I have totally got your attention with that headline, eh?
Ladies and gents, the headline above is the most commonly used term for people find my menopause page on my website.
How sad is that?
It doesn’t matter how many programmes get made about menopause, women are sitting using their phones and laptops, and that is what is getting typed into the search term.
What a heads up.
When you know better, you do better, so how can we help women know better? Being a good listener to anyone in your life going through menopause is a good start, also, if you are reading this, and you think you are no where near menopause because you are only 40 ish. It’s going to happen. Be organised. Keep a health diary, know your cycle, keep track of it, speak with friends, ask how they are, know what female members of your family went through, could it be similar for you?
My mum was 47 when she started menopause. I was 48, so similar. The thing that really really got to me was, I had NO idea what perimenopause was, and looking back to when I was 42 when all the baffling symptoms started, crying about everything, literally everything, the bloating, the clammy skin, I should have been offered HRT back then instead of being stuck on anti-depressants because I was feeling so low. I wasn’t depressed.
My hormones were having a squaredance.
I’ve got lots of information on my menopause page, as well as a course you can buy and download for lifetime access, and also my book, The Modern Menopauser.
So here is the most horrible thing you can ever say to a woman, nay another human being.
When you get to your 40s, watch your portion sizes. It doesn’t get spoken about enough how much your hormones changing can affect your appetite, but if you are reading this, take if from me, it does.
If someone had told me at 40 to watch out for overeating, going back for seconds, and eating til you feel so uncomfortable you can hardly move, but you couldn’t stop yourself, it would have saved me a HUGE amount of ugly crying.
Perimenopause depletes a hormon called Leptin, it’s the one that tells your brain to stop eating because you are full. It leaves another hormone called Ghrelin in charge. Ghrelin is what makes you look for popcorn after a 3 course meal.
Have a kit kat, just don’t have 2 or the whole packet. Have a couple of jaffa cakes, just don’t eat the whole lot.
It doesn’t matter what facebook group or fitness group you look at online. I guarantee it will be full of comments from all these amazing women crying because they have put on weight and they ‘don’t know why’.
I do!
Being kind to yourself in menopause is of the utmost importance, stop beating yourself up at body pump and thinking that starving yourself for one day a week is going to work.
Women’s bodies are amazing, we have periods, we make babies, we give life, if you have had children (I haven’t) marvel in the fact that you have made a brain and spinal cord, heart, lungs and kidneys. The body is not easy to look after when on a cellular level you are not the same person you were last year.
Look after yourself now for a better future you.
Please get in touch if I can help you any further with your menopause.
Where’s my soap box?
Liz x