Historically, menopause has been a bit of a taboo subject but in recent years, there has been an increase in the amount of discussion around this key stage of women’s lives, both in the media and the general public. Menopause symptoms in particular, have often been swept under the rug as ‘just a part of life’ but this is changing and wider society is starting to realise and accept that women do not just need to put up with symptoms; hot flushes, anxiety, depression, mood swings, and other symptoms can really have a huge impact on daily life and overall quality of life. Here, we take a look at how to improve symptoms of the menopause.
How to cope with menopause symptoms
All women go through the menopause – it is a natural stage in a woman’s life, but what is it exactly? There are three stages of menopause: perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause. This generally begins around the age of 45. Oestrogen levels begin to decline, and women start to experience the symptoms associated with menopause. Until periods have ceased for 12 months, a woman is in perimenopause. Once periods have stopped for 12 months, a woman has reached menopause. After this point, they are considered post-menopausal. Women will usually continue to have symptoms of low oestrogen unless they seek help from their doctor and get hormone replacement therapy, often referred to as HRT. This replaces the hormones that have been lost naturally and can be helpful in alleviating symptoms.
According to Menopause Support, there are around 13 million peri or post-menopausal women in the UK alone. Around a quarter of these individuals will have very few symptoms; three in four will experience some symptoms; and one in four will experience symptoms that are debilitating. Unfortunately, they can last between four and eight years and there are more than 30 acknowledged symptoms of menopause.
A survey from the Fawcett Society (2022) revealed that almost half of women have spoken to their GP about their symptoms and that it had taken many appointments for their GP to realise they were going through menopause.
In addition to the few symptoms mentioned above, it is not uncommon for menopausal women to also experience:
- Loss of libido
- Brain fog
- Low self-esteem
- Changes to periods (spotting and irregular periods)
- Insomnia
Lifestyle changes to improve symptoms of menopause
Cold water swimming
Research by University College London has revealed that cold water swimming improves the symptoms of menopause significantly – both the physical and mental symptoms. Their findings reported that as a result of cold water swimming, as many as 46.9% of women experienced an improvement in anxiety, 34.5% of women experienced an improvement in mood swings, and 30.3% experienced an improvement in hot flushes. It seems that cold water swimming can be used as an effective tool in your arsenal for dealing with menopause symptoms and keeping them under control.
Wear light clothing with lots of layers
It is recommended that you wear multiple thin layers of clothing in order to make it easier to adjust your temperature to help manage hot flushes.
Keep the bedroom cool and use thin layers so easy to control temperature
There’s nothing worse than insomnia and hot flushes to make sleeping even more challenging. Unfortunately, having a bedroom that is too warm is a very common reason for not sleeping well and can exacerbate insomnia caused by hormonal fluctuations. Instead of having a single duvet, try to layer up different blankets and sheets so that you can fine tune your temperature during the night.
Reduce alcohol intake for fewer hot flushes
Everyone loves an occasional glass of wine, but alcohol is a known trigger for menopause symptoms – hot flushes in particular. This happens because alcohol has an effect on the nervous system and how the body regulates its temperature. In addition to alcohol, spicy food and hot drinks can also be triggers for hot flushes. If hot flushes are making life uncomfortable, you may find cutting back on the above to be beneficial.
Weight management
Menopausal symptoms are known to be more severe in women who are overweight. Managing your weight can be a really effective tool for reducing the symptoms of menopause, including sleep disturbances and low mood.
Regular exercise
Evidence shows that regular weight training can help to reduce the frequency of hot flushes. It can also generally improve the quality of life for women who are at any stage of menopause. Resistance training also has fantastic benefits and is known for helping prevent osteoporosis, a condition which occurs due to lack of oestrogen and is very common in women as a result of the hormone changes that occur during menopause. Keeping the bones stronger reduces the incidence of osteoporosis and broken bones in women.
When lifestyle changes aren’t enough…
The majority of women prefer to make lifestyle changes like those above in order to help control and manage the symptoms of menopause, but the truth is that not everyone finds them helpful or as effective as they need them to be – especially for women with severe menopausal symptoms. If you have tried lifestyle changes to manage your symptoms and are not finding it helpful, the next step may be speaking to a hormone doctor about Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) or Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT). Replacing hormones that are lost, such as oestrogen, during the menopause means that, although symptom relief is the most noticeable benefit, there are actually many hidden benefits. These include reduced risk of certain cancers and health conditions – like osteoporosis – that are associated with low oestrogen levels.
You may need to consider whether you’d prefer body identical or bioidentical hormones. Body identical hormones are used by the NHS and are produced by big pharma in set dosages in a limited number of applications (such as a cream). When it comes to body identical hormones, they are compounded in a specialist laboratory and are made bespoke to the patient. This means that both the dosage and application type can be tailored to your individual needs, budgetary requirements, and preferences. If your dosage is not working as well as expected, it can be fine tuned.
If you are looking for bioidentical hormones in the UK, the first step is to seek help from a specialist hormone clinic. Once you have made contact, you can ask any questions you may have about the menopause or hormone replacement therapy and what options are available to you.