Defying The ‘M’ Word

Aside from an extraordinary talent, Meryl Streep epitomizes the light, fun and playfulness we can have as older women, provided we open ourselves up to it.

Being able to take charge of your menopause symptoms may seem like an impossible dream, for anyone struggling with the challenges they can deliver at any time of the day or night.

But even your GP’s go-to compendium for disease, The Merck Manual, recommends alternative and complementary medicine and lifestyle modifications to assist with The Menopause, or the ‘m’ word as it’s fondly referred to around here.

One of the obvious pitfalls is that although those around you want to empathise, how can they possibly understand it unless they’ve gone through it, no matter how well-intentioned their support.

Yet they are likely the same people dealing with any fallout from the hormonal changes you’re undergoing, which maybe a tad challenging from their perspective.

How long is the menopause

For some it’s as little as a few months, traditionally it’s thought to last an average of 4-yrs, but for others it can rage on for a decade.

And let’s face it even 4-yrs can be a long time when you’re stuck with a diminishing sense of parts of yourself that some of what’s shown here can inflict.

This ought to be a wonderful time in your life, where you’ve achieved more security, with more options opening up as new pastures spring up.

But the state of your health before the arrival of the Menopause is a key factor regards what comes next, such as your:

• Chronic health history
• Lifestyle habits
• Family patterns
• What does getting older means to you
• Emotional wellbeing day-to-day
• Medical predictors

When the Menopause arrives, you can be sure that any pre-existing conditions are pertinent in how you experience it, because nothing in the mind and body happens in isolation. The above provides a list of what you can notice going on in your Health & Personal Development Journal if you keep one.

But one thing is for sure…

…the days are gone where your only option was to stick on an HRT patch and hope for the best

There are many other, safe and well researched solutions, such as those my clients learn on my Having Happy Hormones Programmes where menopausal symptoms are helped gently, effectively and more quickly than is conventionally available through a GP at the moment. Although some of my programmes do include an NHS Pharmacist, which ensures safety around medications, and withdrawing from them if that’s part of what you wish to achieve.

When you think about it Menopause is a generic term, and different people have different symptom combinations affecting them to different degrees. So it follows that a multi-pronged tailor-made approach will prove more beneficial. And this is what addressing your individual need offers to help:

• your mind
• your body
• your emotions
• your spirit
• your environment

And this inbuilt flexibility is where medicine is already headed:

For the purposes of reassuring you, the programmes offered here include a more effective private service for measuring your hormonal levels before and after so that you and your doctor can rest assured.

And even though you’ll experience a noticeable difference, some people like to have it confirmed through a doctor, which I absolutely welcome.

What are the range of menopause symptoms

Here’s a list of the associated symptoms you might be experiencing at the moment:

• hot flushes / flashes
• night sweats
• low moods
• raging anger
• sluggishness
• unpredictability
• exhaustion
• confusion
• perimenopause
• andropause (male equivalent)
• sporadic periods
• poor memory
• sleeplessness
• digestive upsets
• skin issues
• distancing yourself
• water retention
• feeling bloated
• lacking energy
• withdrawing from people
• vaginal dryness
• low libido
• loss of confidence
• middle ages spread
• an overlap of symptoms with existing chronic health

You’re unlikely to experience all of them, but just one or two can be enough to start feeling alienated from yourself and your nearest and dearest. What’s that saying, ‘we always hurt the ones we love’?

What menopause can bring instead

Getting back what used to be recovers what you’ve lost, your love of socialising and catching up with friends, a level head, clarity, or the the intimacy with a partner, is the difference that makes a difference.

The Menopause also brings some positives into a woman’s life, and this starts with how we deal with these challenges.

Knowing that it’s entirely possible to get rid of these sorts of feelings and symptoms is something I want to impart to encourage you into a better, brighter, lighter future, jam-packed full of en entirely different and better experience instead of what you’re putting up with, because you might not have realised that you have a choice.

Middle age is something to fly the flag for, in my book, forget going under the knife, we have much to dance about, once we get into a place of joy and wonderment at the next very real and present sense of life-purpose, that is waiting in the wings.

This is indeed your time, to mark what you have achieved, and start honing in on what you want more of as you let go of what no longer works.

The menopause is a rights of passage just as adolescence was, and it isn’t as negative as society paints it. We are living in the 21st century and all things are possible. I’d love to help you make more of that by getting rid of the symptoms, as you unravel what you want instead.

P.S. I’d love to help you get free of your Menopause symptoms.

Take the next steps

If you’re ready to take some steps towards getting free of your menopause symptoms, then let’s arrange a chat that explores whether my Happy Hormones Programme, is right for you.