Bloody hell.
If you are feeling all sorts of strange and you’re looking for some help because you just don’t feel YOU, perhaps something physical is actually afoot?
Quite often in the therapy room I will ask you to check in on your basic vitamin levels from the food you eat, as quite often with anxiety the first thing to go is the desire to eat or to eat dense calorific foods, so just a check in with our vitamins and minerals can be really helpful.
Also it’s worth checking in on iron levels, especially if you are a heavy bleeder.
Invariably there is a mind / body combo going on and working on either in separateness just simply makes things, harder.
I am not a medical professional and cannot diagnose, what I have seen over my years is there more often than not a correlation between ongoing anxiety and the vitamin / iron / magnesium deficiencies.
What I have also noticed in the last few years (and I am sorry to say) since I have been perimenopausal, is the sheer impact the ‘Change’ can have on us women (I am sure that one day there will be scientific research for men going through a change too - I don’t want to rule you guys out of the effects of hormone depletion either!).
So what we know so far..
The most debilitating stage of the menopause is the Perimenopause and that can start 10 years or more before the menopause actually happens
Women are still bleeding when the effects of the decline begin, so if you notice changes in your mood when everything has been fine, and you’re approaching your mid to late forties - you could be peri-menopausal.
It’s really important to note that for some women it could be as early as mid thirties, for a few, even sooner.
Some Doctors are currently dismissing emotional peri-menopausal symptoms as clinical anxiety or depression (as the symptoms can present as those) and women tend to get prescribed anti-depressants rather than offered the medication that aligns with the loss of hormones...Additional hormones. It isn’t uncommon for us women to blame ourselves for our emotions, especially at this time when quite often we can be juggling teens leaving home, elderly parents, work pressures - all sorts of life overwhelming stuff that we can think we are responding to, each one a big demand in itself. However sometimes our lacking resiliance or our emotional irregularity can simply be the fluctuating hormones that peri- menopause can bring.
I have been on the journey myself and tentatively as someone with Progesterone sensitivity I was terrified of taking Progesterone, but with the addition of Estrogen and progesterone i finally found myself sleeping again - no more 2am Cortisol spikes, no more unteathered anxiety, or sofa paralysis, abject knackeredness it really helped, and then a year or so later I started taking Testosterone and blimey! It was like being gifted a super power! Chatting with my life long friend I was telling her how much I had changed and what was so different and she paused and said, “Like you used to be, you mean?” And that was the point where it dawned on me just how much I had actually changed (slowly and steadily) over the last 4…6? years, so much so I hadn’t noticed that I had become a totally different me- I just thought I was lazy.
I had not even considered or understood the menopause or peri menopause… I didnt know the chnge happens even though you were bleeding and yes, I still am.
So know peri -menopausal symptoms begin when you are having your periods, for some women periods can get heavier or more often… As they have done with me. Oh the joy!
Hot flushes / flashes do not necessarily happen at the start of perimenopause, they may never happen or they may come in the form of night sweats. So it’s best not to use the flushes or flashes (same thing different name) as a guide to whether you’re beginning the peri- menopause. I haven’t had that many…And if I used them as a marker, I wouldn’t be classing myself as peri-menopausal.
It’s worth remembering menopause marks the end of the periods; One year after the last day of your last period. Most of the emotional and physical changes lead up to the menopause, they don’t begin as you become it.
What is Peri menopause? We have the rise of understanding that before the Menopause; there begins a depletion of hormones in women; mainly oestrogen/ estrogen (same thing different name) and progesterone and, Oh! What a huge difference it makes, being a woman of a certain age I totally appreciate the effects of the decline.
In addition to the main hormones depleting women also notice a depletion of testosterone. All these hormones do particular things for women at particular times.
Sitting in the therapist’s chair I noticed the effects of the depletion; the lack of sleep, brain fog, depression and anxiety being the most common- yes, the hot flushes, but not necessarily as the main contender at the beginning.
So if you are feeling different and nothing in your surroundings have changed, or even if they have, your reactions to them have changed, ask your friends if you seem different, they know you! And then it is well worth doing a deeper dive into the effects of Perimenopause.
Some really helpful links below:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/menopause/
https://www.balance-menopause.com/
https://zoe.com/learn/category/life-stages
For some women, we want to go through the natural transition organically (I chose the drugs, I’m OK with that, and I am also Ok with women going without the drugs too).
If you have decided to get support with the menopausal symptoms, hypnotherapy can be a great tool to aid with all the menopausal /perimenopausal symptoms as it can help us ride the wave rather than drown in it!
Good luck and bon voyage to the wonderful transition years.
Photo by Lua Valentia on Unsplash