Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to the hormone hub, your go-to source for the conversations every woman in her forties and fifties needs to have. I’m your host, Kylie Pinwill, your nutritionist helping you navigate your way through perimenopause, menopause and beyond. So you can say goodbye to the endless fatigue, unexplained weight gain, hot flushes, PMS, mood changes, and more that come on this hormonal roller coaster. If you missed the memo or think this is only for women of a certain age ladies, it’s time to think again. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Don’t forget to hit subscribe so you don’t miss any of my latest episodes, which are released every week. Share it with your friends, your sweaty sisters.

The more we talk, the more we help each other.

Ladies, let’s talk perimenopause because no one else is. So perimenopause isn’t determined by test more so [00:01:00] it’s the signs and symptoms, and it’s a natural sequence of hormonal events that happen in the five to 10 years before menopause. Yep. You heard that, right. All women have a different experience and the good news is it does not last forever.

As our hormones change so do our symptoms. So what kind of symptoms. It could be fatigue, weight gain, migraines, sweats, anxiety, depression, heavier periods, lighter periods, pelvic pain, sore breasts, muscle and joint pain. Oh, the joys. So what’s really going on. So today I’m going to run through the four stages of perimenopause, what you can expect and also what you can do.

So we don’t wake up one day and boom we’re in menopause. Okay. So rather this is what no one tells us. So rather it’s a series of hormonal changes that cause really [00:02:00] subtle changes in women. Some will experience more severe symptoms. So these can start anywhere up until 10 years before we go through menopause. So yes, you heard that right, ladies? It can start, you know, in our late thirties. And no one ever tells us what’s going on. Okay, so first up and the first thing which we may or may not even notice is our body starts, you know, as we go through our monthly cycles, we start to produce less progesterone. So this can happen like I said, late thirties to early forties.

You might still be having regular periods, but these progesterone levels, you know, will drop. And the symptoms that come from this can be an increase in anxiety or, you know, anxiety that you’ve never had before. Uh, it can be breast pain, heart palpitations, night sweats, migraines, crazy heavy periods. Okay.

So as [00:03:00] we’re sort of losing progesterone, the next kind of stage is also high fluctuating estrogen. Okay. So we can experience higher levels of estrogen. You know, and this can be up to three times higher than what we would normally have. So just this alone. So if we think of estrogen as quite inflammatory, so irritable moods, breast pain, really heavy periods again.

You know, and this excess estrogen can really inflame our histamine levels. So if you’ve never had, or, you know, you’ve never had allergies before or you’ve, you know, had asthma, hayfever, sinus, you know, we can become more sensitive and also to the histamines in food. Okay. So the next stage we sort of go through is lower levels of estrogen. So when the spikes of higher estrogen suddenly dropped down to low estrogen, this is where, you know, we start to experience hot flushes, [00:04:00] insomnia, brain fog, our periods are now irregular. We might be going months in between. Um, so this is kind of like the sign or symptoms that we’re getting closer. So when we are in menopause. So this is when our estrogen levels are low. Progesterone levels are low. Um, it’s been a year or more since your last period, you know, that’s when you’re officially in menopause.

Um, and you know, with this, we become more sensitive to insulin resistance, which makes us more sensitive to weight gain where, you know, become more sensitive to stress. So again, weight gain, hot flashes, insomnia memory loss, dry vaginas, dry skin, all of that. So if any of these stages are kind of standing out for you, send me a DM. I’d love to hear your experience. Okay. So that’s sort of like that in a snapshot. More to it, but what if you’re sitting there and you’re like, okay, well that’s all well and good. But I had a [00:05:00] hysterectomy. Or I’ve had an ablation or I’ve got a mirena in, or I’m on the pill.

And this is what no one again, tells us that if your ovaries are still intact or if you have a mirena, you can still go through these four phases of perimenopause. And this can be really confusing because there’s this assumption out there that just because we don’t have our periods anymore, we’re done.

Okay. Not so, so you can have years of hidden cycling. So if you were experiencing, you know, mood changes, breast pain, pelvic pain, headaches, it’s worth trying to see if there is a pattern with this. Um, so with menopause. It’s a really important window for our future health. So any small issues, you know, if the earlier we get onto them, like anything with our health, the earlier we get onto them and address them, the less chance that they’re going to amplify into something bigger and more permanent. So ladies now is the time to [00:06:00] start small, realistic changes that can pay out in the longterm. So if this is ringing any alarm bells for you and you would like our help, you can absolutely book in a call and chat to one of my team. Like the sooner we get onto this, the better.

