If you are under the age of 30 feel free to scroll down to the end! I have goodies for you down there.
Ok… for all my over 30 friends and anyone else interested, we need to talk.
We’re going to break down the key elements I’ve learned so far about making it through perimenopause.
Peri means “around”. Menopause is when you have not had a period for a full 12 months. The fluctuations that can occur leading up to the official menopause day can start TEN YEARS before your period is finally done. There are a ton of symptoms that can occur and this is due to the fact your hormones react with every system of your body. Of course everything will be affected.
My perimenopause started around 39 and was manifesting as an anxious feeling in the body, nausea, hair loss, joint pain, breast tenderness, weight gain, very heavy periods and night sweats.
This is in no way going to be a complete, fully scientific or all encompassing newsletter.
But it’s going to be my experience so far and what has worked for me as a 45 year old.
The Basics
One of the most important things I learned is actually how my menstrual cycle works and what the hormones are doing at different points throughout my 27 day cycle.
Oddly enough, I never learned when my body was producing estrogen or testosterone or progesterone, and how those changed throughout the month. I didn’t even know your cycle “started” when the bleeding began. That is day one on this chart below. I have tracked it enough now that I can tell where I am at hormonally just by how the body is feeling.
This book is a great resource to teach you all about your hormones, but fundamentally this is how it works:
Hormones are like little communication messengers that tell your body to do things. When you put your body through high levels of stress, either from long hours, poor food choices, or general life factors, your body can start to overproduce the hormones that keep you amped up like cortisol, and that will suppress the creation of hormones that keep things running as they should.
As the body ages and the ovaries start to slow down, you can get an overabundance of the stress hormones and not enough of the others ones.
This can create a cascade effect that can affect all systems of the body.
Additionally, your body creates hormones, all kinds, but you need to be able to get rid of them. Estrogen, for example, is a really wonderful hormone, but if you don’t process it out through your gut or your liver, it can potentially build up create cancers, heavy periods, sore breasts and cause weight gain. That was happening to me, not the cancer, but everything else. Needless to say, with history of breast cancer in my family, I took swift action to help improve the systems that process estrogen.
This is why gut and liver health is so important. This is also why you may notice a harder time tolerating alcohol or sugar in your 30s and beyond. Sugar and alcohol both tax the liver.
As the body gets older around over 35 its ability to deal with stress and process hormones out of the body slows down. Then as you approach menopause, which is simply defined as 12 months without a period, your hormone production fluctuates and changes.
Beyond just the sex hormones there are of course other factors such as your thyroid, Vitamin D (a hormone!) and insulin levels which are all very important too and can be out of wack.
All of this can sound pretty scary, overwhelming, and something that you might feel completely at effect of.
But when you understand your hormones and what can build them up and how to get rid of the ones you don’t want, you can actually feel more empowered and in control.
My tools
The best things that I have done to support my body through perimenopause are:
Getting a blood test and seeing my vitamin D levels were low and my thyroid was ok
Eating whole varied foods. I do not cut any food group except canola oil (as much as possible).
Walking 2-4 miles, five days a week
Limiting alcohol - it destroys your gut microbiome and spikes stress hormones
Lowering sugar
12 to 17 hour food breaks with occasional (once a month) 24 to 36 hour fasts always in coordination with my period* (resource) Take a look at that chart above. Key simplicity is you can go lower carb easily when the hormone dips occur and you NEED carbs when you want to be building progesterone.
Thoroughly chewing my food - a game changer
Self Lymphatic Massage - Important for immunity and cellular health
Adaptogens - Powerful herbs that help improve your body’s response to stress.
Colostrum - This stuff. You gotta to try it to believe it.
Probiotics - I finally found one that works
Vitamin D & K2
Acupuncture for my shoulders and gall bladder
I also sleep at least seven hours per night
I try to add as much resistance training as possible
Fundamentally all of these things lower inflammation and improve functions of all systems of the body.
This routine has pretty much eliminated the night sweats I was getting as well as the breast tenderness and heavy periods that had begun. The nervous stomach also stopped.
The acupuncture completely finalized the healing of a perimenopausal related shoulder injury and kickstarted and broke up hard solids or gunk in my gallbladder. I literally felt the gall bladder contracting and squirting bile and making crackling sounds when the needle went into the liver area. It was CRAZY.
I was also able to drop 14 pounds that seemed to just show up overnight through keeping the above routine consistent with occasional margaritas and enjoyment of chocolate and cheese . This is the best cheese by the way.
Perimenopause can start an average of 10 years prior to your period fully stopping.
Mine started between the age of 38 and 39 so I estimating my period will fully stop by around 49 but we’ll see. Right now it’s very regular and for the most part, the fluctuations I’ve been experiencing have calmed down a lot.
There is very little research on perimenopause and menopause. It’s come to light that the study which said hormone treatment for women would cause cancer was not actually true. (NY Times Article)
From my view this set us back decades in being able to research how to best support the female body through this transition.
