Hormones, bloody hormones
"Pause"
Yes, she just had her menopause.
Yes, she still yearns to live life to the fullest.
~ n.m
I've always considered myself to know my body pretty well, but I dare not make the mistake to think that I have everything figured out. We all have strength in one area of our lives. If we are really lucky, we might be good at two or more but everyone has an area of lives that stumps them and if anyone says that they don't, they are probably lying.
From a young age I understood the importance of listening to my body when it came to food, I didn't always listen, but I knew when it was trying to tell me something. I don't know how I made the connection when I was young as I had not read about it and neither was it mainstream like health and wellness is now. Later, I would learn about the importance of stress on the mind and body.
“Menopause is a natural part of ageing that usually occurs between 45 and 55 years of age, as women oestrogen levels decline.”
Menopause -NHS
I started having night sweats in my late 30s, I thought it was stress related to certain people in my life who should not have been entertaining me and they were draining my life. Looking back this was probably the start of my perimenopause or it could have been general hormones imbalance due to stress.
I now know that I was going through perimenopause I didn't know what it was as I had never heard of it before. I had heard of menopause but didn't know much about it. I thought that you got a few hot flashes for a couple of months and that was it. I started to do my research and discovered that there were nearly forty symptoms that women could have whilst going through menopause.
My symptoms started with nights sweats just before I turned 40, I then started having irregular periods in my mid 4os, when I went to my GP to find out what was going on, the information or lack of information made me feel more anxious which probably did not help. It did make me think that there needs to be more GP in practices that have more knowledge as all women go through this in some shape or form all though not all women suffer badly.
I went through around two years where my hot flashes were bad on and off, I experienced slight weight gain and experienced moments of fatigue where I sometimes felt like I had been hit by a bus. For a while this affected the way that I trained as sometimes I would not have the energy for a few days, I learnt to rest when I needed and would push myself when my energy came back, I found balance. In the last year, I have come to a place of peace and changed my mindset around menopause it is no longer a thing that I'm trying to fix.
I have now accepted this is a natural thing that women go through, I am embracing this new chapter.
“there is no more creative force in the world than the menopausal woman with zest” ~ Margaret Mead
Love Mimi