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My take on the Menopause .... and how it starts in stealth mode!


Surely we're too young to be menopausal?!

Here's the thing, we all know about Hot Flushes and Irritability and I will come to that in one of my following posts, but today, I want to highlight my take on it all - the beginning.

I've used a picture of my lovely GFs (thanks Ems/H!) from earlier this year - as this is a age where it all starts! Banish all those glamourous photos of women with white hair - that's when they get to the other side!

If we can all learn to recognise the beginning, we can take action, and this is empowering for women that feel they're losing their mind, and for some struggle physically to get out of bed, or out of the house even.

Last week I gave you a link to the website of 24 symptoms, but I'd been lazy and not *really* looked... then I did as I want to tailor Shiatsu specifically to aid women with the symptoms, and guess what I ticked.... all the early signs, according to Chinese Medicine!

So what are the early signs and are we aware we have them?

As we can all start at different ages, and these initial symptoms come on gradually we're too busy working every hour, then running around in between the working hours to notice they're there.

So, here are the early symptoms as chosen by me:

Fatigue Memory lapses Foggy brain Hair thinning Anxiety Weight gain Depression Panic Attacks Irrational fear.... Irrational thinking!

I've not chosen these because this is the list I ticked, we'll all tick differently, I chose this list based on The Theory of Chinese Medicine which works on the patterns of symptoms that are created within your body.

For example:

One week you feel extremely tired, so you get ratty easily, things seem to get on top of you and you get annoyed at yourself. Then the sore throat starts, and the sneezing, and you say 'ahh, got a cold!' When you sound crap, everyone feels for you, but you say 'actually I'm feeling loads better now'. This is because your energy is coming back, when you have the really low energy 2 weeks ago, you didn't register it, or understand it until the sore throat started.

So now spread this over 10 years....

How many years of low energy do you have before you get the known physical symptoms of irratic periods/ hot flushes.

Why low energy leads to the other symptoms:

When our 'essence' starts to deplete, there are other connections to body & mind side effects - physically the hair on our head thins (as men bald) and our bone density can thin too; anyone broken a bone for the first time in their 40s?

Our metabolism is getting more sluggish (weight gain), and then the mind kicks in too - foggy brain, this can be so many things triggering it, but memory lapsing is distinctly tied to depletion.

Now - Irrational fears/phobias/anxiety/panic attacks - that's quite a bunch of mental hurdles to lump together but here's another example:

Late in the day an issue hits and you blow a gasket in some respect, and then think 'I'll sleep on it, and sort tomorrow', as you know this isn't something you normally flip over. You get a good nights sleep , and tomorrow hopefully you'll deal with it.

But that's a 24 hour cycle, and sleep did replenish you, but now you get to 2 years and sleep isn't as nourishing as it was so little things build up, you berate yourself for not handling things you used too whether mental or physical, and you snap easily. You find things more challenging, your mind might not be as sharp and on top of things as they used to be at work, then there's home life on top of that...

If you're reading this and this is how you feel, (you may or may not have the physical list that we know of) don't kick yourself for not being about to work at the level you used to , have the energy you had, cry at the drop of a hat, start to believe anyone telling you you're becoming irritable or irrational - Your body is starting to change, and becoming aware of this, YOU can start to plan and support that change.

And if you need help, it should not be taboo to talk about it, as more than 50% of the population go through it, your Mum probably did and most likely struggled as it wasn't talked about, but brushed under the carpet; did that make it worse for her?

Please Share this post..... Today is International Menopause Day

Let this be the day Women start talking more openly about it - I've had great chats from the Sauna to the Boardroom - We all have these symptoms, so lets be open about it

I would love to hear your thoughts about the early stages - Did you realise it was beginning?

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