TMiranda July’s latest book, All Fours, features a hilarious sequence in which the protagonist sees a graph showing the sudden drop in estrogen during menopause. Worried about how this will affect her libido, she frantically questions older friends about their experiences, gathering anecdotes and wisdom in a desperate attempt to prepare for the onslaught.
But can menopause be managed? Many women in their 30s and 40s who find themselves finally approaching this major turning point in their lives may wonder: is it possible to survive menopause?
“That’s a good thing,” says Dr Karen McGrath, a general practitioner and past president of the Australian Menopause Society, “because talking about menopause is always a good thing.”
But as awareness grows, some women may feel anxious about what’s to come, and an industry has sprung up offering solutions and serums to address their worst fears, while others remain in denial or ignorance about what’s to come.
The prospect of menopause can be frightening, with a wide range of possible symptoms including hot flashes, loss of libido, weight gain, mood swings, insomnia, memory problems, etc. However, menopause does not affect everyone in the same way, and much of what women experience with menopause is out of their control.
Either way, making some adjustments before and during menopause (a transitional period that can last from two to 10 years) can help ease the effects on your body, brain, and relationships.
There are two ways women can prepare, McGrath said: “One is to be informed, and the other is to be healthy.”
“The women were angry.”
in 2022 Menopausal Women Survey Lack of education was a key issue in determining their attitudes and knowledge about menopause. “Women expressed resentment that they had reached this stage in their lives without any idea of how menopause would affect them,” Joyce Harper and her co-authors wrote. “They described feeling woefully unprepared, helpless, and lacking confidence in themselves and their bodies.”
Dr. Michelle Woolhouse, integrative medical practitioner and author of The Wonder Within, likens menopause to puberty. Remember those roaring teenage years, when our bodies unleashed those tiny but powerful hormones on ourselves and our poor parents? These powerful little chemical messengers prepare us for reproduction, with another big surge occurring during pregnancy and birth.
Menopause marks the end of the reproductive cycle and usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55. At this time, fluctuating hormone levels can make us question our sanity again.
So what can we do?
“The secret to a healthy menopause is lifestyle medicine,” says Woolhouse. “We’re seeing more and more people coming in with a proactive attitude, which is great.”
Become stronger
According to Dr Tamara Nation, a general practitioner at the National Institute of General Medical Care, healthy lifestyle principles are more important than ever as you prepare for menopause. And now, more than ever, is the best time to put them into practice, says McGrath, especially as menopause is a turning point for heart, cardiometabolic and bone health. It makes sense to develop healthy habits and strength to face this transition in life.
As Some women tend to concentrate weight in their abdomen as they no longer need to prepare their hips for childbirth, which affects their metabolism and increases the risk of heart disease, elevated blood lipids, and diabetes. Falling estrogen levels also cause loss of calcium in bones, increasing the risk of osteoporosis.
It is important to adjust your diet by eating lots of vegetables and beans and avoiding sugar and processed foods. This will also promote a healthy gut flora. Preliminary investigation This suggests that it may be important as you approach menopause.
“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” McGrath says. “Eat whole and home-cooked foods as much as possible.” For bone health, make sure you get enough calcium, Vitamin D.
McGrath recommends Healthy Bones Australia As a source of information, and in general, she says that menopause may be a good time to visit your doctor for breast, cervical and colon cancer screenings, and to have your blood pressure, lipids, fasting blood sugar and other heart health markers checked.
of The Importance of Exercise Don’t overestimate it. “Increasing exercise before menopause is great for a lot of reasons,” says McGrath. “It really benefits your general health, as well as your mental health.” Plus, Sleep quality The Nation points out that it’s more common in women around the time of menopause.
Any exercise is good, but especially weight-bearing and strength training. Healthy bonesWoolhouse says maintaining muscle mass is crucial for reducing falls, controlling blood sugar and boosting metabolism, and she recommends a combined approach: Resistance training, yoga Take a walk in nature.
That said, McGrath has an important caveat.
“Overall, there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the severity of symptoms,” she says. “It’s a common misconception that women can get through menopause if they lead a healthy lifestyle.”
The severity of hot flashes and night sweats may have a genetic influence, and while it’s not possible to reliably predict the onset of menopause, Woolhouse says early menopause may run in families: “It’s worth getting details from your mother or grandmother.”
A powerful life change?
It’s long been recognized that hormonal changes affect mental health, and that stress can worsen symptoms like hot flashes, palpitations and insomnia, Woolhouse said. “These changes cause stress, and stress can make symptoms worse,” she said. “It’s a chicken-and-egg problem.”
Having already learned how to manage stress, women can benefit from techniques like mindfulness, physical activity and connecting with nature when symptoms set in. While some women are more susceptible to depression, Nation explains that it has a complex relationship with psychological resilience, social connections and overall wellbeing, which are all components of coping with it.
Developing healthy social connections can help you prepare in other ways, too. Increased fatigue, lack of sleep, and mood swings can all affect relationships at home and at work. And reduced libido, vaginal dryness, and painful intercourse can make intimate relationships less appealing. “Relationships are important at any stage of a woman’s life,” says Woolhouse. “But having the support of caring people during this time can help ease anxiety. Opening up conversations and recognising common signs and symptoms can sensitise women and their loved ones to their changing needs. This can encourage women to seek support earlier.”
Despite healthy lifestyle changes, some women may still suffer, even in perimenopause, and could benefit from medical help. Research shows that more than a quarter of women have moderate to severe symptoms. As McGrath points out, there’s no need to be a superwoman: “In my clinic, I sometimes see people who have been suffering for years, and women tend to feel they just have to keep going and make it all work.” If you’re struggling, there is help available, including hormone therapy to ease symptoms.
After all, experiences vary widely and are not just about hormones. The Lancet Menopause Series It offers an ’empowerment’ approach to give women more control and confidence, helping them to view pre-menopause in a more positive light.
The authors write: “Rather than focusing on menopause as an endocrine deficiency, we propose an empowerment model that recognizes the factors that modify the experience, in which patients become the experts on their own condition and health care providers support patients as equal and active partners in managing their own care.”
They say a medical, disease-based view of menopause misses the potential positive effects of ageing, such as improved mental health, freedom from menstruation, menstrual disorders and birth control.
You can ease your fears about menopause by reframing it as a powerful life transition that gives you an opportunity for emotional growth. “Menopause is a time when women move from a period of fertility to a period of wisdom,” says Woolhouse.
“The menopausal transition is one of the most powerful experiences in a woman’s life,” she adds. “It’s a time of reverence and respect for one’s body, fertility, intuition and wisdom. In Chinese medicine, we call this the ‘second spring.’ Spring is all about growth, vitality, color, expansion and abundance.”
