Menopause Revealed (a short excerpt from my workshop)

Legs up the wall poses and opening the hips to help alleviate anxiety

Menopause

What is The Menopause?

Before I introduce and outline this stage of life, I would like to offer some notes I have collected from my students and clients:

Here are some comments from women in menopause and perimenopause:

·      More sensitive to stress, before could do more and it didn’t have the same affect.

·      One student who is helping herself through the hormonal shift says she is prone to inflammation and is following the diet she has developed for gut health.

·      Perimenopause could last  for 10 years—could start in 30’s—stress related more symptoms

·      Gen X generation pushing for HRT

·      Fat cells create a type of estrogen—so lean women may have a problem.

·      No problem!” our mothers may have said, and we feel silly!

·      Women feel they can’t complain so they don’t ask for help

·      Leave their husbands, not having care.

·      Acupuncture is effective; often they target the kidneys

·      Bio-identical hormones (hormone replacement therapy HRT)

·      What your sister goes through can determine/point to your patterns more than mother.

·      Also important to not feel like you need to figure out how to do menopause well, instead to feel into all that you are as you experience the changes.

Let’s learn how to navigate this transition to make informed decisions about your health.

·      Average age of menopause:  52

·      Lack of knowledge and appropriate medical care:  90% of women have not been taught about menopause;

·      60% didn’t know what would happen,

·      If a Dr. is not trained in women’s midlife health, they will not be adequately prepared.

The menopause and menopause is an English medical term which is a translation of the French  “la menopaus’e” which itself is a French translation of the Greek words: “menos”; meaning month and “pause” meaning pause or end.

“The menopause” is the term to describe the whole of a woman’s transition from the beginning of perimenopause to post-menopause.

Menopause is used to describe the 12 months without menstruation.

Is the menopause a “medical term” or a –bio-psycho-social-spiritual transition? 

Once we understand the true nature of a woman’s lifecycle, we can celebrate:

-       our feminine energy, 

-       acknowledge the wisdom within us all

-       and share this knowledge with younger generations.

By becoming educated, we view our menopausal years not with fear and anxiety, OR as a time to figure out how not to lose the body we have!!--but instead as a time of liberation, creativity, respect and empowerment.  (And, it’s worth mentioning, I have met women all throughout my career that are menopausal and have said,  “I just don’t care anymore!”  (About how I look.)  Yet, when we start our private exercise session or they start to speak about how they feel, it’s clear that they DO care, it’s just easier to say this and give up—as it is too hard to recognize and name the work that is needed to keep the body feeling alive in a new way—so let’s help the body feel more alive! And discover the New Way!)

Menopause is a natural stage in the life cycle of women.

This change of hormonal activity may require 2 to 7.5 years (or 12) to run its course. It can show her much about who she is, and who she is about to become.  (Compare this to the previous model or perception of the menopause—it lasts about 2 years and “just suck it up” and get over the symptoms since it’s not that long a haul.)

For women of colour the “change” can last longer.

Certain events can speed up a woman’s entry into menopause. 

Trauma, physically, emotionally, or mentally can hasten the transition into menopause.  Chemically induced menopause (for example, chemotherapy) can occur in months. Sometimes women’s ovaries return to normal after chemotherapy.  Each case is different.  Oophorectomy, surgical removal of the ovaries, will bring women right into menopause within 24 hours. A hysterectomy, the surgical removal of the uterus (or womb) may also hasten the shutdown of the ovaries, as removal of the uterus can disrupt the blood supply to the ovaries.

The Menopause is:

·      Transition from a reproductive to post-reproductive stage.

·      Post-reproductive lives rather than loss of fertility

·      I will provide factual information and an alternative perspective: that the menopause is a transformative opportunity for self-insight and personal growth; a chance to heal emotional pain; make peace with the past and befriend herself and the body with self-love. 

·      Then, you can step into your post-reproductive life feeling released, renewed and empowered by the embrace of compassionate self-acceptance.

·      Menopause can feel like a spiritual awakening as you start to perceive yourself and the world around you in a different way.

We take steps to address what is happening, not alleviate what is happening!

If we had Type 1 Diabetes, we would take insulin as we are insulin dependent.  If we are perimenopausal or in menopause we find out how to address the changes as it is not as basic or simple as providing HRT (hormone replacement therapy)—if we are considering or choosing that route.  We may need to address:

·      sleep deprivation—sleep hygiene,

·      mood swings

·      exercise, and how to modify how we move when feeling a lack of energy

·      changing our expectations of our self

·      discovering how we want to use our energy and live our life now.

An inclusive term I adopted when presenting information about menopause is  “Womanhood” rather than “Motherhood” as not all women could or wanted to have children.  Many women may have had premature ovarian insufficiency-POIS and other factors that kept them from having a baby. 

During perimenopause and menopause, we are changing the levels of 3 hormones. 

O-estrogen 

is the primary sex hormone and maintains:

-       the menstrual cycle in fertility

-       as well as mood

-       heart health

-       bone strength

O-estrogen is a collective name for 3 types of hormones:

-       oestradial

-       oestrone

-       oestriol 

O-estrogen is mainly produced in the ovaries—which is oestrodial—small amounts are also made by the adrenal glands and some other tissues.  However, the body does not stop producing o-estrogen overnight.

The process can take many years.

There are o-estrogen receptors in almost every area of the women’s body including the brain.

Progesterone supports pregnancy and causes the lining of the womb to be shed each month if no pregnancy occurs.

Post menopause, progesterone drops down to almost nothing.⁴

 (Boice, Judith.  Menopause: Science and Soul. 2007.)

Testosterone regulates:

-       sex drive

And affects:

-       sleep

-       mood

-       energy

-       muscle tone

(Nocturia is defined as the need for patients to get up at night regularly to urinate. A sleep period must precede and follow the urinary episode to count as a nocturnal void. Nocturia is often described as the most bothersome of all urinary symptoms and is also one of the most common.)

Post menopause hormone levels remain fairly stable. Testosterone levels remain relatively unchanged, unless a woman has an oophorectomy, which reduces testosterone levels by about one-half.

When the hormone levels start to change, the body will try to kick start o-estrogen production in other parts of the body, if the ovaries are unresponsive.  This gradual change is called her perimenopause.