Menopause (peri AND post) & hormones

Since I'm post-menopausal I take an interest in finding out more about all the things that change in your body due to a decrease in female hormones but also dip in testosterone.
The latter we also need a bit to not lose muscle mass.

What I've learnt so far is that there are an unbelievably amount of problems that are all related to this and most people don't even know about the depth of this!

Most know the hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes and weight gain.
That's where most people's knowledge ends concerning menopause.

Thing is, I haven't got night sweats, nor mood changes, no real hot flashes either. I've put on a bit of weight over the years, but that is not all due to menopause.
What I'm trying to say is, not every woman has these well-known symptoms!
My version of a hot flash is a mild warm wave, as I call it. And I don't always have them either as I use supplement to balance my hormones.

What else is all related to menopause, and ladies, these issues do NOT STOP once you are post-menopausal!!
That's another thing, many women seem to thing that once they're post-menopause the problems stop. THEY DON"T STOP!!! Maybe you won't notice it so much, but it'll continue until you make your transition, UNLESS you do something about it!

Remember this if you think you have none of the following: you may not have severe issues, but certain things you may be unaware of, like your insulin resistance, cholesterol levels, bone density and so on. So don't disregard it too soon! Maybe have these things checked out so you know for sure!

Let's start with the well-known things, I will continue with the rest:
- hot flashes
- night sweats
- mood changes
- weight gain (belly fat you cannot shift which is dangerous!)
- recurring Urinary Tract Infections
- incontinence
- having to get up to urinate several times a night
- Inner ear changes causing
------Vertigo
------Tinnitus
------ possibly ear infection that won't go (I had that in mid August and it still hasn't fully subsided in spite of antibiotics, both eardrops and oral)
- Dental issues
- High cholesterol
- High insulin resistance (leading to diabetics)
- Increased risk of Cardio-vascular disease
- blood sugar dips and insatiable hunger
- low or no sexdrive
- aches & pains (joints, muscles, ligaments)
- vaginal dryness
- rather fast and incredibly loss of muscle mass, even if you still work out the same way you did before
- changes in gut (microbiome)
- sleeping problems
- hair loss
- problems remembering things
- Dry skin

This list is not complete, I cannot find my notes, grmble...

In any case, many of these issues have to do with the lowering of oestrogen. You need this as it's highly anti-inflammatory.
The dip in this hormone causes the tissues of the pelvic floor to get thinner which causes problems like UTIs, bladder control issues, vaginal dryness etc.
This can be resolved by using intravaginal oestrogen cream!!

The dip in oestrogen is also the cause of many of the other issues described above, incl. the joint issues and pain and inner ear issues as low oestrogen affects cartilage! Joints and inner ear have a lot of cartilage so they (can) get affected.
Even if you have no serious complaints, these will be affected but then in a milder way. It does happen regardless unless you make sure your oestrogen goes up again!!

The loss of muscle mass is due to a dip in progesterone and testosterone. Women can produce testosterone out of progesterone so if these levels are low you cannot make much testosterone either. But also, if you don't produce testosterone in other ways, the production of this out of your progesterone will deplete this and you do need this!!
How to create testosterone?
Do resistance (power) training!
That builds muscles AND testosterone! There are more reason why you should do this, why muscles are important btw but I'm trying to keep it reasonably short, hihi.
So NO aerobics as that does NOT produce testosterone nor muscles. You can still do it a bit, but the emphasis should be resistance/power training!
You can do this at home with an aerobics band (which is a resistance band). There are tons of vids on YouTube for resistance training with such a band for menopausal women!

As for the rest... HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) is a very good one! NOT ORALLY THOUGH!!
Orally goes via the liver which can lead to issues there.
Use patches, creams and so on as then it doesn't go via the liver.
And no, HRT does NOT cause cancer! That is a myth and proven to be NOT TRUE whatsoever!

One thing to remember with HRT is that when you have a uterus you (also) need progesterone, not just oestrogen.
In essence you need more progesterone than oestrogen. The bummer is that we get a lot of unnatural oestrogen in our bodies from the environment which makes the body believe it has oestrogen so it stops making its own.
So in a way it would be best to not experiment on your own but to see a naturopath or an other therapist who is experienced in this area.

Did you know that the best way to get a huge increase of oestrogen is... a romantic partner, a man!? When a man has healthy testosterone levels and treats you right then you get a huge increase in oestrogen.
Unfortunately you miss out on that option when you're single...
But there are other ways to 'up' your oestrogen and progesterone if you really don't want HRT. But remember, whatever it is you will have to continue to do it for the rest of your life.

Last thing: even post-menopausal we still are cyclic. Not as much anymore as when we were fertile, but our adrenal glands still produce some hormones. This is why some say to not go for HRT.
Bummer is that many these days already have rather depleted adrenal glands as our Western society and life-style creates a lot of non-stop stress.

A lot of info here, do with it what you will. The most important thing I wanted to convey is  that you do not have to suffer through peri or post menopause. Do remember that the process of rapid decline will continue, EVEN post-menopausal!! Unless you do something about it.

A few good things that esp peri-post menopausal women need:
resistance training
Vit D3
Fibre (approx 25gr a day)
HRT could be very helpful
Magnesium (Have levels checked though and find a good version as many cannot be easily absorbed in the body!!!)
Calcium (have levels checked!)
Intermittent Fasting 16:8hr can apparently be very helpful (NOT when diabetic!!! NOT if you have any eating disorder!)

This list is also not complete, but at least it's something.
Do your own research or see someone who's well educated on this matter which is typically NOT a doctor!!!

Doctors in their years of study have only 2 pages on menopause so they know Jack chit about it.
Gynaecologists who are supposed to be the experts on this only have ONE lecture of some 6 hours on the topic!!
This is why they don't know what to do with you and tell you to suck it up and bear and grin with it. Maybe give you a tranquiliser or painkiller.
They have a code word for menopausal women: WW, meaning a "Whinging Woman"!! That's how they talk about you among themselves... So they are not the ones to help you unless you got a better educated more well-rounded one and these will be very rare, almost non-existent.

I"M NOT AN EXPERT SO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH FIRST OR GO SEE A THERAPIST / PROFESSIONAL.
I'm only trying to enlighten people, put out the info that there are things you can do.

If you have any sleeping problems then that's what should be addressed first and foremost as during sleep your body recovers and restores etc.
So with sleep deprivation you cannot really get back to your former glory.

Without any supplements to balance my hormones I have trouble falling asleep. Once asleep I'm fine but not being able to fall asleep for 1,5 - 2 hrs even though I was so tired doesn't help.
This supplement I take (mix of all kinds of herbs and stuff) helps.

Linseed oil is a good one to balance hormones! Linseed in that supplement I used to take as well. But you can also take 1 Tbl spoon linseed oil a day. It's less than 3 dollars a bottle and last you quite long.

I currently have started HRT myself. I use both oestrogen and progesterone creams. These are 100% natural forms, NO synthetic stuff! I use only a small bit of oestrogen as otherwise I get super hyper! I can already feel that happening after some 10 mins of putting on the cream.
Oestrogen excites the brain, progesterone calms the brain.
So I think -NOT sure- that having low progesterone levels may be a factor in the not sleeping.

Dr Lee who wrote a book about all this ages ago and made this Progesterall cream also claimed that was all you needed: progesterone. (I don't know for women without uterus though).
But since oestrogen is highly anti-inflammatory and does lots of things in the body, I do use a bit of that cream as well.

I do, however, use more progesterone cream though than oestrogen.
I've only recently started with this.
I can tell that I am beginning to fall asleep like I used to!