Women in their 40’s to early 50’s are enduring pressures from all angles: There’s the usual stresses of juggling work and family life, but there’s also a whole bunch of new issues that arise at this stage of life.
- Ageing parents and all that entails – either taking care of them – dealing with their health issues, dr’s appointments, social outings, or even having the conversation about downsizing and looking for elderly care accommodation that has a good track record.
- Ageing Kids – just when you thought the hard yards of looking after little kids had ended they turn into teenagers who need constant reminding of things that they no longer have the capacity to think about (clothes and towels left on the floor, scraps of food in their room along with half the crockery cupboard, kitchen reminiscent of a crime scene after they decide a cook-up is a good idea) and then they have the audacity to think they should be treated like adults.
- Relationship issues with your significant other as well as friends and family also start to rear their ugly head around this time.
As if all that isn’t enough, the real kicker comes when “Aunt Peri” comes to town to stay for an indefinite period of time. Who’s Aunt Peri you ask? Well unlike “Aunt Flo” who visits on a fairly regular monthly basis, Aunt Peri shows up whenever she damn well pleases – every second week for a while or not for a few months but arrives with gusto and a heap of carnage to go with it.
I’m making light of a very challenging situation and Aunt Peri, of course, is a euphemism for Peri-menopause which is no laughing matter for many women in their 40’s and 50s. There are a variety of well known symptoms (irregular periods, hot flushes, night sweats, etc) but also a heap of other symptoms that a lot of doctors (let alone ordinary people) don’t even realize are symptoms of perimenopause. These can include mood swings, anxiety/depression (even if you’ve never seen/felt this before), communication issues, memory loss, joint pain, the list goes on. If you are suffering symptoms that you can’t find a cause for, I recommend you investigate whether they could be related to perimenopause.
As a naturopath, I believe it is so important to support women going through major life challenges, not only with natural medicines and help for physical symptoms but emotional support too. I think the effects of perimenopause are under-estimated in our society as they get lost with all the other pressures going on in our lives at the time. If you are looking for support reach out to me or just email me with a question, I’m happy to help.