How to Recognize the Signs and Symptoms of Menopause
When you’re entering this phase in your life, it’s so helpful to be able to recognize and manage the signs of menopause without feeling you’re losing control of your life. When you can better understand the signs of menopause and learn how to manage them, going through this natural stage in life doesn’t need to be feared.
In this article, I’m going to explore the different symptoms and stages of menopause and share some effective strategies for managing them.
How to recognize the signs of menopause?
Generally, this phase in a woman’s life starts at around 40 years of age when she can start to experience hormone changes which then give rise to a myriad of symptoms. Unfortunately, some women can feel they’re going ‘crazy’ or ‘mad’ when they have symptoms of hot flashes, night sweats, lack of libido, mood swings, lack of concentration, vaginal dryness, anxiety, tearfulness, weight gain– or any of the 48 accepted signs and symptoms of menopause.
The most common sign and symptom of menopause is hot flushes.
However, it’s also important to remember that no two women’s menopause will take the same path and women of color and different ethnicities experience different symptoms too. For example, some may experience more severe hot flushes.
What is menopause?
What does the word menopause mean? It’s when periods permanently stop. However, they don’t just stop, and everything is fine, unfortunately. The phase and symptoms of perimenopause, leading up to periods ceasing, typically lasts from two to six years but may continue for ten or more. Officially, women have gone through menopause when they haven’t had a period for one year, although the potential mayhem doesn’t automatically stop as well.
The hormone, oestrogen declines although some is still produced from fat cells and our adrenal glands which provide us with stress hormones.
I often see women who have been on a rollercoaster ride with their hormones for much of their lives and then menopause takes them into yet another phase, with new challenges to navigate.
I’m often asked… ‘What are the different stages of menopause’ and ‘How do I know what stage of menopause I am at’?
Early menopause
Around 1 in 100 women experience early menopause before 40 years of age. This is known as premature menopause or premature ovarian insufficiency. Some women go through an early surgical menopause after they might have had a hysterectomy and have had to get their ovaries removed. It can be very distressing for women, and they can really feel like their body has let them down.
Perimenopause
Peri’ means around but it’s normally when women often talk about ‘going through menopause’. We also refer to this stage as premenopause.
The signs of perimenopause often start with a change in the pattern of periods. They may become irregular, longer or shorter as well as heavier or in some cases, lighter. The perimenopause can begin 8 to 10 years before menopause when the ovaries gradually produce less oestrogen.
Signs and symptoms of perimenopause can also include hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, loss of libido, low energy, sleepless nights and an inability to concentrate, which seems to continue worsening. You might also notice difficulties in controlling your weight even though you’re not eating more food. Don’t worry, it’s not just you that’s suffering.
Menopause
There is a lot of confusion around the word ‘menopause’ and the stages of menopause. The word menopause comes from the Greek, with ‘menos’ meaning month and ‘pausos’ an ending. This better helps our understanding.
Post Menopause
This is the start of the rest of your life! Your postmenopausal years are all of those years after the menopause. During this stage, menopausal symptoms, such as hot flushes, can ease for many women. However, because of a lower level of estrogen, postmenopausal women are at increased risk for a number of health conditions, such as osteoporosis and heart disease.
The signs and symptoms of post menopause that women can still struggle with are hot flashes, night sweats, joint pain, heart palpitations, loss of confidence, low mood, vaginal dryness and dry skin. Unfortunately, women really hope to be free from symptoms post menopause, but this is often not the case.
However, two of the ‘silent’ signs and symptoms of post menopause are weakening bones and risk of heart disease. Both become higher health possibilities post menopause. Some women have a higher risk factor for osteoporosis if they had anorexia when younger, are a smoker, are very inactive or have a high alcohol intake. However, the good news is that many risks can often be mitigated with natural approaches. A healthy diet and lifestyle are very important to adopt post menopause.
Being aware of the possibility for heart disease due to reducing estrogen levels is important. Adopting a good hormone-balancing diet and lifestyle can really help reduce any risks. Plus, it’s good to talk to your healthcare provider about getting cholesterol, C reactive protein and homocysteine levels checked.
The experience of menopause is different for every woman, based on how her body uniquely adapts to her process of ageing. It’s important to remember that you're not suddenly going to wake up one day and be symptom-free because you've got lots of things to address in your body like low levels of nutrients, reduced levels of estrogen and so on. But, over time, you can get your life back again!
Pre menopause signs and symptoms
Women often use the word premenopause or perimenopause to describe the whole of a women’s life from her first period to the last one.
One of the first symptoms of perimenopause is erratic periods. They may become shorter, longer, heavier or lighter or with longer gaps in-between.
Signs and symptoms of perimenopause may include mood swings, hot flushes, night sweats and lack of sex drive. Other psychological symptoms might be loss of confidence and self-esteem, and anxiety.
Menopause signs and symptoms
What is the sign and symptom of menopause? The actual menopause is the point when you have your last ever period. The average age of menopause is 51 and you will be surprised to hear that menopause is really only one day. Menopause is the anniversary of one year since you last had a period…. the next day you're postmenopausal.
Obviously, you won’t know it’s your last period until you look back, but you need to be clear of periods for 12 months for menopause to have occurred.
What are the options for treating menopause naturally?
Here I recommend eight different natural treatment options for getting menopause symptoms under control and feeling the best version of you. Importantly, you’ll be entering the next and exciting phase of your life, and you want this to be as healthy as possible. Protecting your future healthy longevity is all part of my recommendations for you.
