Hormone Changes in your 40’s: What’s happening?
You turn 40 and within a few months, you find yourself experiencing wild mood swings and sleeping solidly throughout the night suddenly feels like a lost luxury. Your clothes don’t fit the same and your favourite jeans are not feeling comfortable anymore. Your periods used to be manageable and within the past few months, it feels like the flood gates open once a month. Your breasts have become oddly tender and you unexpectedly experiencing weird flashes of warmth and sweating. Is it menopause already? But wait, at 42, I thought I was too young for this!!!
Welcome to perimenopause and changes in hormones !
A woman is technically not in menopause until she has gone a full year without a period. The 2-10 years prior to actually losing your period is known as perimenopause and these years can sometimes be worse than menopause itself. You may feel like you are on a hormonal roller coaster ride. Conventional medicine has little to offer and when you bring it up with your conventional medical doctor, you’re typically offered the pill or an antidepressant. “There has to be a better way!” you say, and fortunately there is.
Hormone changes in Perimenopause
Contrary to popular belief, your estrogen level is probably not gradually declining. Instead, it’s fluctuating like you are on a wild roller coaster ride and the rapid highs and lows are causing your unwanted symptoms. High estrogen can cause heavy bleeding, breast tenderness, irritability and weight gain. Low estrogen results in depression, hot flashes and night sweats.
Women who have a slow decline of estrogen don’t experience heavy periods or PMS symptoms. Their periods gradually become lighter and fade away making for an easy ride. Most women however, often experience high spikes of estrogen in their 40’s followed by rapid crashes and it’s these fluctuations cause a myriad of symptoms.
Progesterone is a hormone that counterbalances estrogen. It calms your nervous system, promotes sleep, stimulates your metabolism, protects your uterine lining and protects you against hormone-related breast cancer. Unfortunately, this hormone declines in perimenopause leaving estrogen imbalances more prevalent.
A better way to Manage Perimenopause
Our naturopathic doctors are highly experienced in helping women to navigate perimenopause. Two key strategies help us to get you feeling like yourself again;
- Prevent Estrogen Spikes: Excessive estrogen can easily be managed by supporting the body’s natural detoxification pathways. Reducing alcohol, maintaining a healthy hormone diet and introducing supplements that can help your body clear excess estrogen are essential.
- Natural Progesterone: Natural progesterone, not synthetic progestin, can help relieve the symptoms of perimenopause. It also supports hormone balance and regulates thyroid function to help boost mood and metabolism. Our trained naturopathic doctors use only low dose natural progresterone cream for maximal benefit with minimal intervention.
If you work now to reduce estrogen spikes, your estrogen receptors can better adapt to the permanent decline in estrogen that’s coming in your 50s. In other words, treat perimenopause now, and you’ll have an easier menopause transition later. Get off the hormone rollercoaster today and book an appointment with one of our Naturopathic Doctors to get started on your hormone balancing plan.