Menopause Care “It’s Personal”

Estrogen, what is it and what does it do?

This hormone has so many jobs to keep us up and running . There are estrogen receptors throughout our entire body. A receptor is a way of communicating within our body to trigger a response. They are located in our brain, heart, intestines, to name a few. When are estrogen is low we feel the loss in symptoms such as brain fog, digestive issues, sleep, energy levels, hot flashes and so many more. Every woman is different and experiences the symptoms differently. Many woman notice that their cholesterol levels are higher and blood pressure is elevated and they haven’t changed their eating. The other silent symptom we don’t see or feel is our arteries can begin to weaken and may start the build up of plaque , this raises our risk of heart disease and stroke. Our bone density relies on estrogen as well, as it declines so does our risk of osteoporosis and fractures. Estrogen also regulated our immune function and inflammation. Its loss is linked to higher risk of autoimmune diseases. Estrogen maintains our bladder and vaginal tissue health. Lower levels can cause UTI’s , incontinence and painful intercourse. One of the biggest issues is weight gain during this transition. Estrogen affects insulin sensitivity and fat storage. This affects our metabolism, hence our ability to burn fat. This all sounds grim, I know, but we can make changes to minimize our symptoms and take back control of our health.

The many phase of Menopause:

Woman of childbearing age is defined as: Premenopause. The age range for this part of a woman’s life is the start of menses to age 40 or so. Next is Perimenopause which starts around 40 but some woman can start in their 30’s. This is a transition phase when estrogen levels fluctuate causing a number of symptoms, hot flashes, irregular periods, moods swings and brain fog to name a few. This can last a few years. Then we get to Menopause, its actually one day! It is the day you have gone one full year without your period. This happens around 50 but varies in woman as do the symptoms. At this point estrogen has drastically dropped as well as progesterone and testosterone affecting almost all aspects of our wellbeing. The day after that, until the conclusion of a woman’s life is Postmenopause. This is the whole second half of our lives. Many things change and so we have to pivot and make multiple lifestyle changes to continue to live a healthy life.