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Menopause is a significant transition in a woman’s life. It marks the end of menstruation, with shifting and falling hormone levels bringing significant physical changes. It’s often tied up with mental and emotional challenges, too.
Women haven’t always felt comfortable speaking openly about menopause. Here at The Forbes Clinic, we want to raise awareness of optimising health through menopause. However, since we believe every woman is different, the best way to support your menopause journey will be different from anyone else’s.
Read on to discover how Integrative Medicine can support you if you’re transitioning through the menopause and beyond.
Your Menopause and Your Hormones
The list of potential symptoms experienced in menopause is staggeringly long. This is because your female hormones don’t only affect your fertility – they impact cells all around your body.
Familiar to many women are hot flushes, sleep issues, anxiety, brain fog, joint pain, dry skin and thinning hair. This might sound like you, or you may experience different symptoms.
For many women, replacing their lost hormones in the form of HRT can bring relief. However, some women don’t feel HRT is for them, or have medical conditions which mean it’s unsuitable. In any case it’s only one part of the puzzle - menopause is not a disease, it’s a natural transition.
Nutrition, lifestyle and environment are incredibly important pillars to overall health. So, neglecting these while simply taking hormones is a little like putting a sticking plaster over a dirty wound.
Integrative Medicine 101
Our approach looks at you as a whole person, taking into account your mind, body and your spirit. The understanding that you are unique underpins everything we do. We believe optimal health can only be achieved by addressing the root causes of health issues, not simply managing negative symptoms.
If you choose us to support you on your health journey, we’ll start with an integrative health assessment. Together we will explore your symptoms, history, nutrition and emotional health and how they interact with your environment. Then we can understand where you are in your health journey and identify factors affecting your health.
We’ll provide you with a personalised action plan utilising dietary and lifestyle tools and wellbeing practices to get you started on your health journey.
Following this, depending on your personal circumstances, we may recommend additional support from one or more of our specialist in-house therapists. With so many tools at our disposal, we can recommend those that are best suited to your needs.
Let’s take the example of the menopause transition to illustrate what we mean by this approach. Many women transitioning through this phase will be experiencing the negative effects of stress, compromised poor liver and digestive health, and nutritional deficiencies – but depending on the person, other factors may be at work, too.
Nutritional Support in Menopause
Marie Cherrett, Functional Nutritional Therapist, specialises in women’s hormone issues. Evaluating and correcting nutrient deficiencies, toxic overload and blood sugar imbalances can support optimum hormone balance, improve sleep, and reduce hot flushes. Certain foods and herbs contain natural oestrogens which can be used to gently support balanced hormones.
Marie uses specialised urine and saliva tests to pinpoint hormone imbalances that may be behind your symptoms. Testing can reveal the absolute and relative levels of hormones, how your body is dealing with them, and any interactions between your stress and sex hormones. Knowing your full hormonal picture provides insights into what is happening in your body on a biochemical level.
Meanwhile, Edwidge Cabanetos offers live blood analysis. Using a single drop of your blood, nutritional deficiencies and toxic accumulation can be instantly detected. Edwidge also offers colon cleansing to enhance nutrient absorption.
Mind/Body Support in Menopause
Dr Ayiesha Malik, a practising GP, specialises in mind/body support along with homeopathy and naturopathy. She emphasises the effects of stress on physiological processes in the body. This can significantly impact hormone levels.
For example, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can assist with the acceptance of difficult thoughts and feelings, navigate the emotional challenges of menopause and better cope with unpredictable symptoms.
Nutrigenomics – Understanding Your Unique Body
A simple test can reveal the effects of tiny variations in your genes and their interactions with your environment. These can influence the way your body metabolises nutrients and hormones and detoxifies unwanted substances. Discovering your genetic picture can shed light on what is behind issues like hormone imbalances. The knowledge that you can modify your genes by changing their environment can be very empowering.
Jo Gamble, Advanced Functional Medicine practitioner, offers nutrigenomics testing, providing vital information to enhance your health plan.
Holistic Support for Your Menopause Journey
Drawing all these modalities together in a multi-therapy approach aims to holistically support you through the menopause and beyond. Guided by the knowledge that your body can repair itself when given the right conditions, we’ll equip you with the tools to achieve lasting health and wellbeing.
