Copyright © 2006-2008 The Menopausal Bride. All Rights Reserved.

Menopause Survival Guide
Are you going through menopause? Tips, information and support for women
going through perimenopause, menopause, post menopause and surgical
menopause by Staness Jonekos, The Menopausal Bride, a crusader for the
change.
Menopause Perimenopause Post menopause Surgical menopause Weight gain Mood swings Night sweats Heart palpitations Changes in your period
Migraine headaches Bladder changes Vision changes Fuzzy thinking Joint aches Nail and tooth problems Breast tenderness Memory loss
Hot flashes Sleep problems Loss of libido Dry vagina Irregular periods Hair and Skin changes FSH blood test Hormones Estrogen Progesterone
Hormone Replacement Therapy Hormone Therapy Irritability Urinary problems Symptoms Treating Menopause Androgens
Sex Hormones Osteoporosis DEXA Vaginal Atrophy Incontinence Aging Libido Fertility Birth control pills The patch Hormone creams
Synthetic hormones Natural hormones Testosterone HRT HT Non-hormone therapies Diet Weight Bloating Depression Exercise Diet Beauty tips
Recipes Dear Crabby Yummy Recipes Exercise Tips Newsletter Menopause Newsletter Menopause survey Menopause plan Menopause action plan 12-week plan Menopause experience
The change Menopause Tips Menopause information Menopause support Menopause support groups The menopausal bride Menopausal Bride Women’s health initiative No periods Free Stuff Must have productsMenopause products

Understanding Menopause Symptoms Understanding your menopausal symptoms is the first step to treating them.  Symptoms can be caused by hormone deficiency or dominance and your body is giving you clues that will help you find balance again.  Just as a detective collects evidence to solve a case, you too can collect information and solve YOUR case.  Your symptoms will guide you throughout your menopausal journey and will continue to change until you reach post menopause.  We all know experiencing menopausal symptoms is no fun, but it can be fascinating to witness your body expressing an amazingly sophisticated orchestration between you and your hormones.   Document your symptoms and discuss them with your doctor.  Once I started recording my symptoms early in perimenopase, it became clear to me that I was experiencing estrogen dominance.  I immediately contacted my doctor, got a hormone level blood test and adjusted my hormone replacement therapy.  Whether you are experiencing too much or too little of one of your hormones, understanding the symptoms will allow you to manage your menopause. Review the symptoms listed below affecting you.  Is there a pattern?  Low estrogen? Low progesterone?  Low androgens?  Low testosterone? • Irregular Periods:  At the onset of perimenopause, irregular periods can be the first symptom you notice.  Because your natural cycle is changing, some months you may ovulate and some months you may not.  When ovulation doesn’t occur, there isn’t enough progesterone produced to have a period and the uterus lining builds up.  As a result, irregular periods may occur.  Balancing progesterone levels will regulate periods • Weight gain: Another early symptom which is often the hardest to live with is weight gain. I wish I could say all weight gain could be blamed on menopause; that would just make the experience a little easier to life with.  But only some weight can be blamed on our ever-changing hormones.  Many of us over the years had less time to exercise and eat properly, and when we enter menopause the effects are unforgiving.  Getting back in shape and loosing weight may feel like an uphill battle.  But remember, you are not alone in feeling frustrated.  A commitment to a lifestyle change involving healthy choices regarding food intake and exercise is now a necessary step in feeling better.  This weight gain is a wake up call. As you gather information and make eating and exercise choices for your plan, you will start seeing and feeling results. • Breast Tenderness:  Because of hormonal changes you may experience fluid retention in your breasts, just as you did during your monthly cycle.  Bloating can make you feel fatter and uncomfortable. Bloated breasts are often painful, and may feel tender. Once your hormones are in sync again, you will notice this uncomfortable symptom alleviated. But cutting back on caffeine and salt consumption added with your 8 to 12 glasses of water a day will help. • Mood Swings:  When you are experiencing change in your life, whether emotional or physical, getting moody is perfectly understandable.  Just before your period you get moody.  When your husband forgets Valentine’s Day you get moody.  Well, throw in hot flashes, weight gain, and a dry vagina, and you wonder why you are moody?  During menopause there are also biological reasons you may get moody and irritable.  