Menopause Symptoms Report

Menopause and Giving to Others; How Can Women Possibly do it All?

By the time women reach menopause, many have spent a lifetime nuturing others. Often times that giving meant sacrificing personal needs. And, in addition to being mothers, lovers, wives and friends, women have also become the bread winners. The ones with the careers, and in a lot of cases, we love it.

The strange and interesting thing about Menopause is if you are experiencing a lack of something, or if you’ve bottled up things such as anger or depression for years, it will all come flying out now. Christian Northrup talks about this inevitable unfolding in her book, Wisdom of Menopause

Menopause is a time when there are no more excuses – if we haven’t already done so, we must get busy taking care of ourselves.

I ran across an inteview of Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. and author of numerous books. She is a leader at the forefront of the shift to a unified mind/body paradigm of healing. When asked what women should do about being torn between the two worlds of profession and nurturer, which leaves them feeling stressed and depleted;

Joan responded, “Women love to nurture because we have enormously empathetic hearts … we see the needs of others and want to be there for them.”

New research by Shelley Taylor at UCLA shows that biologically women are born to nurture. When women spend time with friends, we release a hormone called oxytocin. This is the same hormone released during labor and milk “let down.”

In comparison, when men are stressed, they have a ‘fight or flight’ response. When women get stressed, they have reduce it by ‘tending and befriending.’

So nurturing our children, being loving to a friend or spouse, taking care of our animals, is a woman’s way of de-stressing and reconnecting with the world. It’s natural and good for us. When we’re affectionate with our children, it releases oxytocin which makes us feel peaceful, calm and centered!

Which isn’t to say that we don’t have to do things to continue to fill our own well in other ways. Get a massage once a month. Do light exercise such as walking around your neighborhood. While you’re at it – get to know your neighbors. I discovered a 73-year-old Asian woman who lives two doors down from me and just lost her 87-year-old husband after 45 years of marriage. She’s as flexible as a frog leaping from one pond to another. So I go walking with her because I want that kind of mobility when I get to be her age.

You get used to the symptoms of menopause. I know when my cycle begins because a muscle in the upper right part of my back tells its coming. It threatens a headache. My stomach and bowels tell what’s on the way. And, I pay attention because there are things I can do to smooth the 3 or 4 days I spend bleeding. I bought an herbal wrap pack that I heat up in the microwave and put on my shoulders. While I’m typing at my computer earning a living, my body relaxes with the heat and wonderful smell of peppermint and chamomile moving up.

By the way, do you know any other creature on the planet that can bleed for a week and not die?

Gotta be something to that.

Enjoy. It’s all good.

Menopause News Isn’t All Bad

A good friend of mine told me that going throught his transition was the best thing that ever happened to her. She felt like she had more energy and was happier than ever before. Since then, I ran across this news story in the BBC News. It gave me hope for all of us.

BBC NEWS REPORT
Women ‘happier’ after menopause

Post-menopausal women are happier, says a survey
Women’s lives change for the better once they are past the menopause, suggests a survey.
The Jubilee Report, which examined the lifestyles of women over the age of 50, found 65% reporting that they were happier.
Survey responses
76% said health better
75% said they had more fun
93% said they had more independence and choice The process leading up to menopause usually takes place over a number of years in the late 40s to early 50s.
Over this period, women stop menstruating and lose the ability to bear children.
They may also suffer menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes and water retention.
Post-menopausal women are also more vulnerable to osteoporosis and heart disease.
Inconvenience ends
However, the survey, of 200 women, suggests that women feel that many areas of their life are in the ascendancy despite the end of their fertile years.
Some woman also feel that the cessation of periods frees them from inconvenience – and medical problems such as abnormally heavy menstruation.
In all, 76% of post-menopausal women said their health was better, 75% said they had more fun, and 93% said they had more independence and more choice in everything from work to leisure pursuits.
Women who took hormone replacement therapy were particularly positive about their lives, accoring to the survey.
Age shift
Half of these reported improvements in their sex lives following menopause, compared with 18% of those not taking HRT.
Dr Annie Evans, a specialist in women’s health from the Bristol Royal Infirmary, said: “One hundred years ago the average age of the menopause was 47, but the life expectancy of British women was only 49.
“Now women become menopausal at just over 50 years old but life expectancy is nearer 80, so we can expect to spend 25 to 30 years in the post-menopause.
“Women need to be able to make the kind of informed choices that will help them to maximise their enjoyment of all those extra years.”

Soy Helps Menopause Symptoms

One of the problems women tell me they have with the new soy fad is that it’s too difficult to eat enough of it, and often times soy tastes “chalky.”

The excitement about soy comes from studies done in Asia where women there consume up to 6 cups of soy a day and report far fewer menopausal symptoms. In fact, the more I research this, the more it appears that American women experience more discomfort through this life transition than women from any other country. Some believe this is related to the level of stress most women are now experiencing.

But back to the soy issue – in order to get enough quality soy that doesn’t taste awful but does give you the symptom relief for menopause, I’ve discovered a new product that can be of help. Go to this page to read more about menopause relief.