Postmenopausal Type

Welcome to the world beyond menopause!

You’ve reached menopause when you’ve gone without a period for at least 12 months, and you’re in the menopausal age range. Some medical professionals consider it menopause after 14 or more months.

The average age to go through menopause is 51, and for most women, it will happen between the ages of 45 and 55, but it can also happen earlier or later.

Menopause before the age of 45 is called early menopause; before the age of 40, it’s premature menopause. Women can also go without a period for 12 months or more due to reasons other than menopause, such as a hysterectomy, birth control, or (often stress-induced) hypothalamic amenorrhea.

Certain lifestyle factors such as stress, diet, or smoking can affect the age of menopause and even cause an early onset.

How your hormones shift during menopause

Beginning in your late 30s or early to mid-40s, your hormones begin to shift, and your female sex hormones — estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone — will naturally decline as you approach menopause. This decline is natural and normal. The closer you reach menopause, the lower these levels begin to drop.

Some women will find this shift unremarkable in terms of symptoms, while other women struggle with symptoms affecting their mind, mood, sleep, energy, skin, waistline, and more.

Each woman will experience menopause differently — no two experiences are the same, as we’re all wonderfully unique.

Common symptoms of menopause include:

• fatigue
• weight gain, especially around the waistline
• insulin resistance and blood sugar issues
• difficulty sleeping, including night sweats, trouble falling or staying asleep, or insomnia
• mood changes, including irritability, depression and anxiety
• feeling emotional or crying more than normal for similar situations
• hairloss
• dry, flaky, cracked or thinning skin
• dry eyes
• headaches or migraines
• hot flashes
• brain fog and forgetfulness
• difficulty concentrating
• low libido
• increased UTI’s
• recurrent bladder infections
• thinning, drying or inflammation of the vagina
• painful sex
• heart palpitations
• decreased bone strength
• tender or drooping breasts
• joint pain
• decreased strength of pelvic floor
• urinary incontinence
• acne
• increased cholesterol
• reduced blood sugar control or rising blood sugar levels, and any symptoms related to blood sugar imbalance or insulin resistance.

Dearest Reader,

This information is for educational purposes only and not intended to diagnose or highlight imperfections. You've likely landed here following my quiz at YourHormoneQuiz.com.

No matter what you discover in these results, you're beautiful and perfect as you are. You're good enough and trying hard enough.

We're all unique and will experience hormonal shifts differently. This information is here to highlight that, despite what we've been told, we're not just little men — our bodies work differently — and if our hormones have us feeling less than our best, we absolutely can do something about it.

My aim is to support and empower you on your journey, where you need and want it. Take what you need, leave what you don't.

No judgement here, just good honest support.

XO, Laurie

What you can do about it

Perimenopause doesn’t have to be a dreadful, miserable experience. Thankfully, there are things you can do to improve it and ease common symptoms.

Here are a few ways to get started…

Keep stress hormones in check by balancing or reducing stress.

Stress is a big one! When the work of our stress hormones is chronically in demand, our sex hormones can suffer. Keeping stress in check can help support better hormone balance and less suffering.

Reduce inflammation.

This can be done by reducing known (and unknown) food allergies or intolerances and reducing exposure to known environmental toxins and endocrine disruptors (check foods, home, and beauty products).

Prioritize sleep. 

This can often be easier said than done in your perimenopausal years; however, it can be done with a bit of effort and sometimes trial and error. Seek support if sleep is an issue. I’m also happy to help here.

Opt for a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods and reduce inflammatory ones.

Many women will require a reduction or shift in carbohydrate intake as a drop in estrogen will impact blood sugar control. A hormone-supportive diet can also help balance stress, reduce inflammation, improve overall hormone balance, and help you feel and look your best.

Choose exercise that’s a good fit for your current hormone type and body

This will look different from your 20s or early 30s. Appropriate exercise for your hormones will also help reduce stress and inflammation.

Reduce alcohol.

This is a rather unpopular suggestion, though I must mention, as it can greatly reduce your body’s stress levels and inflammation. Reducing alcohol can help keep the hormone insulin in check, reduce blood sugar issues, help you burn fat when you want, and minimize fat gain, especially around your waistline.

Improve gut motility.

If you tend to be on the constipated side or the opposite, getting things moving one to three times a day is important to support hormone balance. Daily bowel movements should mostly be solid and firm but not hard, well-formed, brown, and easy to pass. If not, there could be digestion and absorption issues impacting your hormones.

Targeted nutritional supplementation.

Getting adequate nutrients to support hormone balance and your unique situation and symptoms is important. Genes, environment, and lifestyle all have a part to play, and most often, diet is not enough at every moment to support optimal hormone health. Working with a knowledgeable practitioner can help restore nutrients to optimal levels and fill essential gaps.

When is hormone replacement therapy helpful?

Balancing hormones and managing symptoms is sometimes insufficient to feel your best or reduce disease risk.  Estrogen plays an important role in nearly 400 bodily functions, impacting our heart health, bone health, and metabolism (this means fat stores, blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, and more).

You’ll likely notice as estrogen (in addition to progesterone and testosterone) declines to its lowest point.

Women have the option of restoring hormone levels with either traditional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). I strongly suggest educating yourself on the various options, benefits, and risks to make a well-informed decision that best suits your body and needs.

Some women find that their traditional doctors dismiss the idea of hormone replacement therapy in menopause or only mention risks from outdated research without informing themselves of recent developments in hormone therapy research.

I recommend educating yourself on the research to be well-informed. There’s a lot of information out there, and it pays to seek out an expert in women’s hormone replacement therapy.

Hormone Therapy Options

Hormone therapy comes in many different forms — including a pill, transdermal creams or gels, injections, sublingual drops, lozenges,  a patch — and can have various combinations or types of bioidentical or synthetic estrogens (estradiol, estriol, or both). Not every type or form of estrogen will have the same effect on every woman.

If you choose to try hormone therapy, it’s helpful to have options to find what works for you.

There are many benefits to choosing hormone therapy, and it can be health-supportive while reducing the risk of certain age-related diseases. Working with a knowledgeable, well-informed practitioner can help you make the best choice.

In addition, taking estrogen alone without the supplementation of progesterone can also pose risks — or reduce the efficacy of (B)HRT — for many women. Some women might find they also feel better with a combination of hormone replacement, including testosterone and even DHEA. Be sure you seek a highly knowledgeable practitioner in the different types of options, combinations, and what’s required to maximize benefits and reduce risk. This will vary from person to person.

When is it a good time to consider hormone replacement?

• When you’re between the ages of 45 and 50 and having irregular or anovulatory cycles, and no later than 10 years post-menopause, within the first 5 years of menopause is often ideal.
• Women with primary ovarian failure, primary or secondary amenorrhea
• Your FSH is > 10 IU/L at day 3 of your menstrual cycle
• Estradiol is less than 50 pg/ml mid-cycle
• AMH < 1.5 ng/mL 
• Progesterone is < 2 ng/mL during your mid-luteal phase

How to best support hormone therapy

Hormone replacement therapy is not a magic pill, and for it to work well for you, diet and lifestyle are an important consideration.

Optimizing hormone health is the way to feel better, younger, and healthier — starting with your diet and lifestyle. There’s no escaping that, even with the support of well-planned, well-considered hormone therapy.

Check out this post for even more ways to get your hormones back in harmony.

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, manage, or treat disease or serious conditions. Always check with your doctor before making any changes. It's important to consult a well-informed health practitioner for personal advice about your situation before relying on general information — we're all wonderfully unique.