Menopause Metamorphosis

Is THIS menopause?

Q: I am 51 years old. I have a lot going on right now. One daughter having another baby, the other getting married. My son has a lot going on as well. My periods have been going haywire. Nothing in December, my second period in January. I just got off two antibiotics, so I may have a yeast infection, I think. I am normally highly sexual with my husband, more than him and I'm putting him off. I can't lose this dang weight. AND I am moodier than hell. I never suffered post-partum symptoms, but I am cranky. (I always that the emotional crap women complained of was crap because I was so well balanced!) Am I menopausal? If so, is there anything natural I can do. I don't want hormones. I want my old self back.

J.

PS: I have the most wonderful, supportive husband in the world. We have been married 10 years. I did fabulous the second time around.

 

Hello J., thank you for writing. Congratulations on your wonderful husband and family! As Susun Weed writes in New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way, once you ask the question "Is this menopause?" the answer is yes :) Of course the physical stress of antibiotics and emotional stress of family change can affect this, but you are the right age and what you describe fits the bill. I hear you. I hear you want to be as you were, and deep down you absolutely have your same self. You are changing and will change. This is a metamorphosis, a part of who we are as women. You have not lost you. You may look a bit different and behave a bit different and feel a bit different, but you are still you, only growing richer and more you.

With that said, I imagine you want some gentle help through this, and for this I encourage you to get a book like Susun's. Alternatively you can peruse our Menopause website which contains many excerpts from the book. Here are a few articles you may wish to start out with:

Phases of Menopause
Healthy Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way
Weight Gain
Emotional Uproar

Please also make us of our forum and email groups that can be accessed through the website below my signature.  They are a great place to speak with others going through or having gone through similar experiences.

We would love to support you any way we can. Please let me know if I can answer anything for you or help you find anything on our websites, or support you in any other way.

Blessings,
Karen Joy
[email protected]
www.wisewomanweb.com

Itchy Skin

Q: is there any connection between nightime itching/hives and the onset of menopause????? Please, before i go out of my mind. Thank you so much for all you do!!!!

 

A: Hello, thank you for writing. Yes, though there can be other reasons for this, I have heard numerous mentions from menopausal women having hives that are quite itchy. Are they more common on a particular area of your body? First, I would like to invite you to our online forum. You will find you are not alone. This has been discussed there before. I have heard most often to nourish our adrenal system system, which is taxed during this time, with Nettle leaf infusions. This is also what is often recommended for those with allergic type reactions in general. Are you familiar with infusions? An ounce of herb to a quart of water steeped with tight lid for at least 8 hours before being strained and drunk. Please let me know if I can help further. I hope you are able to make use of the forum. You are not alone!

Blessings,
Karen Joy
[email protected]
www.wisewomanweb.com

Hot Flash relief

Q: Hello, I went into menopause to browse sites and came across your web site. I didn't see anything in there for heat flashes and posible helpful ways of helping them.

My late husband passed away from a heart attack in 96. For 3 months after his passing I did not have my period, probably do to all the stress and turmoil I had gone through. After that it started up again and that was the start of my menopause of irregular periods. On for 6 months off for 6 months for about 5 years until it totally went away.

I have been suffering with heat flashes all through that time starting at night and then during the day. At one point they were so bad that my doctor put me on birth control pills to help. I took it for a year and hated having my period back again that I stopped. They are spiratic in the intensity and the ocurance during the day and at night. At one time they totally went away and then came back with a vengience. Right now they have come back with full intensity and at night, once again, they are really bad and have trouble sleeping because of nite sweats. Right now I am taking vitamins to try to help but not helping. I am taking one a day vitamin, calcium for my bones, soy pills and cohosh tablets which I heard helps.

I need help. I need to know what foods can help and what foods to stay away from. I refuse to take any hormone replacement pills because of the reports of cancer with them. I had hoped I could help myself until they went away. But it has been 8 years now that I have had them this bad on and off.

Can you give me some suggestions on how I can help, if not take them away, at least improve the intensity of them.

Thank you

 

A: Hello, thank you for writing. I am glad you found the website. It does have some information that will overall be helpful to you. They are mostly excerpts from Susun Weed's New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way. This book does contain information to help those with hot flashes, in varying intensities, and night sweats - 20 pages worth. Menopause is a change, and the ride can be bumpy, but it is a necessary and valuable change for women. The best we can do is find how to ride the bumps as smoothly as possible. One way is deep nourishment. Change stresses some of our organs, as does the shift in hormone production. Our adrenals and livers need extra love. Here is an article from the website with some ideas for general nourishment.

Don't underestimate the value of deep nourishment from food-like herbs and foods. I think you know this though since you requested information on how you can eat best through this :) Eight years does seem long to suffer from the hot flashes, but we are all different, and you were likely spurred by such a trauma, and perpetuated with the use of the birth control pills. In the book Susun writes: "Most women who flash (80 percent) do so for between two months and two years. The other 20 percent have flashes for a decade or more."

If you think of one aspect of hot flashes as being energy travelling the body, you may appreciate this Kundalini Meditation. In addition to working with the energy of a flash, there are some homeopathic suggestions Susun makes, ideas for keeping cool inside and out, biofeedback, and some essential oils to inhale.

Nourishing ideas are infusions as mentioned in the first article link above, especially Red Clover and Oatstraw, regular exercise, and herbs to cool, nourish the liver, and that are rich in phytosterols. She mentions the following as possibly triggering hot flashes: spices, acidic foods, hot drinks, caffeine, alcohol, white sugar, hydrogenated or rancid fats, stress, hot weather, hot tubs and saunas, smoking, intense exercise, and anger, especially if unexpressed.

Witch hazel extract from a drugstore may be a stronger way to cool off more quickly. You can wet a hankie with it and keep in a plastic bag to use as needed. Or you can fill a mister with it and water to mist on as needed.

If you want more of the details from the book - on ideas to keep cool, homeopathics, essential oils, cooling herbs, liver nourishing herbs, and phytosterol rich herbs - and are not able to get a hold of the book, let me know. I will be happy to type them out. I just did not want to type 20 pages of info in this email, not knowing which most appeals. :)

Also, all of the above comes from her section on hot flashes. There are more specific ideas for those dealing with night sweats or earthquake flashes.

We also have a wonderful resource available 24 hours a day. This is our online forum where people from around the world come to share life experiences and questions. You may particularly like the "Menopause Metamorphosis" section.

Please let us know how we can help further.

Blessings,
Karen Joy
[email protected]
www.wisewomanweb.com