Helping Women In Your Life Through The Menopause

Menopause is not an illness as many people, especially men, seem to think. Menopause is just a period in life in which hormones are shifting and changing. And it isn't only about women. It's true that women have more extreme symptoms like hot flashes, but men and women share many symptoms, for example, mood swings, weakness, fatigue, depression, bad sleep quality, inferiority complex, and extra abdominal weight among others.

Educate!

Age of menopause varies for everybody. Some women turn 60 and never notice menopausal symptoms. In average, these are mostly women who take care of their eating habits and live healthy and active lives. Proper nutrition is essential all the time, especially in the transitional periods like adolescence, pregnancy, and menopause. If a woman eats a well-balanced diet with a lot of vegetables and healthy fats, she will have fewer symptoms compared to a woman who lives on junk food, because her body will have less to compensate.  

Some women don't understand the importance of nutrition. If you live with a woman like this, feel free to give her advice. Feel free to share an article with her. Let her know that you care.

Hot Flashes

Hot flashes are a significant menopause symptom and the hardest to bear for most women at the beginning. Most menopausal women often complain how their household members don't have enough understanding towards this symptom. A woman in the midst of a hot flash needs to open all windows and doors in the house, even on the coldest day of all. If you have a woman going through the menopause, be supportive! If she opens all windows or sets the air conditioner to cool in the winter, wear a sweater and don't complain too much; it will pass soon. If it doesn't, at least she will learn how to live with it.

The last resort are drugs: a low-dose hormonal birth control may help stop or reduce hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and mood swings.[1]

Food Cravings

Menopausal women crave different kinds of food and they crave it often. It's mostly junk food full of carbohydrates. Don't judge her and call her voracious or fat. Be understanding! It's her hormones and she regrets it too, so don't add fuel to the fire. Be supportive!

READ What Your Food Craving Says About You

Mood Swings

My mother yelled a lot in the first couple of months after she started her menopause. Bear in mind that it was an induced menopause due to some health complications, not the body's natural process, and her body didn't have time to prepare itself. Nothing was fine, everyone was doing something she did not approve of, everyone was doing things to annoy her... In these situations, you have to be wise and keep quiet a lot. Don't argue. Of course 90% of the time she is not right, but don't tell her that. You will be glad that you kept calm later in life, maybe even that same day.

More Useful Tips To Get Through Menopause Easier

Nature And Exercise Help

No matter whether it's a walk around the neighborhood to clear the head, or a piece of fruit to eat, nature helps a lot. If you have a woman with insomnia or hot flashes in your house, be a good sport and be her company during a long walk in nature. Exercise is extremely beneficial for aging women. It keeps bones and muscles stronger. Also, having a steady exercise regimen, even if it's only walking, helps to keep energy levels high. As we age, we become stiff. It's great to stretch and keep the body active. Accompany your mother or wife to a yoga class or a dance class. It will be great for both, and it's good for bonding.

The exercise program for postmenopausal women should include the endurance exercise (aerobic), strength exercise and balance exercise; it should aim for two hours and 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week.[2]

Fatty acids are very important because our bodies don't make them. Whether it's fish oil, cold pressed flax seed or hemp seed oil, make sure she has enough of it. It reduces her risk of heart disease, but most importantly — it reduces hot flashes. Make sure to use plant-based products whenever you can, because they're more beneficial when it comes to balancing the hormones.

Women during menopause activate less vitamin D than they did before, and they actually need more of it than ever because it helps to absorb calcium to keep the bones healthy. If the vitamin D levels are low, calcium loses its effectiveness. Research has shown that a diet rich in both vitamin D, calcium and a lot of sun exposure are able to keep mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety and every other mood disorder under control. Menopausal women, especially those over 55, should pay a lot of attention to vitamin D.

Both Vitamin D deficiency and the menopausal transition are associated with mood disturbances and musculoskeletal aches. Because estrogen increases the activity of the enzyme responsible for activating Vitamin D, the fall in estrogen that occurs during the menopausal transition could uncover previously subclinical Vitamin D deficiency. Indeed, Vitamin D can improve mood and muscle aches in non-menopausal populations, but its effects in menopausal women, where the benefits may be magnified, have not been previously studied.[3]

Be Positive And Kind

We live in a society that loathes aging. Our society is colored by the cult of youth and perfection. Women are afraid to dress as they wish, and even wear their hair in a way that is different from the trends that are set. If you know and love any woman, whether a young one, or an older one going through the menopause at the moment — give her a compliment right now! Make her love her hair, even if it's different from the styles that you like.

READ World Mental Health Day: Focusing On The Positive

We teach young women to be all the same from an early age with role models like Barbie dolls. I don't have anything against Barbie, but hardly anyone teaches daughters and students to be whatever they like. What does this all have to do with menopause, you wonder? Well, when hormones start to shift, and the woman feels completely different than before, some of her thinking patterns shift too. She thinks many things, overthinks them actually, wonders and regrets. Support from her close ones is extremely important here, to get her back on track. She may feel old, not sexy enough, and unwanted. Smash all doubts with kind words and support!