By: Matt Weik, BS, CSCS, CPT, CSN
Sure, you may have heard people quietly talking about menopause among friends, but the topic often remains unspoken because women simply feel uncomfortable about it.
However, this shouldn't be the norm. Spreading awareness can significantly help women by keeping them informed.
It’s time to stop keeping the topic of menopause to yourself. The more awareness we bring to the topic, the better women can understand the biological changes that are taking place and how they can better manage them.
In this article, I want to dive deeper into a topic many feel uncomfortable discussing. I want you to understand that you’re not alone in how you may suddenly be feeling and that there are ways to better manage the symptoms.
Let’s jump right into things!
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to treat or diagnose any condition. It is recommended that you speak with your doctor before starting an exercise program, making changes to your nutrition plan, or adding any supplements into your current regimen.
Waiting and Keeping Silent is the Worst Thing You Can Do
If you knew the engine in your car was going to fail because the check oil light was on, you’d probably get it checked, right? You wouldn’t wait until something happened to the engine because what you’re left with is a bigger and more expensive headache. The same can be said about menopause.
The last thing you want to do is what most women tend to do — stay quiet about it and brush it under the rug, acting like everything is fine. That’s a terrible idea. This is a crucial phase of your life, and you can either manage it or let it get in the way of your active lifestyle.
Related Article: The Power of Prevention — Promoting Women’s Health Through Lifestyle Choices
Many women feel uncomfortable talking about menopause online with friends or in groups, but we want to emphasize that it’s important for younger women not to wait until it happens. It’s okay to start taking action early on and be proactive about things.
Crossing your fingers or sleeping it off isn’t going to help, nor is it an effective plan. Menopause can be a major issue that can negatively affect your life and even your marriage in the long run.
Severe symptoms are often misdiagnosed, and as we know, hormones have a huge impact on women. It’s not surprising that many marriages suffer because of mood swings and changes in sex drive. We want you to feel validated and important. This affects your life, relationships, and health.
And because it’s important to you, it’s important to us.
What is Menopause?
A woman's "time of the month" can seem like a never-ending cycle until they hit menopause. Menopause is the natural biological process that marks the permanent end of menstruation and fertility in women. It is a normal part of aging that typically occurs in a woman’s late 40s or early 50s.
Below are some key points about menopause:
- It is caused by a gradual decline in the ovaries’ estrogen production and other hormones. This hormonal change eventually stops the monthly menstrual cycle.
- Menopause is confirmed when a woman has not had a menstrual period for 12 consecutive months. The years leading up to that point are called perimenopause.
- The decrease in estrogen puts women at an increased risk of osteoporosis (bone loss) later in life.
- Hormone therapy can help relieve menopausal symptoms for some women, but it carries risks and benefits that each woman must weigh after speaking with her doctor.
- Diet, exercise, stress reduction, and other lifestyle changes can help manage many symptoms of menopause.
Menopause is a natural and normal transition in a woman’s life, marking the end of her reproductive years. While it brings physical and emotional changes, healthy lifestyle habits and behaviors can help you adapt during this stage of your life.
What Are the Symptoms of Menopause?
There are quite a few symptoms that you can experience that provide you with some clues that you’re hitting menopause. Some of the most common symptoms include:
1. Irregular periods: Menstrual cycles may become longer, shorter, heavier, or more irregular as your estrogen levels change and fluctuate.
2. Hot flashes: These are sudden feelings of body heat, flushing, and sweating that can last anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes. Hot flashes are one of the most common menopausal symptoms and can come about without any warning.
3. Night sweats: Hot flashes that occur during sleep can cause sweating (hench the name “night sweats”) and disrupt your sleep patterns.
4. Vaginal dryness: Lower estrogen levels can cause vaginal dryness and discomfort during sex.
5. Mood changes: Fluctuating hormone levels can contribute to mood swings, irritability, anxiety, and even depression.
6. Sleep disturbances: Many women experience insomnia or disrupted sleep patterns during menopause (some of which stem from night sweats).
7. Cognitive difficulties: Some women report problems with concentration, focus, and memory during the menopausal transition.
8. Joint and muscle aches and pains: Changing hormone levels may contribute to joint stiffness and muscle soreness.
The symptoms don’t always end there. Some other potential symptoms include headaches, fatigue, hair loss or thinning, and changes in libido.
The severity and duration of symptoms can vary greatly from one woman to the next. Symptoms usually begin a few years before menopause hits and may persist for several years after.
Tackle Menopause Head-On
Whether you’re already feeling the effects or simply want to be proactive when it comes to menopause, the best thing to do is tackle it head-on. Don’t put it off thinking it will go away — it won’t, and you’ll find yourself in this rollercoaster for a few years until the symptoms subside.
Check out the various ways that you can better manage menopause below:
1. Take a hormone test panel
No matter your age, if you are over 27, it's important to take a hormone test. This can significantly impact many aspects of your life. You can either obtain one from a retailer or online and do it yourself at home, or you can speak with your doctor to get the panel done in a lab.
The home hormone test panel is very simple if you wish to do it in the privacy of your own home. You simply follow the directions for the test and send in your kit to be analyzed, and your results are sent back to you privately.
2. Work with Your Doctor to Start Taking Hormones
Tackling menopause head-on can feel overwhelming, and it’s challenging to know where even to start. If you don’t want to do it alone, work with your doctor (which is the recommended method for managing menopause).
Your doctor will have you get labs done to check your hormones and see where the levels are at. The hormones typically checked include Estradiol, Luteinizing Hormone (LH), and Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH).
Once your doctor gets the results back from the lab, they can put together an action plan on how to better manage your symptoms through the use of hormones.
Here’s something not a lot of women know: You can actually be proactive and start taking hormones to manage your levels well before menopause would even start setting in and symptoms appear.
There’s nothing wrong with this, and under the care of your doctor, you can look and feel young even if you have made more trips around the sun than you’d like to admit to others.
3. Leverage Natural Supplements
With the laundry list of supplements and ingredients out there today, it can be challenging to understand what you want and need. That said, there are many supplements you can purchase to help navigate your way to and through menopause.
You have ingredients like DHEA that can help balance hormone levels as you age. You have DIM that can help support estrogen metabolism. The list goes on and on. Best of all, you don’t need a prescription for these natural supplements — they’re deemed safe and effective, and they all have research behind them.
To help you in your journey, we’ve created the most personalized experience possible. Typically, you are forced to use a supplement where the formula has already been set and packaged. With our Pack Builder, you are in total control.
With our Pack Builder, you get to pick and choose what ingredients you want in your supplement pack. Each ingredient has a description under it, so you know exactly what you’re getting and what the benefits are.
You can choose ingredients that help manage hormones like DIM and DHEA, as well as a whole list of vitamins, minerals, herbs, and more to get the exact results and benefits you desire.
The key is to leverage natural supplements and hormones even before menopause hits for the best experience and to help minimize menopause symptoms.
