Transcript

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Hormone Hub. It is your host, Kylie Pinwill here, and today we are talking about the mental and emotional impacts of perimenopause and [00:01:00] menopause and how it can hit us like a truck. Specifically, I’m gonna dive into sort of anxiety and give you a really good sort of, you know, technique to help you sort of navigate through that.

But before we do that, I’m just gonna jump into, you know, the, what’s going on. And why this is, you know, all of a sudden an issue where you may never have felt anxious before in your whole life. So definitely perimenopause, menopause can be a rollercoaster ride. Our sex hormones are dropping and changing and, you know, this results in, you know, the, the commonly associated symptoms.

So, you know, hot flushes, night sweats, weight gain, vaginal dryness, sleep issues. But what a lot of women don’t realize is these same sex hormones, in particular estrogen, play a huge role in our brains and our cognitive function as well. So, you know, when our estrogen drops, this, you know, can sort [00:02:00] of lead to mood swings, brain fog, poor memory.

And we’ve touched on that in previous podcasts. But today I sort of wanna jump in on how sort of estrogen and progesterone are also what we call psycho protective. So it helps support our psychological wellbeing. It helps, you know, sort of keep our cortisol in control. It helps our nervous system response, that fight flight response.

It helps regulate that. And then what happens when we get these fluctuating and declining levels of hormones, it can actually increase our stress response. So we, we become less resilient to stress. And then this also then has a knock on impact to our mental health because we’ve also, you know, when we’ve got increased cortisol, we’ve got less production of our happy hormones.

So things like serotonin, oxytocin, our endorphins, and then this, you know, leads to that increased risk of anxiety and depression. [00:03:00] So today we’re gonna have a look at, you know, the relationship between our hormones and our emotions and why things affect us. And then sometimes they don’t affect us at all. So it’s all about that mind, body, brain connection.

Now I also just sort of wanna say it’s kind of a chicken and egg situation as well. So is it our, you know, our changing hormones and you know, it has an impact on our emotions. And then, you know, impacts our menopausal symptoms. And then, but if we flip that around, our emotions, you know, impact our hormones, you know, and impact our symptoms.

So it’s kind of, everything’s related. It’s all connected. So it’s never gonna be, oh, it’s my emotions impacting this, or it’s my hormones impacting this. They all work together. So if we think about, you know, And I speak to women all the time and hear that, you know, they’re really upset with themselves because they [00:04:00] feel like they’re, you know, just a horrible person to live with.

So they’re snappier with their kids. They’re, you know, really bity with their, their partners. But you know, like, let’s face it, we are still doing the bulk of the heavy lifting at home. And statistically, you know, a lot of us still are. So the shopping, the cooking, the washing, the cleaning, you know, God, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one sick to death of folding 600 loads of washing every week.

 So for us to then be snappy with the people we live with and the people around us. You know, it’s because we’re still doing most of the work. And also the other part of that is, let’s face it, if you’ve got teenage kids, they can be turds and do nothing. You know? So, so it’s, it’s not just us, it’s them too.

Okay. So the, and this is where we sort of need a bit of a reframe because we know that there’s a lot we can do sort of with lifestyle changes, mindset changes, and we can’t [00:05:00] take away the stressful things. You know, we can’t take away that bloody washing. I wish we could, but we can change the way we respond to it.

So today, you know, in a little bit, I’ll go through an exercise that can really help with that. First, you know, I just wanna sort of touch on you know, our happy hormones, so, and our neurotransmitters, so our serotonin, our oxytocin, our endorphins. So, you know, when these are reduced We become more vulnerable to stress, like I said, and you know, we’ve lost that protective sort of layer of estrogen, layer of progesterone.

So it just means that, you know, we are more susceptible to stress because when we’ve got plenty of oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins, you know, we, we feel confident, we feel happy, we feel calm, you know, we’re on an even keel. But when cortisol becomes the dominant one, it reduces those and increases our stress [00:06:00] response.

So, you know, as we head into perimenopause and menopause. You know, women sort of say to me all the time, you know, things that used to bother me now really do, things that never stressed me out now, you know, are starting to stress me out. And, you know, women become more reactive. Okay. Because, you know, we’ve lost that psycho, psycho, you know, Positive hormones.

Now, you know, we need serotonin for normal mood, so if that drops down, you know, our mood is likely to drop down. If our endorphins go down, if oxytocin goes down, our feelings of trust and bonding and security in our relationships goes down. So this is where we can, you know, lose that confidence, lose that, you know, confident in our relationship.

 Some women sort of report that they feel like suspicious of their partner for the first time ever, even though they [00:07:00] know logically, you know, they’ve got nothing to worry about. But it’s just that irrational kind of thought because we’ve, those hormones have dropped. So, you know, you can sort of see how, if you are feeling from a hormonal perspective, less connected to other people, if you’ve got a heightened stress response, you know, you can see that your mood is gonna be lower and you can see that, you know, you’re gonna become more vulnerable.

And if we sort of throw, layer on top of that, you know, the stress, the worry, the other emotional things that we’re getting ourselves, you can see how we can potentially get into a really negative cycle. So, you know, when we hit that sort of negative spiral, if we’re already tired, if we’re already, you know, tired we’re feeling less motivated. We don’t tend to exercise. We don’t tend to socialize, and we know logically that these things are gonna help us and make us feel better, but we just don’t do it. We also tend to go for more, you know, easier food options. So carb heavy, sugar heavy. [00:08:00] We’re looking for that pickup, but it really gives us a big crash.

