#37: Menopause 101 - What every woman should know about perimenopause & menopause

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In this episode:

🌸 Menopause happens around age 50. That's what I knew about menopause when I was in my 40s. And unfortunately, that's all too typical. 

🌸The fact is that perimenopause can start over 10 years BEFORE menopause, and can bring with it a whole host of unpleasant symptoms. 

🌸Women who are not up-to-speed on the facts of menopause can suffer for years and not even realize that the issues stem from the hormonal changes going on. 

🌸In this episode, I go over the basics that every woman should know. 

🙏 Please share this one with all the women you know who are over the age of 30 - it's never too early to start preparing. 

🤗 Enjoy the episode!

x Lynn

40+ Fitness Coach for Women

#menopause #perimenopause #postmenopause #estrogen #menopausesymptoms #menopausefitness #brainfog #midlifedepression #menobelly 

Transcript

#37: Menopause 101 - What every woman should know about perimenopause & menopause

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40 plus fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host, and I am a 40 plus fitness coach. And today in this episode, we are actually going to be discussing menopause. So this is a little bit different from the normal episodes where I'm talking a lot about weight training, but I thought that since. This is really my messaging is directed towards women who are in perimenopause and menopause that it would be a great idea to have an episode that's really the basics that everybody needs to know about this stage in your life.

And October 18th is world menopause day. So in honor of that, this episode. So one of the crazy things about menopause is that it is talked about so little. And what that does is that women end up in perimenopause [00:01:00] and even in menopause without actually knowing what is going on, like really in the dark.

And I know for me, that was absolutely the case. I kind of knew that a 50 ish aged women have menopause. But I hadn't really given it any further thought than that. And in fact, when I started having symptoms like hot flashes, I actually was like, okay, yeah, I'm having hot flashes. I guess I'm supposed to have those, you know, in my forties.

Well, I was in my forties. Um, but I still didn't really give it any thought. And then when crazy things started happening to me, like my memory got. absolutely awful. I was having to write everything down. When I got depressed, all these kinds of things were happening to me. And still, you know, not. [00:02:00] Thinking that, Hey, I needed to like get educated on this topic.

And so I'm really hoping that this episode reaches as many women out there as possible, so that you start being aware. And really any woman who is in her 30s should already know the basics so that you are not caught off guard. So you're ready. So please share this episode with other women that you know, who may not be so up to speed with menopause.

And I mean, I think that's about 98 percent of the female population, to be honest. So let's get started. So first let's start with some definitions. So what is perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause? Now, menopause is actually one single day on the calendar. And that's the day when you have not had a period [00:03:00] in 12 months.

So it's one day, it's not like a phase or whatever. It's one day. What happens before that one day is perimenopause.

Perimenopause is the time when your body is starting to shut down its reproduction, reproductive function. So it is shutting down estrogen and progesterone production, your levels of estrogen and progesterone kind of start to go a little bit haywire over time. And you may start to get Symptoms of that happening and this perimenopause phase can last anywhere from, you know, up to 10 years, right?

Of a person's life. It can be shorter than that. And the symptoms can vary widely. So some women may go through all of perimenopause and not even realize [00:04:00] they were ever in perimenopause until they realized like, Hey, you know what, I haven't had my period in a year. So I've hit menopause. Okay. And then post menopause, is that part of your life that happens after that one day on the calendar year, which is menopause date?

So the thing is that this actually comprises a very significant portion of our lives. If you think about it, the average lifespan of a woman is about 82 years and we go into or we hit menopause at about age 50. Give or take now, if perimenopause can be 10 years before that, and some women might be hitting menopause already in their forties for me was, uh, in my mid forties, I wasn't really tracking my periods, so I don't know exactly if I was 45 [00:05:00] or 44 or what, but anyway, so perimenopause can already begin in your thirties.

Right. So if you think about like, you could be a 35 year old woman, be in perimenopause. Then you hit menopause at some point, and then the whole rest of your life, you're in post menopause. That's actually a bigger portion of your life than what happened before that. And it really is appalling in a way that this has not been studied more and talked about more because it is a major transition in women's bodies.

