How to Navigate the Emotional Challenges of Menopause

Menopause has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy and even shame. However, thankfully, nowadays more and more women are talking openly about the challenges brought by menopause.

Many women are familiar with the physical symptoms of menopause. These include night sweats, hot flushes, fatigue, joint pain, dry skin, thinning hair, and vaginal dryness. In reality, the list goes on.

But what about the emotional side of menopause? This can often be overlooked, with the changing emotions during this stage of life sometimes coming as a shock.

Read on to learn how you can naturally support your emotional health through your menopause journey.

What is Menopause?

Strictly speaking, menopause occurs twelve months after a woman’s last period. The two main female hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, change dramatically as you approach and journey through menopause and towards post-menopause.

Prior to your periods ending, hormones often deviate from their monthly pattern, a stage of life termed the perimenopause. For many women, oestrogen is elevated, often combined with low levels of progesterone. Post-menopause, this oestrogen usually declines.

When women are ovulating, the ovaries produce progesterone during the second half of the menstrual cycle. Once ovulation ceases, your body retains the ability to make progesterone. However, the job is handed over to your adrenal glands, often nicknamed your stress glands. But if you’re experiencing chronic stress, your adrenals will prioritise making stress hormones over progesterone. Therefore, levels of progesterone in postmenopausal women are often very low.

Meanwhile, although women don’t produce as much testosterone as men, it’s still needed by your body, particularly by your brain. Levels do tend to reduce post-menopause.

How Does Menopause Affect Emotional Health?

Many women experience emotional challenges during menopause. On the one hand, some women feel a sense of relief as their periods end, especially if they’ve struggled with heavy, irregular, or painful periods. Some women feel liberated, as they no longer need to worry about protection from pregnancy.

But there can be plenty of negative emotions, too. Some women navigate sadness at losing their fertility. Other women experience mood swings, heightened anxiety, anger, and brain fog. These are often combined with a feeling of a loss of identity, invisibility, or even uselessness.

The Effects of Hormones on Emotional Health

Declining oestrogen can lead to reduced levels of the brain neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. These substances help regulate mood, with low serotonin typically associated with poor mood and depression. Meanwhile, reduced levels of dopamine can lead to lack of motivation. Dips in oestrogen can also contribute towards memory issues and brain fog.

Progesterone, on the other hand, is known for its effect of calming the nervous system. Therefore, when it declines, it can lead to increased anxiety and restlessness, low mood, and fatigue.

A reduction is testosterone is linked with brain fog, loss of motivation and tiredness.

Because, especially during the run-up to the menopause, hormones are in flux, mood swings and other emotional symptoms may fluctuate unpredictably. The intensity of these symptoms can be distressing and frightening, sometimes causing uncontrollable outbursts of anger or irritability that are out of character. These in themselves can cause anxiety and worry.

Meanwhile, memory lapses and difficulty concentrating can be worrying and frustrating when they seem to appear out of nowhere.

Anxiety and worry, along with some of the physical symptoms associated with menopause, frequently cause sleeping problems. This further adds to the stress and anxiety, in a vicious cycle.

For many women, menopause comes at a time of other life changes and challenges, including role shifts brought about by retirement, loss of loved ones or children leaving home. This may serve to amplify the emotional challenges brought about by fluctuating hormones. Recognising these emotional symptoms as a result of hormonal changes can help lessen feelings of frustration, guilt, and additional anxiety at this time.

We now offer a simple way to evaluate hormone imbalances in your own home. The DUTCH Complete test analyses samples of your urine to establish levels of oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone and stress hormones, alongside neurotransmitter and nutrient markers, and how they may be affecting your health and emotions. This test is available as a standalone or supported by a post-results interpretation consultation.

Natural Support Towards Optimal Menopausal Emotional Health

• Feed your emotions with plenty of unprocessed, colourful, vegetables and fruit, providing brain and hormone-supporting nutrients. Omega 3 fats, found in nuts, seeds and oily fish, are especially useful for brain health, while B vitamins are crucial for supporting stress glands.
• Keep moving to support healthy mood and brain function.
• Set a consistent bedtime, watch your caffeine intake, and avoid screen time in the late evening to help improve quality sleep.
• Somatic therapies such as Emotional Freedom Technique can be useful to support your body through this time of change, especially if stress is impacting your symptoms.
• Psycho-emotional therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can help with the acceptance of difficult thoughts and feelings at this time. This therapy can reduce your stress response to these feelings and help you commit to actions that will support your wellbeing.

Many women find that as they navigate through the changes on their menopause journey, they become more empowered than previously. They have an opportunity to embrace their different self and find new personal roles and purpose, bringing about renewed positivity.

We would recommend your first step to be an Integrative Health Assessment, designed to explore your emotional and physical symptoms, health history and nutritional status, and how all these are interacting with your lifestyle and environment. Once the factors affecting your health are identified, you’ll receive a personalised action plan guiding you through the first stages of your optimal health journey. This may be supported by one or more of our specialist therapists here at The Forbes Clinic, depending on your needs and goals.

Your hormonal journey is unique, but you don’t have to travel it alone. We can help you discover the root causes of your symptoms and reclaim your emotional health.