I remember the day I learned the difference between perimenopause and menopause, I was so shocked to learn that the symptoms we always hear about are actually perimenopause and that menopause is actually when it’s all over (a year after your last period to be exact).
Perimenopause is the menopause we always talk about. Like hot flashes, chills, night sweats, and other familiar ones.
What do doctors say you can do? Here we can do hormonal treatments to relieve symptoms but nothing to support you through this time. The holistic approach always has a few ideas up their sleeves to give you what you’re looking for.
So now that you know what menopause is actually called, let’s talk about how you can navigate through perimenopause using holistic measures.
With perimenopause, your hormones are slowly being less and less produced and that can make your body confused.
One of the most commonly mentioned solutions with medical care providers is having hormone replacement therapy.
As the primary “female” hormone, estrogen promotes the growth and health of the female reproductive organs and keeps the vagina moisturized, elastic (stretchy), and well supplied with blood. Estrogen levels generally decline during perimenopause, but they do so in an irregular fashion.
In addition to estrogen, levels of other hormones produced by the ovaries—progesterone (another female hormone) and testosterone (a male androgen hormone produced at lower levels in women)—are also changing during your midlife years… NAMS
There are a few that are recommended for menopause. Always a top contender and one I mention is Vitex. Another is Black Cohosh, Black Cumin, Fennel, and Lemon Ball to name a few more.
I always say that I’m not a studied herbalist, or a medical care provider. Everything I state here is for you to learn more and come to an awareness of your own body.
With the change of hormones and the age period where menopause can happen there are quite a few contending factors about the brain you need to be aware of.
You might notice yourself having more brain fog as you go through these changes as well.
Ah, don’t we just hate how sleep can be so difficult once menopause hits? You can thank a few things for your newfound insomnia but the one thing most women include are the night sweats and what they do to you.
Here are a few things you can do:
Although age may be a contender and you might not be having any more children sex is still on the table.
Firstly, even though your period is slowing down, you can still get pregnant. So if you’re like I don’t want anymore (and you haven’t done any operations to make that not happen) take precautions.
Now onto the fun bits… you may have heard about how sex can become uncomfortable and even painful and you’ve dreaded the day of menopause diagnosis from the beginning.
It doesn’t have to be! Hormones play into this as well (obviously) and one of the biggest things like with dryness. Use lubes or coconut oil when having fun. (Which you can make an erotic act as well).
You’ll want to focus more on clitoral stimulation, as that will give you the most pleasure.
So now that we’ve covered a few ways you can navigate through menopause holistically, remember that support is also a key factor. I offer coaching, and consider myself a menopause doula. You need to feel good about this and not like it’s the end of the world.
Communicate with your partner, family, or friends about how you feeling and what you need from them.
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