Adopting a hormone-balancing diet.
Good nutrition is important for all women around the time of the menopause. It’s particularly important that you have a healthy, balanced diet with regular meals, as irregular eating can make certain symptoms worse, such as feeling tired.
Eat plenty of color!
Unfortunately, women are often nutrient depleted at this stage of life, and fluctuating hormones can really knock a woman out of balance when nutrient levels are low. It’s great to have a colorful diet: I talk about eating a rainbow every day! This is because color equals nutrients, especially the essential vitamins and minerals that are often so depleted.
All fruits and vegetables contain unique compounds that provide incredible health benefits and also support healthy ageing. All colourful foods, including beans, legumes and pulses provide antioxidants which help to fight the damaging effects of free radicals. They can put you more at risk from premature ageing and degenerative diseases such as heart disease: the one that you’re really trying to prevent.
I can give you some good news though. If you think of colourful fruits and vegetables such as raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, beetroots and carrots (there are hundreds more of course), each one provides its unique benefits to your health and an amazing part of your effective menopause treatment.
What about carbs?
Carbohydrates can offer an important part of your diet because they not only provide energy but loads of nutrients too. I’ve already mentioned beans, lentils, fruits and vegetables. However, it’s the type of carbohydrates consumed that determines the quality of energy and whether it’s short or long-lasting and whether you gain unwanted weight.
If you’re noticing your cravings are worsening and weight is going on around the middle, this is essentially down to blood glucose control. If your diet contains lots of refined carbohydrates such as white rice, white pasta, or white bread, cakes, cookies and pastries, these are known as refined carbohydrates, and they will cause glucose to be released into your bloodstream quickly.
Unfortunately, this takes you on a blood sugar roller coaster, once glucose levels drop. Low mood, irritability, weight gain, and low energy are all the consequences of eating refined carbs. And these are all symptoms that you might be feeling as part of your menopause journey. Often when you can get blood glucose levels balance, your symptoms will improve too.
Unrefined carbs, however, are what we call complex carbohydrates such as beans, whole grains, and vegetables have a blood sugar balancing effect.
Eat more omega-3 fatty acids
These amazing fats have hormone balancing effects, but they also produce substances called prostaglandins from the essential fatty acids, some of which are anti-inflammatory. This is something that we really need to manage during the menopause years to help prevent joint pains, arthritis, heart disease, osteoporosis and nasty degenerative diseases.
Omega 3 fatty acids are found in oily fish such as sardines, mackerel and also flaxseeds. Try to include some in your diet very regularly.
Take nutrient-boosting supplements
Supplements are important to support your body nutritionally. Whilst I always say, ‘it’s food-first’, specific supplements can really help plug gaps in nutrients. It’s also good to remember that certain helpful herbs and botanicals can only be found in supplements such as ashwagandha, but which can really help anxiety levels. I only recommend supplements that have been through clinical trials and have shown to be safe and effective.
Include phytoestrogens in the diet.
It's not a question of only taking multivitamins and minerals to get your nutrients back into an optimum range. You also need to eat phytoestrogens which will influence the hormone-producing glands in your body and top off oestrogen naturally so you can fool the brain into thinking you've got normal circulating oestrogen again.
Phytoestrogens are plant foods that can have an oestrogen-like activity and hormone-balancing effect to your body. They include pulses such as lentils, chickpeas and soya products. Over 300 foods including fruits, vegetables, seeds, legumes and grains which have been found to have an estrogenic effect.
Phytoestrogens are important in helping combat the effects of the perimenopause and the menopause. Put simply, these plant foods help to balance your hormones.
Phytoestrogens provide a very effective natural treatment method for all stages of menopause.
Take time daily for exercise and relaxation
Because osteoporosis risk skyrockets following menopause, cardio and strength training is vital. Strength training exercises will help to build bone and muscle strength, burn body fat, and rev up your metabolism.
Self-relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and visual imagery can help to relieve menopausal symptoms for many women and in particular help improve anxiety and insomnia.
What is HRT?
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is literally just that. It is medication that women can take to replace their falling oestrogen levels. If a woman still has a womb and hasn’t had a hysterectomy, then the medication will include progesterone too.
Is HRT necessary to treat menopause?
Whether or not to take HRT is every woman’s choice and her right to decide. A greater percentage of women decide to take the very effective natural approach to menopause, but it is a decision that every woman will make herself, perhaps in conjunction with her health care provider and also based on her individual medical history. Women often combine the two approaches – it doesn’t have to be an ‘either/or’ decision.
A Womens’ Health Care Community for Menopause
For women hoping to learn more about menopause, you don’t have to go on this journey alone. Femmar’s founder Maryon Stewart has spent decades researching menopause and building a community of content and women who are going through or have been on the journey.
The Midlife Refuel Community is powered by experts in health and Femmar certified menopause nutritionists who host regular live webinars and contribute the latest research, Q&A’s and provide members opportunities for 1:1 consultation.
Midlife Refuel is a safe space to celebrate the unique triumphs and to support each other through challenges as we navigate the stages of menopause naturally, together. Whether just starting to notice hormonal changes or seeking a new path after years of HRT, the Midlife Refuel Community meets you where you are.
If you have questions and want real-time answers, click the blue chat button to the right and our Virtual Menopause Assistant can provide answers and vetted resources in real time.
