Embracing the change

There is usually more than a hormonal shift—Often there is an accompanying emotional shift. As Christiane Northrup, MD points out; it is characteristic of women to focus much of their energy during the child-bearing years on caring for others. As they move toward menopause, the focus commonly turns inwards to caring for themselves. Women often re-evaluate their lives and their relationships, looking for the understanding, support and the encouragement they feel they’ve been giving others for so many years. Make sure that you are not asking someone to read your mind, but rather take care in how you express yourself. If need be, consult a therapist.

Diet, making the best of the four-letter word – You may feel that your eating habits have not changed or that you’re even eating less, but find yourself gaining weight. In mid-life women experience a 10-15% metabolic rate slowdown, their bodies become more efficient at storing energy as fat, and as estrogen levels fall, appetite increases. After menopause this weight usually goes away as metabolism re-stabilizes, but in the meantime, keeping blood sugar level during the day by eating small meals tends to help most menopausal women. The key is not to overeat at night as metabolism peaks earlier in the day, and to cut down on carbohydrates, and have protein with each meal.

Exercise makes every list —Regular aerobic exercise can help ease menopausal symptoms, maintain or optimize heart heath and maintain metabolic rate. A program of weight or resistance training will help maintain bone strength. There are so many different ways to exercise nowadays; from tai-chi to spin, the key is to find one or two that you enjoy.

Hormones and the Libido—A deficiency in estrogen or progesterone can cause changes such as vaginal dryness and thinning of the vaginal wall, making sex less pleasurable and even painful. Testosterone levels also fall during the menopausal transition and can contribute to a decreased sex drive, decreased energy and a decreased “overall sense of well-being.” Most physicians will prescribe an estriol cream for the vaginal dryness and thinning of the wall. Similarly if low testosterone levels are detected, supplementation to normal levels is easy to achieve. Additionally, the combination of the herbs black cohosh and chaste tree berry found in Oöna will also help with vaginal dryness and thinning vaginal walls.