It's kind of akin to a second puberty, right? When you go through puberty, your hormone... Functionality like ramps up and in the menopause transition, it ramps down and for some people that is a tougher transition and for other people that's an easier transition. Okay, so [00:06:00] if we look at some of the very common and some less well known symptoms of menopause, Um, these can happen in perimenopause or in postmenopause.

It's very individual. Some people may notice no symptoms at all. Some people may have a ton of symptoms. So this is really, really going to be individual. But I thought I would list some of them. So you can think about like, do you have

these? Have you experienced these kinds of symptoms? So ones that we hear about a lot are hot flashes and night sweats.

So you're waking up in the middle of the night and you know, you're, you're nighty and your bed are completely soaked. And then the hot flashes. I remember when I had them, I live in a cold climate. And in the winter, it was actually quite nice because I'm usually just a little bit cold all the time. And I've just think, Oh yeah, soon I'm going to get a hot flush.

So no problem. I'll be warm in a moment. Um, but it can also manifest as things like headaches, urinary tract infections, bladder [00:07:00] issues, having irregular periods, especially very heavy periods. You can have hair loss. I struggled with that. And that is really devastating. You know, when you start to have bald patches in your head, mood swings, poor energy levels.

depression and anxiety, um, brain fog. So this is, well, I had this for sure. I started at a new job when I was in perimenopause. And I remember I had to write every last little thing down because I just couldn't remember anything. I had this, enormous brain fog. I was able to function, but then yeah, I had to write everything down so that I could go check again.

Your sleep will likely be disturbed. And then you may notice things about your skin, like that you're starting to get more facial hair or that your skin is dry and itchy, or you get this like creepy feeling in your skin. You may feel less motivated. [00:08:00] And some people get a lot of joint and muscle pain, then you might have muscle pain, um, tingling and pins and needles in your feet and hands.

And then sexually, this can be a very challenging time because you may notice that your libido really drops. This is something that I hear a lot of women talking about and vaginal dryness. There are a lot of things that you can get. To help with the symptoms. So if you are experiencing symptoms, then please do visit your doctor.

And I would choose a gynecologist who is specializing in menopause. Cause if you think about like the array of a woman's life, there are the women who are very, or the gynecologists that are very much focused on reproductive health and like fertility issues. Choose one that is really experienced in menopause related stuff.

And you can think [00:09:00] about things like hormone replacement therapy, whether that might be an option for you and other strategies that you can use.

Hey, if you're ready to start weight training, but you don't really know what to do. I wanted to remind you about my self study courses. called learn to lift at home and learn to lift at the gym. They have everything you need to get started, including a program to follow and videos explaining how to do each exercise.

Check them out on my website, www. befitafter40.

com slash DIY, or check the link in the show notes. And one thing that is very, very common because there are these changes going on in your body, your body is. It's different, you know, than the body that you used to have. And the way that a lot of women notice this is that the strategies that they've [00:10:00] used for their fitness and for maintaining their weight and dieting and those kinds of things, those strategies are not working for them anymore.

They may have in the past been able to just, Hey, I'll like up my amount of cardio, you know, run a little bit more often, that kind of thing and, and drop those few pounds that I want to drop, or just start eating a little bit less and, and drop weight fairly easily. And noticing in menopause that that's not really working anymore.

And there's a reason for that, because your body is really changing. You don't have the estrogen there helping you out. And when the estrogen declines, you have things like... Uh, belly fat, the visceral fat starts to accumulate more than it did before. And your ability to recover from workouts is going to be lower.

Your level of cortisol in your blood [00:11:00] is going to be higher. So your, your body is in a heightened stress. level, like just its baseline is higher than what it used to be. So these kinds of things really do affect what you can do with your body and how successful they will be. Now I did a whole podcast, podcast number 29, which is about what happens when you're.

