Clair's journey through menopause
October is menopause awareness month and at Natural Health Store we have been talking to women about the menopause for years. It is a natural conversation for us to have every day so I was surprised to realise how many women are not talking to each other about it. Or how many of you are not talking to your partners about it either.
When I look back to when I started perimenopause almost 20 years ago, back then we didn’t use the word perimenopause. We just said we were going through the menopause or going through the change. My journey started when I was forty, as I think I have told you before. I remember it clearly, I was at my fortieth birthday party after work, and for the first time in my life I experienced social anxiety. I didn’t want to be where I was and I was feeling less confident than normal. At the time I thought it was just me and didn’t put much thought into it. I didn’t realise that it was in fact the beginning of my menopausal journey.
Thankfully, today we are more aware of the broad range of symptoms connected to the menopause. 20 years ago, we really only talked about it if we had hot flushes and night sweats. I didn’t experience hot flushes until my late forties. I sometimes wonder do we experience more symptoms now than we did 20 years ago or have the symptoms become more severe? If so, is it the extreme stress and busyness of our lives that hinder our ability to cope with these symptoms? Or is it that we are just more aware of our symptoms today?
Symptoms of the perimenopause
There can be so many symptoms that you can feel you are going crazy. Hot flushes and night sweats are the ones I hear most about at the shop. Perimenopause can affect your mood too, one minute you can be weepy and the next minute you can experience anger and feel very irritable. Lack of energy is a huge problem for many of you. You might see changes in your sleep pattern. Weight is a huge issue for many women. It affects your confidence, many women have spoken to me about this. They tell about me about how there are times at work especially where they are not as confident in putting their point or opinion forward. Lack of confidence is not helped if you are also having concentration issues or foggy brain. Some of you experience joint pain. Your skin health can be affected. Low sex drive is common as is vaginal dryness. Constipation is an issue that many women don't realise is connected.
We will all experience the journey differently, you might have one symptom or you could have all of them. Fortunately for me I didn't get all of the above symptoms. And the symptoms I did get came one after the other rather than all together. This made the journey easier for me. Like I said, it started with anxiety and after that I felt extreme anger and irritability. Later there was lack of energy, sleep problems, brain fog and all of this time I thought it was just me that I thought I was doing something wrong. At times I thought I was going crazy. It wasn't until there was the changes to my periods that I realised that all that had gone before were actually symptoms of the perimenopause. At the same time as changes in my periods, I started to have low libido, and later vaginal dryness. For me it was a journey with many changes, and I dealt with each symptom as it arose and I have to say that I am grateful it didn't happen all in the one go.
My first sign was when I was forty and I would say that the symptoms stretched out until I was fifty. It wasn't until I hadn't seen a period for 18 months that I could finally say that I was post menopausal. I have never felt better. I hope that you will find solutions too.
The main thing is to start the conversation and make the changes you need to make today.
Supplements to help Menopause
There are lots of supplements to help you with the various symptoms. Cleanmarine MenoMin for example is one of our customers’ favourites, it's a great place to start. Many women find that their energy and mood is better, and that their skin looks great too. Many women have told me that they feel great when they take it are very happy with it. It contains a mix of Omega 3 to support brain health, Soya Isoflavones, B Vitamins to help hormone regulation, skin and psychological function and Vitamin D all in 2 capsules daily. It’s worth considering.
It is one of the many supplements you could consider.