When your ovaries start making less estradoil (the active form of estrogen made in your ovaries) it starts affecting other bodily functions including the estradiol in the brain and that causes a decrease in your endorphin levels (the body’s natural feel-good regulator).  When your endorphin levels drop, your brain sends out adrenaline that can increase your heart rate and dilate your blood vessels causing hot flashes and anxiety.  This cycle can make the best of us cranky and moody.  Then through life’s general ups and downs, you are now on a moody roller coaster.  Declining estradoil that is fluctuating daily can ensure moods swings in many of us and make it difficult to cope with daily challenges.  If you are experiencing mood swings, this is a good time in your life to start making time to relax, mediate, get a massage, take yoga, enjoy herbal teas and pamper yourself.  Some women with severe mood swings that lead to depression consider taking Serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) a drug that can balance your brain chemicals. • • Heart Palpitations:  As mentioned above, a drop in estrogen can cause your endorphins, the brain's natural chemicals that elevate mood or kill pain, to fall.  Your brain interprets this drop as “trouble”, and sends out a shot of adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone, and your heart starts pounding.   The fight-or-flight hormone is a great thing when you are on a camping trip and a snake slithers by the tent.  But, during menopause, heart palpitations can be scary, and happen at inappropriate times.  Of course, if you suspect heart disease or it runs in your family, it is best to have these heart palpitations checked out by your doctor.  But if it is attributed to perimenopause or menopause, get your estrogen levels monitored. • Migraine Headaches:  If migraine headaches are new to you, or only happened during the first few days of your period or during ovulation it indicates that you are responding to low estrogen levels.  During perimenopause these fluctuating levels in estrogen may trigger more migraines than you experienced during a normal cycle.  Your blood vessels constrict during migraines, and estrogen can dilate those blood vessels.  For some women balancing their hormones alleviates their migraines.  But for others, HRT makes it worse.  The good news is those migraines that appeared during menopause will probably disappear during post menopause.  But the medical community is still trying to figure out the connection of female hormones and migraines. • Memory Lapses:  Have you been at the mall doing chores when you received a call from a friend who has been waiting an hour for you to arrive, and you completely forgot?  Or say the same thing a couple of times, but forgot you said it earlier only to be corrected by your listener? Often short-term memory loss can be experienced when estrogen levels are low.  In the brain, estrogen helps the connection of neurons, nerve cells that transmit information from one memory storage area to another.  And estrogen also assists in growing new neurons.  So when your estrogen levels are declining your memory connections aren’t always transmitting clearly.  You are not crazy; ask for support from your loved-ones to nurture you through your forgetful moments.  It is no fun to be punished for forgetting something.  And HRT can help you if you are experiencing this symptom as well as keeping your mind stimulated.  It will help your brain create new neural connections.  • Hot Flashes and Night Sweats:  The number one symptom that most people associate with menopause is the dreaded hot flash.  Those not experiencing it think it’s funny.  There is nothing funny about suddenly feeling flush and overcome with perspiration, dizziness and heart palpitations.  Or being disturbed from a good nights sleep with a hot flash (aka night sweats) that sends you to the bathroom to splash cool water on your face and change into a dry nightgown.  When your estrogen levels suddenly plunge it creates a hot flash.  Just as with mood swings and heart palpitations, when your estrogen quickly falls your brain pumps out adrenaline, which triggers the fight-or-flight signal, and you begin to sweat. It is declining estrogen and unneeded surges of adrenaline that make you wish you could wring yourself out after a hot flash.  I recommend wearing cotton clothing and bringing a fresh blouse when you leave the house.  In the winter layer your clothes by wearing a cotton tank top under your wool sweaters.  In the summer, enjoy a cotton sundress and keep a stylish fan handy in your handbag for instant hot flash relief.  • Sleep Problems:  If you are experiencing night sweats it is no surprise you are not sleeping at night.  You wake up tossing and turning in “the wet spot”, one that was unfortunately not the result of a wild night with your husband.  A sleepless night will promise you a day of irritability and mood swings.  