Now if we flipped that around when we, you know, do have [00:09:00] more energy, you know, we are more motivated. We tend to make better food choices. We tend to exercise more. We tend to socialize more. We’re on that trajectory upward, which, you know, then triggers those happier hormones, which makes us feel good. It makes us feel more optimistic, hopeful, positive.

 So you can sort of see how it swings from one to the other. But you know, what I want to sort of say to you is, you know, there’s a lot going on in your life right now. You know, your kids might be needy. Your, you know, parents’ needs might have changed. You know, it’s likely that you’re still working. Okay. So when we sort of, we need to cut ourselves some slack a bit here, and definitely, you know, going through perimenopause, menopause, it’s, it is a risk time for some women to sort of develop anxiety and depression if you’ve never had it before.

And also, you know, [00:10:00] particularly for women who’ve had a previous history of anxiety and depression, it’s you, you are more vulnerable and it’s absolutely more important just to be kind to yourself. So, you know, and it’s common that anxiety, depression, you know, medications are handed out, which is totally fine, but you also just wanna be aware of, you know, what’s going on.

And I think, you know, particularly if you have sort of had your concerns just dismissed, whether that’s by family members, by, you know, loved ones, in the workplace, you know, a lot of women are, you know, quite vulnerable. So, you know, and this is why that diagnosis of anxiety and depression, you know, can increase for a lot of women at this time of life.

So yeah, what we wanna do is, you know, to sort of reframe it so you know, yes at this time of life, it’s quite complex. Yes, it’s got its challenges, but you know, well, what [00:11:00] tends to happen is because we have a thought in our head, we set ourselves up for an emotional response and you know, if we are in that negative, sort of responding pattern, you know, this increases the body, you know, puts a burden on the body, puts a burden on the brain, you know, which then exacerbates our hormonal symptoms. So it’s kind of like that, that double edged sword. Now when we are sort of overthinking things, when we are feeling overwhelmed and we start sort of worrying, so that anxiety kind of kicks in.

And if you think of, you know, worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives us something to do, but it doesn’t get us anywhere. All right? So being scared, worrying, it’s a normal human response. It’s not silly, it’s not irrational, but there are ways we can definitely use worry to our advantage. Now when we are sort of anxious about things, it’s damaging to our body when it becomes habitual because then, you know, it [00:12:00] becomes almost like a, a response that we become addicted to and it deepens those neural pathways. So it becomes an ingrained thought process. So when we sort of tend to stress over the same things over and over again, you know, it’s, it’s creating that, that stress response.

Now remember, you’ve got the right to feel however you want to, but when these sort of thought patterns and when this worrying and when this, you know, anxiety is sort of ruling your life, there’s a really powerful technique that I got from a lady I worked with, Elaine Benson. She’s a hypnotherapist who helps women in business get their shit together, basically. I did have a couple of sessions with Elaine and she shared this exercise with me, which was really, really helpful and I’m gonna sort of walk you through it today. So thank you, Elaine, if you’re listening. Now grab four pieces of paper, okay? Or you know, one piece of paper and put columns in it.

Now, in [00:13:00] the first one, we want you to do a brain dump. So basically all of the worries that are in your head, get them onto paper and I want you just to just big, they don’t have to be in order. Just dump them out. And you know, number them from top to bottom. Then on the next bit of paper or on the next column, I want you for each of these worries, what’s the worst thing that can happen if it was to materialize? And even doing this step can help you realize that even if the worst case scenario was to happen, you are gonna be okay. All right, now, you know, and that can help take the pressure off. All right, so, you know, just what are you, what are you worried about, and what’s the worst case scenario?

Then in, on the next piece of paper or in the next column, I want you to write out what can you do to prevent that from happening? So for each of your [00:14:00] worst case scenarios, what’s one or two things you can do to prevent it from happening? So this then becomes a bit of a to-do list, and you’ve got action steps to prevent the problem.

So instead of just worrying about what could go wrong, you’ve got some action steps, you know, to solve that problem. And then in the fourth column, or on the fourth piece of paper beside each worry or you know, number them across what, what you can do if the problem was to happen. Okay, so this way, you know, for each worry that you have, you’ve got a solution.

So this takes away your stress because you’ve got a backup plan if the worst case scenario was to happen. Okay? So this, you know, just simple, simple exercise. Even if you just pick two of your biggest worries it can, you know, drastically reduce [00:15:00] that anxiety as you’ve covered off that not knowing. Okay. And you know, worst case scenarios.

Okay. So, you know, so it’s definitely worth doing and you know, I wanted to sort of like chat about this today because it’s a super powerful technique and it helps you sort of dodge the dilemmas before they happen and you know, also realize that most of the fears that you do have are not the big scary monsters that we think in our heads that they are.

And it then kind of gives yourself the confidence to know that actually, you know, you can handle anything and that you are stronger than you give yourself credit for, a hundred percent. All right, so I hope this helps. And yeah, let me know and you know, I would love to hear from you. I really encourage you to do this technique and I will see you in the next episode.