How to survive menopause

How to survive menopause

Guest post by Lisa Davis

Menopause is the time in a woman's life when menstrual periods stop and not restart.  It can occur at any time between the ages of 40 and 55.  When menstruation stops you can no longer get pregnant.  If this occurs before the age of 40, it is classified as a premature menopause and is usually caused by diseases such as cancer and radiotherapy treatment, autoimmune conditions or surgery in the womb.

Period prior to menopause is called perimenopause.  This phase could begin two years before stopping periods, or it can begin as early as eight years before.  It is characterized by changes in your cycle irregular periods, length of shorter or longer cycles or periods become heavier or lighter.  Of course you should not immediately suspect that your fertile days are numbered if this happens to you.  There are many other causes for these types of symptoms, including pregnancy and breastfeeding, stress, change your routine, nutritional deficiencies, sexual or hormonal imbalance.    If you notice changes in your menstrual cycle and then your periods stopped and did not return in a year and there is no other identifiable causes, you have probably been through menopause.

Symptoms of menopause

Some women sail through middle age without any menopause symptoms, while others seem to have the book thrown at them.  Symptoms may include:

Hot flashes are a feeling of warmth that occurs in the upper part of the body.  Your face may be marked in red.  Some women sweat profusely or shiver. dry skin around the vagina is caused by decreasing levels of estrogen in the body.  Lack of estrogen causes thinning of the vaginal walls, which may make you more susceptible to infection.  You may also be more prone to bladder infections and sexual intercourse may become painful.  Hormonal changes and discomfort can lessen your desire for sex. you may experience mood swings or crying for no apparent reason.  This side effect is more common if you have mood swings as part of premenstrual syndrome or you had post-partum depression in the past. your bones may become weaker and prone to fractures.  This is called osteoporosis. you may also gain weight, but it is not known if this is due to menopause or just due to aging.

You'll be pleased to know that simple lifestyle changes can make all the difference and can simplify life with menopause.  Women who are experiencing many of the symptoms of menopause may be deficient in certain nutrients or may not be consuming enough foods with natural estrogens (phyto-estrogens).  If a woman has a diet with lots of plant estrogens, it may help relieve the symptoms of menopause and reduce the need for which can have dangerous side effects of hormone therapy.  Some of the foods that contain naturally occurring estrogens, whole grains, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, fruit and soya beans and soya products.  In fact, despite its bad reputation in other areas, soy is the best food anti menopause, many medical scientists and women's groups.  Evidence from observational studies found that Japanese women have mild symptoms of menopause because they eat more soy than American women.  According to the North American Menopause society, some women who eat soy can convert it into equol, a blend that is made of isoflavone and produced natural metabolism.  Equol appears to reduce symptoms of menopause, which may be why Soy helps but not all women can produce it.  It depends on the number and type of friendly bacteria in their gut.  50% of Asians can produce it, compared with 20-30% of Americans.

Soy may reduce hot flashes, night sweats, bone and heart health and may even have a positive effect against breast cancer.

Menopause diet Planner

To try to reduce or prevent symptoms from occurring in your daily diet should include various phyto estrogen and Omega-3.  Here is a sample diet plan:

Breakfast: a bowl of cereal with soy milk and milled flax seeds on top.  Flaxseeds have been shown in one small study, to reduce vaginal dryness, hot flashes and mood swings, but the results have not been replicated.  However, it is known that they are rich in omega-3 and therefore can protect you from arthritis.  As bone problems, more common after menopause, this is important.  Walnuts and pumpkin seeds also contain the Omega 3, so you can add these instead of flax, if you want to.

Lunch: salad with tempeh

This is an alternative to chicken salad.  You will need:

Tempeh (soy product)

Celery

Dill pickle

Shallots

Red pepper

Soy mayonnaise

Mustard

Lemon juice

Fresh parsley

Black pepper

Lettuce leaves or bread

To prepare you need to cook for about 10 minutes and then leave it to cool.  After it cools, cut it into cubes (if it already cut).  Add one stick of celery, sliced 2 red peppers and one mixed pepper dill, three onion and some parsley.  Then add half a cup of mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon of mustard and a teaspoon of lemon juice.  Add salt and pepper to taste and then put in the fridge for half an hour.  Then combine it with lettuce or simply add it to toast.

Dinner:

For dinner, you can try a couple of fish for Omega-3, with broccoli and cauliflower and a glass of red wine.  Red wine, reservatol contains phyto estrogen, which has the added benefit of being anti cancer!

Other drinks ideas include a good old fashioned water (there are many health benefits properly hydrated), fruit juice and soy milk, enriched with calcium.  Calcium is essential to prevent osteoporosis after menopause.

Style tips

There are more things you can do to alleviate menopause.  These include making sure you get enough exercise (women who exercise have less symptoms) or go for a walk instead of getting in the car and getting more sleep-try to go to bed at the same time every night, if your symptoms keep you awake.  It can help stabilize your sleep, if you're in the routine.  If the hot flashes you are concerned, you can leave the window slightly open or put an electric fan to keep your bedroom cool.  You can also remove the comforter and sheet.

Take a vitamin supplement to make sure that you have all the nutrients you need and try to avoid caffeine.  Caffeine is well known worse premenstrual syndrome, and it can also make worse menopause!

If you are experiencing sexual problems, talk about it with your partner and doctor and try to use the grease to make things easier.  Life does not need to be over just because you're older than 40 years.