Why Perimenopause Feels Like Chaos

And How to Make It Make Sense

In the previous blog we went back to the basics and covered the menstrual cycle and why we have one outside of having babies. If you haven’t read that one yet, I would DEFINITELY go back and start there!

You learned that women’s menstrual cycles provide us with healthy levels of estrogen and progesterone, and that those hormones promote health.

Without those hormones we wouldn’t feel (or look) our best. We would lose muscle mass, our bones would become weaker, we would become less insulin resistant, we might find it harder to maintain a healthy weight, our blood vessels would get stiffer putting us at risk for heart issues, our vaginal tissues would become drier and less pliable (hello painful sex), we would be more prone to UTI’s, we would struggle with our mental health and experience sudden anxiety, dread or depression, we would see our hair and nails get drier and more brittle, we would notice a loss of glow in our skin, it would feel dry and new wrinkles and sagging would join the party, we would struggle to get a good night’s sleep, our digestion would change, and we would feel like we had sudden onset ADHD with a hefty dose of rage and overstimulation.

Yikes.

Are you seeing what I am trying to point out here? If you’re over 40, you might be thinking…”Wait, I AM feeling some of those things…..like right now!”

That’s because low hormones = symptoms.

High hormones can cause also cause symptoms, especially when hormones start to become too imbalanced.

Perimenopause can be BOTH these states.

Here’s what’s happening:

We learned that, at the beginning of each new menstrual cycle, the brain communicates to the ovaries through FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) telling the ovaries to start stimulating new follicles. When we start to run low on egg supply in our 40’s as we approach menopause, some cycles won’t have a healthy egg to ovulate. Each event in the cycle triggers the next event, so when one part of the cycle gets disrupted, the rest can as well. This can create low estrogen months when we just didn’t have quality follicles making lots of estrogen for us. When we don’t have a healthy follicle, we don’t have an egg to ovulate, so we skip ovulation that cycle. No ovulation means no progesterone. We end up with a cycle without the surge of estrogen and progesterone that makes us feel good.

The brain senses this and ramps up levels of FSH. The ovaries didn’t “do their job”, so the brain puts its boss pants on and starts yelling. It sends out higher amounts of FSH in order to get the ovaries to stimulate follicles. While we are still cycling, this can lead to TOO much stimulation and LOTS of estrogen being made. In our 40’s our progesterone is already on a decline, so now we have lots of estrogen and not enough progesterone to keep it in check. This creates symptoms too. Eventually, we don’t have any follicles left to stimulate, and the cycle stops for good. This event is menopause.

Because perimenopause can be a 5–10-year transition, lots of things are going on as the body tries to keep cycling. And you can feel every bit of this. Your body and brain need to learn to function without the hormones it has relied on for decades. You need to recalibrate. For a lot of women, this recalibration is a bumpy ride.

So, what can you do about this?

First things first, get your mindset right.

Perimenopause and menopause are a natural event. We were created to undergo this change. This is not a negative, and anything we do to support our health is meant to support this loss of our cycles and loss of hormones.

We aren’t trying to delay or fix this. Aging is a blessing. We want periods for as long as possible, because again periods = hormones = health. But, hello – menopause means no more periods and who can’t get excited about that?

But, listen I GET IT! If you are really struggling it is OKAY to try to make life more bearable and luckily, we have lots of options. Whether you want to try a natural approach (diet, lifestyle, supplements, herbs, acupuncture), or you want to do hormone replacement therapy, or you want to do BOTH, there are ways to make life easier and help you feel your best.

In the next blog we will talk about what foods support your body best in perimenopause. I will share some recipes and how “food prepping” can be a bit more manageable than “meal prepping” as you start to incorporate new foods.