How your younger years shape your menopause journey

I consider myself one of the lucky ones.  The experience though later life hormone changes has been relatively easy (or at least compared to some).l  I guess having been involved in lifestyle and wellbeing for many years, I had introduced lots of processes and taken action during peri/menopause without realising the positive impact they would have.

With so much chatter online, and in the real world – amongst your friends and colleagues – generally about peri/meno and post menopause, it is known that many women have delayed  ‘dealing’ with the process until they physically in it.  This is a crazy approach to any health and lifestyle experience.  Actually, it’s a bit of a daft approach to most things.  After all, you wouldn’t take your driving test without preparation and planning, or build a house without digging foundations, so why do we think when it comes to health that reaction to symptoms is the best way to approach the inevitable.  Prevention, preparation and planning is always a good approach; it clearly wont stop the process, but it can help ease symptoms and make the general experience less of a life impacting one.

Did you know prevention or at the least adaption in your 20-30’s will help you in later life; lets look at some of the areas of wellbeing and lifestyle that can have an impact, and ones that you can have control over at any time.

Physical Activity across adulthood.

Even the most sporty child can reach adulthood with a decrease in physical activity, and if you are someone (like me) who avoided PE in school, by the time you reach adult hood your activity is likely to be non existent.

Research has shown that the more consistent physical activity we maintain, the greater impact we ill see in the reduction of hot flushes, mood swings, bone density and cardiovascular health (all menopause symptoms). The effect on hot flushes is not as great as the other areas, but any improvement has to be good!

Physical activity helps by improving the neurochemical changes, reducing insulin resistance and by preserving bone density and muscle mass. (ref 1)

Alcohol

Alcohol is something many find affects them during menopause, increasing hot flushes and affecting brain fog, decreasing energy, disrupting sleep, but did you know heavy drinking affects you long term.

Alcohol affects your body temperature regulation, but far more importantly impacts oestrogen metabolism.  It also affects heart health, so by limiting alcohol can only benefit us throughout life.  As an addictive drug, it is also important to understand alcohol impact to avoid dependency, as it without doubt is detrimental to the management of menopause symptoms.

Chronic stress/burnout/early adult mental health.

It has been discovered that any of the above increase the risk of psychological symptoms (anxiety, depression, tiredness) during menopause.  Stress is a huge factor in many illness and conditions throughout life; menopause is not an exception.  The more stress relief we can make habitual the better for our long term health and life experience.

The sciency bit – chronic stress occurs (environmental,. Relationships, work/life) leads to an increase in cortisol; when this is high for a sustained period of time our bodies do not cope well.  When this occurs our thermoregulation is vulnerable, as the sex hormones drop.  The result is hot flushes increase, sleep loss rises and mood swings – swing more.

Early intervention, relaxation, and stress management, good sleep etc will positively impact the symptoms (ref 2)

Some practical steps you can take in your 20-30’s

1.      keep active – consistently

a.      regular moderate exercise

b.      resistance for bone and muscle mass

c.      cardio for health

d.      stretching/ yoga/Pilates for relaxation and conditioning

2.      moderate alcohol

a.      you don’t have to drink, but if you choose to keep it less often, lighter, and moderate

b.      try to avoid patterns of drinking

c.      be mindful and aware of your alcohol intake

3.      stress management

a.      have a good sleep routine

b.      reduce stress – hard to do but possible

c.      avoid burnout

d.      make stress relief/relaxation as much of your day to day life as eating and sleeping

Additional factors and how to work on them

Smoking: this causes cardiovascular issues and can make menopause symptoms worse. The only solution to this is QUIT.  (incidentally, I include vaping in this, whilst it is not a known trigger for worsening menopause symptoms, I think inhaling chemicals cannot be a good thing and may show in future years to have impact.  This is a personal opinion, but one that comes from logical thoughts)

Substance abuse: in this I include regular taking of painkillers as a habit, as these can seriously impact hormonal change and make menopause harder to deal with. For any use of illegal drugs, seek medical help to stop this as soon as you can; for prescription drugs, always ask about future impact – and be updated on this.  Evidence and research flags up issues, even once a medication has been in circulation for some time.

A general wellbeing approach

By practicing good selfcare and a positive approach to wellbeing we can monitor bone density – to prevent future fractures and breakages. Accidents and such injuries can be life limiting as we age, anything we do to keep bones strong can only be good.  We can prevent muscle wastage, which increase at a rapid rate during menopause unless we take action to slow the process.  Having strength in older age will help when we fall, become unwell and need to draw on physical reserves. Heart health in menopause is a big issue, the percentage of women in their 50’s who have cardiovascular issues increases; by protecting our heart and vascular system we reduce the chance of heart attack and increased use of long term medication.  Finally, having a positive mindset has a correlating positive impact to our physical and mental wellbeing.  The earlier we start working on lifestyle and wellbeing and making it a part of every day life, instead of constantly looking for a quick (or otherwise) fix, the greater chance we have of negotiating our way through a less difficult menopause and beyond.

If you have read this and thinking ‘but I’m not in my 20’s and I didn’t do any of these things’ – don’t panic.  Today is the day you can start to make change to your lifestyle.  Its never too late.  That’s the beauty of making changes to lifestyle and a wellbeing approach.  It can be done at any age.references.

1. Witkoski S. et al. 2022 review

2. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.gov/24149919