Estrogen levels decline in menopause and how weight training counteracts that. So I would really encourage you to go ahead and take a listen to that because this is something that is so little talked about, you know, what are better exercises for you to do in menopause and beyond, but for sure, weight training is one of them.

Another thing that, you know, if I think about like the pillars for fitness in. Perimenopause and menopause. So during this transition, after the transition, you know, when [00:12:00] you're in postmenopause, really sleep is critical. That's something that a lot of women struggle with, but sleep is the cornerstone. When you haven't slept enough, you're going to eat more.

You're not going to have the energy to do things. Your brain function is going to be even worse. Your mood's going to be even worse. So if you be merciful with yourself, especially if you're really struggling with. perimenopause, menopause symptoms, you know, get your sleep. Don't get up at four o'clock in the morning to go to the gym.

If you haven't gotten your seven, eight hours of sleep in before that, and then pay attention to things like just movement that you're not sitting all day. Make sure that you're eating enough and managing your stress. So midlife is really a stressful time for a lot of women because we're working. We have our partners, we have maybe teenagers in the house or children moving out of home and adjusting to this new kind of [00:13:00] lifestyle that we're living.

Our parents are getting older and we're worried about them and how they're going to do. So there's, there's a lot going on when you're a midlife woman and it is stressful. It's a lot of change and a lot on your shoulders. And then, you know, your body is undergoing this change, which makes you maybe a little less equipped to handle this or a little less resilient, uh, handling this.

So be kind to yourself. Okay. So I think. Those were kind of the main things that I wanted to really point out to you today. Um, just the basics of menopause. And I guess the key takeaways are that the perimenopause, which is the three, four to 10 years before your period. You know, the menopause, uh, date on the calendar, which is the day that you haven't had your period for a year.

So in that [00:14:00] perimenopause phase, that can already start in your thirties. So if you are in your thirties, don't think that, Oh, I don't need to worry about this stuff until I'm 50. No, no, you need to worry about that stuff now, or at least. Be aware of it. So it doesn't kind of catch you in the dark. And there are a whole host of symptoms and they can be very sly and you don't necessarily realize that they're associated with menopause.

You know, the hair loss and the trouble sleeping and and loss of libido urinary tract infections. All kinds of things. So it's good to, you know, if you're feeling a little bit different, maybe Google some of the symptoms of menopause and see whether that could be explaining it. And remember there is help.

So go to a gynecologist who is specializing in menopause aged patients and see [00:15:00] if there is some help you can get. Myself, I am on hormone replacement therapy and that, Oh, that was like a miracle lifesaver for me because I had pretty bad, uh, perimenopause symptoms. So that really helped me with my sleeping, with my mood, with my brain fog.

So I'm like a nice functioning adult. And then just final words on menopause, because I know there's a lot of negative stuff that is talked about it online, you know, you kind of are, it's, it's scary. Well, it's not scary, but it can really be. Put you on a little bit of a roller coaster ride. And for very, very, very many years, but I also want to tell like positive stories, and that is that I feel like a lot of women, when they have gotten their menopause symptoms under control, they understand them.

Maybe they've gotten some help. They've developed new strategies. They've [00:16:00] started to.

They're at a point in their lives where they feel so kind of comfortable in their own skin, you know, because you're around age 50 and midlife, like you have some life experience around you and, and you just. Yeah. You start to have this great new confidence. And I have to say for me, it's been a blessing not to have the monthly cycle, which caused, you know, some moodiness and less energy and more energy and all that, because I feel like I'm just me.

I'm me every day, the full month, full year. And, and that feels pretty nice. So, it may be a little tough in the beginning, but you can get it under control and enjoy the rest of your life in post menopause. Okay, so that is it for this week, and next week we get back into more... [00:17:00] Fitness and weight training related stuff.

Once again, remember to hit that subscribe button. If you have been enjoying the show and if you are on Apple podcast, then please, please, please, if you are enjoying the show, help me out by rating, giving me a five star rating, because that helps more people to find me find this podcast. Thanks so much and have a wonderful week ahead.

Talk to you next week. Happy training!