I am not at the stage where I feel like I need to add hormone treatment or HRT, but I am definitely not opposed to such in the future.
Things I don’t do for perimenopause
These are some of the things that I have tried, but ultimately stopped doing to help with perimenopause symptoms:
castor oil packs
Very restrictive diets like keto or fully cutting some food.
Things I know I can’t maintain like high intensity workouts
Collagen supplements
In Summary
Ultimately what I’ve learned is the key thing to support is your gut and your liver with all of the corresponding parts like your gall bladder, kidneys and adrenals. When that area is working as it should things are easier.
Perimenopause can be a really beautiful time of self discovery, learning about yourself, your mind and your body and branching out into new interests and adventures.
I know some of you may even be having children during this period or trying to.
While this time can totally feel like “what the heck is happening to my body?”, it can also be a time of opportunity, growth and change
I have listened to, read and watched a lot of creators, podcasters, doctors and thought leaders in the holistic nutrition & women’s health space so I thought I would share some of those resources if you would like to go on a deep dive into learning about this area. (links below)
I don’t endorse any one, specific doctor, creator, or author, because there are things they all say that I disagree with. However, you begin to find the constants and basic fundamentals throughout the noise. This newsletter is my attempt to give you those basic constants that were workable for me. I am sure you have your own stable things that have worked for you and I would love to know what they are.
I love you all. I am so happy you are here. I cannot even begin to explain what a dream come true it is for me to have connected with so many people through social media that now I am able to begin a newsletter and build community.
I sometimes get annoyed by thought leaders, or creators, who are overly optimistic or two sunshiny because it often comes across patronizing
I know that the women and the people who connect with me on social media, and in this newsletter are intelligent, strong and powerful, but sometimes the lack of education we’ve received about how our bodies work can totally bring us to our knees.
Linked above and below are all of my supplements and perimenopausal tools. These are affiliate links, and they’re there simply to be a resource for you.
If any of you have had helpful resources or products for your hormonal health journey, please let me know in the comments. I’m opening the comments on this post to all subscribers, whether paid or not because this topic is too important to hide it behind a paywall.
For my younger friends:
Hello! You may or may not know how you hormones work and what happens during your period. So often hormones are referred to negatively. Like, “I’m so hormonal!” “She’s PMSing.”, etc. But your hormones are actually powerful and vital to overall wellness.
Earlier in this newsletter I shared a diagram that lays out what your key sexual hormones do during your cycle.
I wish I had learned about this sooner so take a look at the diagram and check out this book that will teach you more about your hormones and how they work.
It is likely a good idea to track your cycle so you can learn about what you body is doing and when. That way you can exercise and eat in ways that support your body. The book I reference is about fasting, but it is the most comprehensive book I have found that teaches about hormones. I DO NOT advise you fast beyond simple 12 hour food breaks.* Eat that protein breakfast!
Thank you for being here. Especially if you have made it this far. I hope this is helpful. If there are any other areas you feel we should dig deeper into, please leave it in the comments.
Love,
Jen
Resources:
Podcasts and Social Media Creators to Follow:
Dr Mindy Pelz - creator of the diagram and Fast Like a Girl Movement
Dr Mary Claire - Amazing Menopause Doctor
Lisa Levitt Gainsley - Lymph educator
Dr Taz - She’s great
Dr Mariza - Estrogen Dominance Podcast - Great podcast
The Blonde Files with MD Jordan Geller - Deep dive into hormone education
The Glucose Goddess - The affect of sugar on the body
Kelly LeVeque - More great low sugar ideas
Huberman Podcast on Alcohol - This will make you think about alcohol differently
The Doctor’s Farmacy - Perimenopause episode - Great guests on this one
MORE LINKS
My resources for Lymphatic Info/tools, books & Gut Information
*Notes on fasting (this is not starvation) When you want to build progesterone it can be harmful to fast so I use it as a tool when my sex hormones are naturally supposed to be lower. It is very easy to take food breaks when your sex hormones are naturally supposed to be lower. Intermittent fasts allow your body to concentrate on other functions, restore the gut microbiome and allow your body to rid any build up of diseased cells or abundant hormones.
Additionally, unless there is a medical condition which would benefit from fasting, I would never advise fasting or things that mimic fasting like the Keto Diet for women under 30. A 12 hour food break is one thing, but longer fasts for a younger female body could be dangerous, disrupt hormone production and lead to potentially disordered eating.
Thank you thank you.
A younger friend (I’m 42) recently had me thinking about hormone cycles (trying to figure them out is challenging!) and eating appropriately for each phase. They never taught us any of this in school. Thank you for the reassurance that this is all normal, and for breaking it down into something easily understood. 💛
I'm turning 39 this year and was wondering if some of my symptoms are perimenopause. Last week my doctor said "you are too young, it can't be it"
I'm so glad I found you, Jennifer! Thank you for such empowering, thoughtful and thorough newsletter.