of calm within me.

I chose early mornings in my basement with low lights and using the BOHO beautiful app, I would choose whichever videos suited me best that morning and work through them. I have since started to incorporate heavy weights again a couple times a week, ensuring proper form, doing compound exercises, increasing my loads, fatiguing the muscles, letting the muscles recover and then repeating that method weekly.

I incorporated grounding after my practice with breath work, simply standing in my lawn with bare feet on the ground and doing hatha breathing for a few minutes, after that I would shower and move on with my day. Just these few simple practices helped me find balance in my own life.

Balance your Gut Bacteria- During Perimenopause a healthy gut is crucial. When our hormones are changing our microbiome balance is also changing which can lead to GI issues like bloating, constipation, loose stool, stinky gas, or upper GI issues like acid reflux and burping. When we are under stress our gut changes, so we are not absorbing nutrients as well in this stage of life.

The goal here is to optimize your digestion, reduce inflammation and support beneficial bacteria in the gut.

Eat during a healthy eating window like 8am-8pm, (under the understanding that we will be in bed by 10pm to allow our body to repair. This example has our last meal 2 hrs before bed and gives us a 12-hour fasting window for our body to work through and process the foods you did consume).  

Eating anti-inflammatory foods, whole foods rich in nutrients, (not over-eating processed foods, high sugar foods or over consuming liquid substances such as juice pop ans alcohol).

Incorporating a good pro-biotic to help balance our gut bacteria, & including foods like kimchi and sauerkraut which will also help to support our healthy gut bacteria.

This is such a huge topic, and I will dive deeper into our gut health on another post (so stay tuned).

Optimize your nutrition, ensure you are eating clean whole foods, eating in a window that supports your health (not eating 2 hours before bed so that your body can efficiently repair itself during the evening hours instead of trying to just process and detoxify from whatever you chose to consume before bed)

Eating phytoestrogen foods that will also support your changing hormones (like flax seeds and chia seeds).

In perimenopause our body can become more sensitive to certain foods like sugars, processed foods, caffeine, and alcohol, our body responds differently to these items in our 40’s than it did in our 20’s or 30’s.

It is important to focus on nutrient dense, anti-inflammatory foods. Foods like healthy fats, lean proteins, fiber rich vegetables and of course increasing our intake of Phyto estrogen foods (plant-based compounds that are found in foods like flax seeds, chia seeds, legumes and high quality soy products).

You can support your mineral balance though foods as well, with foods that are rich in magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium.

Incorporate some natural remedies to help support your journey.

A great natural remedy to help us during this transition is maca root, it can be used as a tea, incorporated into foods or taken as an added supplement to your smoothie.

Maca Root  is naturally high in minerals (calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc), contains up to 20 essential fatty acids, lipids, fiber, carbohydrates, protein, sterols, and amino acids. 

Maca is often recommended to help with adrenal fatigue as it is considered an adaptogen, helping the body adapt to environmental factors by reducing stress hormones. It is also believed to promote sexual health in both men and women by balancing hormones and increasing fertility.

Relative to perimenopause, maca root is a great tool for balancing and supporting perimenopausal and menopausal hormones. It’s fantastic for restoring energy levels, sex drive, and mood. Maca is an ideal energy helper because it provides a steady, natural boost without being stimulating like caffeine. Menopause can make you tired, and maca root can be a valuable, natural option to help restore energy levels. Maca can also help regulate the mood swings that many women experience due to PMS and menopause.

Optimize your sleep- balance your circadian rhythm, your bodies internal clock. We need to support our circadian rhythm with a regular sleep-wake cycle, limiting blue light exposure (especially at night) and getting plenty of natural light in the day. This will help to improve our balance and in turn our sleep quality and overall health.

The most important times to sleep for your body to repair are the hours between 10pm and 2am, this is so imperative for our overall health and in today’s busy world with so many distractions we tend to stay up late doing things that don’t support our well-being.

Creating a healthy sleep pattern will help to reduce our overall stress, and allowing our body to heal itself during sleep will increase our overall health.

Need a nap? Take one if you need it! A lot of us experience fatigue during perimenopause, (generally due to our low and fluctuating hormones), but it is also from the stress of life, poor nutrition, blood sugar dysregulation, thyroid issues (when our thyroid function is declining). We can not continue to run on an empty tank, so it is so important to get our rest when needed, listen to your body.

Overall diet changes, lifestyle changes and mindset shifts are all vital factors at this stage in life. Find the areas that you can improve, and don’t beat yourself up if you’re not perfect all the time. This is a time of re-discovery, learning about our bodies in a new era, and trying to help ease us into our next stage of life.

Remember you still must live, this doesn’t have to be all consuming and there are times in life where you will go for dinner or to a birthday party, its ok to have treats just remember to focus on balance in all things.

This won’t be a success story overnight, the focus here is to improve longevity and the quality of life. The choices we make now are going to impact how we age, and this is so imperative especially for us ladies in our 40’s, when we are starting to feel the changes within our bodies. Listen to your body, it will tell you what it needs <3

Acknowledging this stage of life

Get Blood Work

Mineral Balance

Reduce Stress

Incorporate Physical Activities

Balance your Good Gut Bacteria

Optimize your Nutrition

Natural Supplementation

Optimize your Sleep

Pease note this blog post is for educational purposes only, I am not a doctor, just a health enthusiast. I am not providing health care, medical services or trying to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any physical, mental or emotional disease or condition. The information shared is not intended to be a substitute for the professional medical advice provided by your own medical or mental Health Care Provider.