By Emma-Jane Bunn
Perimenopause – those few years prior to menopause – can make itself known in your early 40’s with a long list of symptoms;
Low mood, anxiety & mood swings
Problems with memory or concentration (brain fog)
Disturbed sleep
Hot flushes
Bloating & poor digestion
Changes to body shape & weight gain
Headaches and migraines that are worse than usual
Muscle aches and joint pains
Reduced body confidence
One of the most common complaints is the overall sense of tiredness and fatigue.
The main cause for fatigue during this period is that your hormone levels drop. As your body prepares for the onset of menopause it decreases the amount of oestrogen that it produces. Since oestrogen serves as a counterweight to progesterone, when there is less oestrogen there is a disruption in the balance of the two hormones. And since progesterone can make you sleepy, its effects can be magnified with less oestrogen in your system.
Oestrogen also serves as an important control on cortisol levels. So with less oestrogen, cortisol’s negative effects become magnified – leading to the same type of cortisol rush you see in any stress response. And you can experience the same type of energy crashes you might endure after any other stressful situation. The long-term activation of the stress response system and the overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can disrupt almost all your body's processes, and this puts you at increased risk of exacerbating your other symptoms.
And of course, those other symptoms can - when added together - enhance that fatigue; your sleep is disturbed, you have night sweats, your body is sore and your memory sucks… all of this can become a bit of a cycle; contributing to and compounding that sense of physical, mental and emotional fatigue. If you add to this our tendency as a society to “push through” these symptoms we can so easily start to deplete our scant energy reserves and tip ourselves further towards exhaustion and away from our usually resilient selves.
As well as addressing these issues with dietary changes and supplements, rest and relaxation are critical during perimenopause and that means napping when necessary(!), or using other relaxation techniques to help reduce your stress levels.
As well as making some lifestyle changes (can you take anything unnecessary out of your diary?); meditation, pranayama and yoga are an excellent choices for these relaxation efforts.
Mindfulness Meditation - A mindfulness practice has been shown in studies to reduce the reactivity of the amygdala (the brains emotional response centre) allowing us more control over how we react to stressors, and therefore enabling us to reduce the release of stress hormones into the body. Studies also show that meditation can provide the nervous system with a rest that is five times deeper than sleep!
Restorative Yoga - A slow and spacious yoga practice that invites the body into positions that encourage rest and recuperation. This type of practice facilitates the opposite of the “fight & flight” stress response; activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, or “rest & digest” functions in the body.
Pranayama (breathwork) - While mindfulness asks us to be present with the breath as it is, Pranayama invites us to work gently with the breath (changing its speed and length) to further help the body “down-regulate”. Most of us will notice that in times of stress our breath gets shorter and faster, and when we’re stuck in this pattern for too long the body starts to struggle.
Somatic Movement - It may seem odd to recommend movement for rest purposes, but somatic practices (including some yoga) can help us to close the stress cycle and dispel excess stress hormones from the body. Once we’ve used up these hormones it makes way for the parasympathetic nervous system to release the more restful hormones and can help to bring us into a deeper state of connection and relaxation.
It can be tricky to know where to begin, especially when you’re exhausted, feeling under-resourced and struggling with your symptoms, which is why I am thrilled to be a guest facilitator on the “Empowered” program, co-hosted with Marion Colledge and The Honor Oak Wellness Rooms. Join me on week three, where I’ll lead you through some simple practices that you can add to your toolkit, and most importantly - take them off your mat and into your everyday life.
EMPOWERED: A Perimenopause Program
A six-week program for women who want to improve their wellbeing before, during and after menopause..
Emma-Jane Bunn (@almae.wellness) is a yoga and mindfulness facilitator with a long-standing interest in using these practices as tools to support mental and physical health. Emma espouses the benefits of rest and offers you an opportunity to cultivate relaxation with an intuitive and holistic approach; offering you practices to calm and regulate your nervous system and build inner resilience from a compassionate and grounded place. Emma's work is rooted in years of experience working with stress and recognising how it manifests in the body. Emma holds a trauma-informed space.