Menopause Metamorphosis

Help for Hot Flashes and Cold Sweats

Q: Could you please advise on the following?

I am 53 and had a hysterectomy many years ago.  I am on a slight dose of HRT but am now experiencing very hot flushes, followed by feelings of intense cold.  I feel run-down and tired most days.  However, my doctor will not give me a stronger dose of HRT.  He says he has to think of the possibility of breast cancer.  Is there any herbal remedy I could take which would alleviate these symptoms?

Your advice would be most appreciated.

Thank you

 

A: Hello, I hear your desire for relief from the hot flashes and cold sweats you are experiencing.  I also hear your first choice would be to up your HRT dosage, but have not been given permission to do so by your doctor.  I understand that this essentially perpetuates the estradiol in your system (that women naturally cease producing at a certain age) preventing you from truly going through your menopause.  I am not sure what a lower than average dose would do, since it obviously has not eliminated your menopause experience, but certainly can't be allowing it completely.  I would be concerned it will only elongate your time of transition, or "symptoms".

For women troubled by their hot flashes, first could be some deep nourishing.  This is nourishing of the liver, to be able to more effectively process the hormones, and nourishing of the endocrine system, to be producing the hormones most needed at the most appropriate times, and nourishing of the adrenal system, to help us cope best with the stress casued by the new changes. 

Liver nourishers are bitter greens and herbs, like Dandelion, both eaten and taken in tincture or vinegar form. 

We can tonify our entire hormonal system with phytoestrogen-rich foods and nourishing herbal infusions. 

And we can nourish our adrenals with Nettles, again both eaten and drunk as infusions.

I highly encourage you to acquire Susun Weed's New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way (you can read a review here).  In it she writes:

Relax and enjoy your hot flashes.  Ride them like waves, feel them in your spine, ski the edges of your flushes, honor the volacanic heat of you core.  Like labor pains, hot flashes are the outward sign of metamorphosis.  Like labor pains, they are worse when resisted.  Herbal allies help those with unrelenting flashes relax and enjoy, too.

Some of the herbal allies she mentions, besides those above, are Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) and Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis).  Motherwort can be taken in tincture form, 5-30 drops as needed, for relief.  Garden Sage can be made into an infusion; then 1-4 tablespoons of this infusion is drunk in water as needed.  The strained undilluted infusion of Sage will stay good in the fridge for a week or two.

We have a website full of articles that may be of help.  Below are some particular articles you may find benefit in reading:

How To Make Infusions

Taking Hormones? These Herbs Are For You 

Nourishing Yourself Through Menopause 

Phytoestrogens - Friends or Foes? 

Kundalini Meditation 

Blessings,
Karen Joy
wisewoman@herbshealing.com
www.wisewomanweb.com

A Book on Menopause

Q: I was just reading some of the comments from the women in your website.  I am wondering what book it is that they are talking about.   Is there a book that I can read, that would help me with some of the symptoms.

Thank you

A: Hello, yes there is a wonderful book that is often recommended at the forum and elsewhere.  It is New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way by Susun Weed.  You can find it in most bookstores, or can order it online direct form the publisher.  Enjoy!!

Blessings,
Karen Joy
wisewoman@herbshealing.com
www.wisewomanweb.com

Migraines Triggered By Arousal?

Q: Hi Susun or Justine

I have a question for you that concern me.

Over a month a go I had a very bad headache,it started with sexual excitement and got worse at the time of the orgasm, since then every time my husband and I get close and I get excited I begin to have a headache, I never had this experience until now in my pre-menopausal, and I'm getting frustrated, besides my husband is at the age when men need more help from us.

I'm asking you because your menopausal book had helped me a lot to understand this stage and all the symptoms that I had and have sometimes, tough less intense now since I'm nourishing myself with your recommendations.

Hope to hear from you soon

A: Hello, it is wonderful to hear you are nourishing yourself well, and that you found so much help with Susun's New Menopausal Years!  I can see how this can be disconcerting.  Have you tried any of the ideas in the book on the topic of "Headaches/Migraine" (pp. 135-137)? 

Susun is rarely able to answer emails, but she likes to be available, so she has left open Tuesday evenings until late October.  On these Tuesdays, you may call her between 7:30-pm and 9:30pm Eastern time (845-246-8081) for a free  phone consultation.  If it's busy, just keep trying.

Susun Weed's Wise Woman Forum is a wonderful resource, with the experience and wisdom of many people from around the world to draw from.  We hope to see you there.  If you do visit, it would help us to know what nourishing things you have tried that have helped.  It would also be nice to know if there is anything in addition to the sexual excitement that seems to trigger these headaches. 

Once something happens that is so unpleasant, sometimes it is hard to know if our fear of it happening again ever plays a part in its severity. 

It is nice to hear they have at least lessened.

Blessings,
Karen Joy
wisewoman@herbshealing.com
www.wisewomanweb.com

Embracing Changes in Sexual Desire

Q: Loved the site!  However, I was specifically looking for something along the lines of Lack of Sexual Desire And How To Gain It Back or at least some suggestions on herbal remedies for said problem.  I'm only 42, darn it!

    Can you guide me?

   

   

A: Hello, we are so glad you are enjoying the websites!  This topic is covered in Susun's New Menopausal Years book, some of which is excerpted on the sites.  However the section on this topic is not yet online.  It has been discussed quite a number of times though at Susun Weed's Wise Woman Forum.  I invite you to go there and read and post.  It is a question I have heard of often, so you are not alone.

I only encourage you to be patient with yourself, and explore the ways perhaps what is interesting has changed rather than simply disappeared.  Also at times in our lives our sexual passion is moved in another direction or can be rekindled in ways other than what we have known as sex.  This forces us inside to explore our true passions and often forces us to stop focusing on the demands or wants of a partner who (understandably) wants things to remain as they have been in the past.  As women we are ever-changing :)

Blessings,
Karen Joy
wisewoman@herbshealing.com
www.wisewomanweb.com