All about Perimenopause

Perimenopause is the phase before menopause where you begin to experience a change in the length of your periods and duration of your bleeding. It can start as early as 5-10 years before the actual menopause.

If you are above 35 and are experiencing changes to your periods, only bleeding for 3 days instead of 5 or unexpectedly bleeding way over a week, it could be perimenopause. While perimenopause is a natural phenomenon, it does bring about a few changes in the body. Specifically in -

Bones - typically one feels weaker or some kind of pain in the joints. The knee, back or neck tends to hurt and especially just around periods or ovulation or even in response to a long day at work. But nothing really shows up in the reports.

Brain - some women experience a kind of a brain fog, where they seem to forget what they called you for, entered the room for, or the name of their childhood friend.

Heart - while no major heart event is expected, changes to lipid profile - cholesterol and triglycerides and chances of high BP can go up in this phase.

Hormones - the changing ratios of progesterone, estrogen and testosterone, can mean everything from adult acne to a bloated stomach.

You also begin to see changes to a) your urination where your bladder doesn’t seem to empty itself as effortlessly as it used to, and b) loss of hair lustre & volume to skin pigmentation and also c) the thermo-regulation, so hot flushes and the like.

This is truly your time to realign your life’s priorities and shine. So here’s what I would recommend -

1. Stop chasing the scales and chase consistency with exercise instead - this is invariably the time when you gain some weight but if you are weight focussed in this phase, then all the symptoms aggravate. This time, get down to just showing up for yourself 3/ week. Ideally a day each for yoga, strength and cardio so we are looking at 3 hrs per week of exercise time.
2. Time to give up on the task based approach and learn a new hobby or skill. This thing of having checklist that goes into the next day or next week, doesn’t work. The brain needs a new thing to do, a break from the routine and the adventure of learning. So every dream you gave up on, awaken it and pursue it for a full year even if you get bored of it. Mental health is a long game, you are looking at 30-50 years of being fully functional with your brain so get working at it now.
3. Eat to nurture and not punish yourself for being fat/ overweight –
- Daily dose of nuts (peanuts are my personal favourite) is a must, especially if breast tenderness is one of the issues you are dealing with. The B6 from nuts just works like magic. - and of course also keep up with the soaked black raisins & kesar 10 days prior to your periods from the Ease PMS study.
- Root vegetables and raw banana, remain an underutilised food group. This is especially useful if you are experiencing heavy and lengthy periods.
- And last but not the least, a glass of chaas with your lunch as the perfect pick me up for your mood and calm me down for your gut. Dahi set with raisins also works wonders if you are generally feeling low or lethargic.

So girls, perimenopause is not the monster that it’s made out to be but it’s important to know that building long lasting healthy habits while you are still young is really the key to a good life.

#perimenopause #women #health