This hormone hub episode is sponsored by my popular workshop, which is now available on demand: the ultimate guide to balancing your hormones. If you’re constantly feeling tired, struggling with weight gain, PMS, mood swings, bloating, not sleeping at night, cravings, anxiety, blah, blah, blah, all the things.

These are all frustrating signs of a hormonal imbalance, and I’m ready to help. In this free master class, I explain what causes this hormone imbalance. And most importantly, what you can do about it. I’ll give you some awesome practical solutions so you can ditch those sugar cravings, regain your energy and shift that stubborn weight that’s been growing around your middle.

The link with all the details is on our show notes [00:07:00] or over at Kyliepinwill.com.

Okay, so what can I expect and how bad is it going to be? This is something I get asked all the time. So it really depends. So 30% of women will sail through peri-menopause and not really even notice, which is great. And that’s the way it should be. Now 30% of women will suffer debilitating symptoms that will impact their day-to-day life.

Um, and the rest of us are generally somewhere in between. Okay. So we might have middly annoying symptoms, but you know, we can still kind of get on with things. And your actual experience is going to depend on a few different things. So first up one of those things is genetics. So if we’re sort of looking at the experience of your mom, your aunts, older sisters, you know, they can give you some insight into what you can expect. And fortunately genes are only part of the story. Okay. So [00:08:00] the expression of these genes could definitely be modified by, you know, our nutrition, exercise, supporting a healthy lifestyle. You know, and this includes managing the stress and also learning good healthy sleep habits as well. So it also can depend on our general health. So perimenopause is 100% can exacerbate any underlying issues. So if we’ve got, you know, any nutrient deficiencies, if we’ve got digestive issues, if we’ve got, you know, sort of sluggish liver, if you’re tending towards mild sort of insulin resistance, high blood pressure, anything like this, this can put you into full-blown insulin resistance. An early sign of this is that abdominal weight gain. Or, you know, that spare tyre on the tummy that no one wants. Um, another thing that can influence your perimenopause experience is, you know, if you’ve always had mild and [00:09:00] symptom-free periods, you’re more likely to experience an easy peri-menopause.

So, this is really a good indication that everything’s working well. If you’ve had difficult, painful, or heavy periods, it means that the same issues that affect your periods, that hormone imbalance, can affect your experience through peri-menopause. So really, you know, like a healthy period is one that just arrives, there’s, no sort of big, obvious PMS. Generally pain-free. You know, bleeds four to five days, you know, We’re not bleeding through, anything like that. That is what a regular period is like. Okay. So that’s normal. And I know as women that so many have, you know, it becomes your normal.

Because that’s what you’ve always had, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is as it should be. Okay. Another interesting thing with perimenopause [00:10:00] is it does crossover with a lot of other conditions. So things like thyroid disease, underactive thyroid overactive thyroid, um, things like fibromyalgia.

You know, they’re all often mistaken for each other because the symptoms are quite similar and all are amplified by perimenopause too. So it’s important to be aware of. You know, these need to be investigated and supported as well. So one good thing to bear in mind is the better, healthier state you’re in leading up to menopause. And the sooner we get onto this, the better the long-term result. So ladies, you have got a whole lot of life left to live. So.

It’s never too late to make some changes. Okay. So we don’t just wake up one day and find ourselves in this. It’s a sequence of hormonal events that happen in the five to 10 years before menopause. So some of us won’t even know most of us won’t ever know what’s going on. You know, there might be some subtle, [00:11:00] subtle changes and for others it will impact their day-to-day life. So all women have a different experience and the good news is, and the thing to remember is it doesn’t last forever.

As our hormones change. And as we sort of go through that sort of phases, so to do our symptoms.

 

Thank you for taking the time to listen today. You can head on over to the show notes at kyliepinwill.com/podcast where you’ll find all the links. And I have a little bonus surprise waiting for you. Before we go, it would mean the world to me if you head on over to your favorite podcast channel, subscribe and leave a review.

Make sure to screenshot it, DM it to me so I can thank you personally. Then stay tuned for next week’s episode can’t wait to see you then.