Menopause and Perimenopause
Regain Balance During Menopause and Perimenopause
You may have heard stories of women who go through menopause with ease. No hot flashes, no distress, no mood swings. Their periods just slowly stop happening and then they move on. For these women the transition to menopause is a gentle, natural process that doesn't cause distress.
Chances are, however, that if you are a woman in today's fast-paced modern world that this has not been your experience with menopause and perimenopause.
When our lives are out of balance, it can throw off normal, natural functions leading to symptoms and discomfort. Are your hormones in balance? Is your life (work, home, stress, family, etc.) in balance? Is your emotional life in balance? Is your diet in balance?
When one thing is out of balance, the chain reaction can be extensive, leading to physical and emotional symptoms seemingly unrelated to the original imbalance yet vitally connected. Naturopathic medicine can restore overall balance and lead to an easier transition to menopause and beyond.
Signs of Imbalance during Menopause
Whether you are still in Perimenopause (defined as the time leading up to menopause, which for some women can last as long as 5-10 years!) or fully in Menopause (which happens once you have gone for 12 consecutive months without a period), you may be experiencing symptoms including:
- Hot flashes, night sweats
- Vaginal dryness, painful sex, decreased libido
- Mental, emotional, and memory changes
- Weight gain
- Insomnia and sleep disturbances
- (Perimenopause) Changes in your menstrual cycles (previously regular cycles becoming heavier, lighter, more or less painful, more or less frequent, and often unpredictable)
- Headaches
Our Naturopathic Approach to Menopause
The conventional approach to many of these hormonal changes is a hormonal solution and hormone replacement therapy is prescribed. For many women, however, these replacement hormones simply suppress the body’s natural cycle and manipulate the body with artificial levels of hormones; they do nothing to address why their symptoms are actually occurring, why the body’s natural hormonal balance is out of balance.
As naturopathic doctors we see each and every one of these symptoms as important guides in helping us understand any underlying imbalances. These symptoms help guide us to appropriate natural therapies that are specifically chosen for you. Our goal is to help keep you balanced and symptom free as you enter into this new and exciting time during your life!
In many women it’s a combination of factors that work together to throw hormones out of balance. This imbalance then leads to further imbalance in other body systems. Our practice’s philosophy is to explore a woman’s health from all levels: physical, mental and emotional before drawing any kind of final conclusions. Just because a woman has a hormonal problem does not mean that she requires a hormonal solution.
Our naturopathic doctors offer women relief from menopausal symptoms and other health issues without using hormone replacement therapy, natural or synthetic. Synthetic hormones carry serious potential side effects—blood clots, heart disease and cancer. Even natural hormone replacement therapy has risks, and we prefer to use a less invasive and safer approach in working with our patients.
Many women who seek our care are not comfortable being on these hormones, and are seeking a different, safer approach. Instead of hormone replacement therapy, we use therapies including:
- Homeopathy
- Diet and Exercise
- Herbal and Vitamin supplementation
- Stress reduction
