Menopause: information and cooling hypnosis MP3
There has recently been a ‘menopause movement’ where many celebrities and campaigners have worked to address the previously taboo subject of the menopause. Historically they believe that women have been required to ‘keep calm, carry on and shut up’ about the impacts that the menopause have on hormone levels on health and wellbeing, being ashamed to discuss it. This movement aims to educate and empower women and employers to understand this biological change and support women to get the help that they need.
This article is only a very brief overview of the menopause to provide you with ideas, themes and articles that you can explore to see if they might be of use to you.
Menopause, rather like pubity is a transitional phase, marked by widely fluctuating hormones and many disruptive symptoms. These extreme shifts in hormone levels can cause women to experience insomnia, lowered mood, lowered libido, anxiety, hot flushes/flashes, mood swings and lowered confidence. Having a significant impact on impact work, relationships and wellbeing. With the right support you can get a lot of relief from these symptoms.
There are three stages to the menopause:
Perimenopause. This phase usually begins several years before menopause, when your ovaries slowly make less oestrogen and continues until the point at which the ovaries stop releasing eggs. During the last 1-2 years woman can start to experience menopausal symptoms.
Menopause. This is when it's been a year since you had a period. Your ovaries have stopped releasing eggs and making most of their estrogen.
Postmenopause is after the menopause where by symptoms like hot flushes start to ease.
There are medical treatments to help women cope with the symptoms of menopause such as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) which many woman find effective. There are many different doses of hormones (including testosterone) which can be discussed with your GP. A test to see which hormones you’re lacking in has been regarded as the most effective way to tailor treatment although this isn’t always offered. Hormone levels are normally monitored and adjusted where appropriate after 3 months. On average women can spend 9 months to a year exploring which hormone therapy and levels are right for them. Some surgeries offer menopause clinics to help support women with this process. In the resources below there is an HRT fact sheet sourced from My Menopause Dr to help provide you with more information.
Alternative therapies
Some women decide that they don’t want to go down the HRT route and there are a range of alternative treatments which have been found to help such as:
Herbal alternatives e.g. Serenity Cream and natural herbs
Reflexology
Regular exercise including menopause yoga
Changing of diet - reducing caffeine and sugar
Often it is a process of trial and error to find out what works for you. There has also been research to suggest that talking therapies and hypnosis can help women manage their symptoms better.
Hypnosis and the menopause:
Hypnotherapy has been shown to be effective in reducing some of the symptoms of menopause inducling hot flashes, brain fog and fatigue. In sessions we can explore what beliefs that you are holding onto that make the experience challenging. It is normal to be saddened and/or frustrated when going through this transition. Both Victoria and Sian can help guide you through this to help ease the burden of change.
There are also techniques that can also help you manage your response to things like hot flushes, providing you with guided visualisations and self hypnosis techniques so that you can learn to visualise some body cooling sensations to help relieve or reduce the duration of the symptoms. Similar techniques can also be used at night time to tackle insomnia to help put you in a better position to relax, accept and sleep. Listen below.
If this is something that you are struggling with please get in touch and we can see how we can help support you best. Book a call here