Perimenopause Signs and Symptoms

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Transcript:

If you’re a woman in your forties and you don’t know if you’re in or near perimenopause, there are two ways that you can check.

The first sign of perimenopause is how you feel and the symptoms that come about.

Are you having trouble losing weight an issue? Sleeping? Is anxiety an issue for you whether it’s gotten worse or come out of nowhere, and that may include heart palpitations. And you have issues with focus and concentration and just overall feeling fatigued.

No matter how much sleep you get, you just can’t seem to get that same level of energy you had before. Also, if you’re getting hot flashes or night sweats, waking up most nights just drenched, that can also be an indication.

The second way is to look at your menstrual cycles. Are they changing in blood flow as it becomes heavier or lighter? Or are you skipping months in between or having more frequent cycles?

Those are all indications that the fluctuations in hormones in perimenopause are affecting how you bleed every month.

So what can you do about it?

I suggest definitely working with a hormone specialist or a menopause specialist that can help guide you through this process.

Along with that is focusing on your adrenals. Now, our adrenals make cortisol and other stress hormones, and women that have had chronic stress throughout their life and not having good stress management practices, maybe having a high level of coral being produced or not enough, along with rest and deep breathing exercises, meditation, restorative, yoga.

You can also take adrenal adaptogens like ashwagandha, holy basil, Schisandea, American ginseng, and a couple of others out there that can help modulate your cortisol and just overall adrenal function.

The next is looking into your thyroid. Get your thyroid levels to check for TSH, free T3, free T4, and thyroid antibodies at a minimum to see if there’s any fluctuation or issues with thyroid hormone production. And there are a couple of things that you can do to regulate your cycles.

However, if you’re having irregular bleeding patterns where you have spotting when you shouldn’t be bleeding or super heavy periods, I suggest going to your OBGYN to have a transvaginal ultrasound done just to make sure that there are no other issues like fibroids or polyps or cyst that may be contributing to those symptoms.

There’s an herb called Vitex or chase tree berry that can help with hormone signaling and has been known to help with progesterone production, but it does indirectly.

Some women also do very well with short-term treatment with a topical progesterone cream that has to be prescribed by a doctor that you can apply for the second half of your cycle to help regulate things.

And then there are some women in perimenopause that do well with just a little bit of estrogen cream for a few days at the beginning of the cycle to help give you a boost.

Another effective way to regulate cycles is called seed cycling. It’s usually known to help women before menopause, but if you’re in perimenopause, it can be really effective.

If you want more information, schedule a consultation.