But many women have sleep problems because the drop in estrogen levels affects their serotonin levels.  Estrogen is responsible for making serotonin, a neurotransmitter that most likely contributes to the regulation of sleep, appetite, and mood. It is also associated with a number of other functions, including the regulation of body temperature.  It starts becoming obvious how our hormones play a big role in our bodies. • • Vaginal Dryness:  If you are lying awake at night basking in a hot flash, perhaps occupying yourself with some love making makes perfect sense.  Unless you have a dry vagina!  Estrogen is like a lubricant.  It keeps most of our organs in good condition and working properly, especially our vagina.  So when your estrogen levels drop, vaginal dryness can occur.  With vagina dryness your vagina can tear more easily from friction, and the vagina tissues can loose their elasticity and become smaller.  So when you put those two conditions together, throw in lack of lubrication during sex that equals pain and discomfort.  Finding balance with your hormones will help and so will a little lubricant.  My favorite is AstroGlide, not greasy and a water base product that can be found over- the- counter.  There are estrogen creams you can apply vaginally that will provide relief as well. • Loss of Libido:  Well, if you are experiencing a dry vagina and sleepless nights it is no wonder you lack interest in sex.  If you are going through a number of symptoms on this list, there is no doubt you are probably not feeling well or maybe even depressed. You may just be hoping for a little sleep without night sweats.  So if you are “not in the mood” these days, don’t be hard on yourself.  Besides the effects of menopause, it is also normal for your libido to decline with age.  Between the ages of 55 and 65 sexual activity slows for men and women.  So you are not alone.  Don't let a decrease in hormone levels blow the flame of desire out of your love life, visit your doctor, take the appropriate blood tests and discuss hormone treatment options.  • Skin Changes:  Well, if your vagina is not as strong or lubricated as it once was, it is no surprise we notice changes in our skin as well.  There is no escaping the aging process, but during menopause you really start seeing the effects of less estrogen.  Your skin is supported by collagen and elastin fibers, which are supported by estrogen.  That is why your skin looked so soft and contoured to your face before menopause.  For those of you who loved getting a summer suntan, the affects of sun on your skin are damaging, with or without estrogen.  And gravity plays a big role here too.  After 40 plus years of being on this planet, gravity takes a toll on everyone.  But what most of us notice during menopause is that the elasticity and firmness of our skin decreases rapidly due to less estrogen production. • Bladder changes:  Just as lower levels of estrogen affects your skin, it also changes the flexibility of the muscle fibers around the urethra (the tube that lets urine out of the bladder).  So if you struggle to find your keys at the door when you must pee…. you can thank a lower level of estrogen for that.  Kegel exercises are a great option to reduce these effects and help firm up your urethra muscle.  Just squeeze your vagina muscles and hold them for 10 seconds, then relax and count to 5, then repeat.  It is best to do 5 sets 3 times a day. You will see a difference within a month. Also, start wearing a light mini-pad; they are much easier to change than your panties or slacks.  You may notice when you balance your hormones this symptom gets better.  If not, your doctor may suggest medications (flavoxate, imipramine, oxybutynin, probanthine) that inhibit bladder contractions; silicone caps that are inserted into the urethra; collagen injections around the urethra; or vaginal cones, which are small weights used to tone up those muscles.  • Hair Changes:  And if this list of menopause symptoms weren't long enough, hormones also affect hair follicles.  Before menopause you had higher levels of estrogen and lower levels of androgen (hormones that produce more masculine effects, such as facial hair or a deeper voice). Because the levels of estrogen are so much lower than androgen, the estrogen can’t block the affects of your androgen hormones.  So, just like men, you can have thinning hair and you can sprout some hairy growth on your face too.  Tweezing is a good option for the few hairs on the chin, or Jolen Hair Bleach (sold at most pharmacies) works well for those upper lip hairs.  But, balancing your hormones can help save your hair on your head and ward off unwanted growth on your face. The more educated you are about your body’s hormones going through menopause, the more you will be able to embrace your experience.  Empower yourself to take action and manage your menopause.