Hello and welcome back to Making Sense of Women's Health. I'm Roberta Bass, and I am your host. Today's episode is just gonna be me rambling on about a subject. I haven't made any notes, so we will see how it goes. But I thought I would do this episode because of a conversation I had with my mother the other day. My sister and her had been talking and were thinking about how I will cope with menopause. My sister's already been forced through it early.

My mum, she mentioned that she may have had a little bit of issues with mood swings. I can remember them well. A little bit crazy maybe—well, from a child's point of view. So, she's mellowed out now. I don't know if I'm going to be the same. I already am pretty moody sometimes, but I am 40.

I have been struggling with many symptoms that are very similar to perimenopausal symptoms for many years, but that's due to chronic fatigue and hypermobility. So, I pretty much have most of the list that you can get with perimenopause anyway. But I thought I would do this episode for all of those women who are in their mid-to-late 30s and early 40s, who know that it's coming and are worried about it, or maybe they're just denying it.

I think of perimenopause as a marathon. I couldn't run a marathon to save my life. But if we think of it like a marathon, you wouldn't—if you were sane, I should say—go into a marathon without doing any training. You might, but you train for a marathon. You prepare yourself. You potentially do a really strict training regimen, or at least you maybe go for a run a few times before you do it. It could be that you're naturally fit and you've done other things beforehand, but there's always some kind of preparation. Now, I've never run a marathon, but I can imagine they can be really challenging, and I wouldn't even attempt it. So, I know for me they would be almost impossible. However, I potentially could get through it if I walked it. I guess I could do a bit of a jog here and there. At the end, I probably wouldn't be in much of a fit state, if I even made it to the end. If I prepared myself and trained for many years, then I potentially could get through it, and it would be much more of a pleasant experience if I had done that preparation.

So, if we think of perimenopause like that marathon, we're going to go through it one way or another. It might be that you've been forced into an early menopause, or maybe you’re going into an early natural menopause. Some women have POI, or premature ovarian insufficiency, and go through menopause in their 20s or earlier. But if you're going through a natural menopause, that could be eight to 10 years before your periods stop. The actual age of menopause is, on average, 51, and anything from 45 onwards is considered normal. So, we could be having symptoms in our mid-30s, and that could be considered normal. If we are around this age—30s and 40s—and it's not happening yet, or even if it is, there's lots that we could do to prepare ourselves to have a smoother journey. So, we're training ourselves, preparing for that marathon that is coming.

Things that we can do: Firstly, educate ourselves about what happens, the symptoms, and how it might affect us. In years gone by, this was never talked about. Now, it's more out there in the media. People are sharing their experiences, there have been lots of documentaries, and people are getting more aware of the symptoms. Although there are over 30, some women are still not aware that some of the things they're struggling with are related to hormones. But the more knowledge we have going into perimenopause, the less severe our symptoms are. Studies have shown this—that the more knowledge we have, the less severe the symptoms are. Not to say you're not going to get any symptoms, but scientific evidence shows that they are less severe than if we had no knowledge.

Next, getting ourselves as fit and well as possible before we have the impact of hormone changes. I would take us back to the SENSE method that I have created. We can use that as a bit of a training routine to help us before we get there. Starting with the S—our subconscious, our mindset—getting ourselves prepared, knowing that it's coming. Our empowerment—setting goals. Even now, it could be that you're setting health goals like focusing on eating more vegetables each week, ensuring that you're doing 10,000 steps a day, or that you want to lose two stone, or any other goal. Setting goals can be really helpful.

I mentioned in my previous podcast about weight gain that it doesn't necessarily need to be a number on a scale. If we're setting goals to lose weight, it could just be that you're going to increase the amount of good food you're having, and that's the goal. Also, with our empowerment is our education—getting ourselves the tools we need, and the education we need about the symptoms and how to deal with them, so we have a little toolbox of things we know we can do if and when we start to get symptoms.

Moving onto nutrition, we can set ourselves up with a good diet. The Mediterranean diet, mostly whole foods, fruit, and vegetables. If we can establish that now, our body will be in a much better place when our hormones start to go a bit crazy. Reducing sugar, making sure we're getting good phytoestrogens—flaxseed, chickpeas, good sources of protein like lentils, plant-based proteins, small amounts of meat. Try to avoid too much red meat, as it causes inflammation in the body. But setting up a good diet will see us through perimenopause.

Next, sleep and stress management—important at any age for general health. If we improve our stress management, we’ll benefit in all areas. I was talking to my mum about how, in previous generations, women didn't have the same stress levels. My mum said her grandma didn't have perimenopause, or at least she didn't know about it. None of the women worked in her generation; they stayed home to look after children or older relatives. Women today, though, are under so much more stress. We go to work, look after children, care for family members. There's also the pressure from social media, the pressure to be good at everything. This stress impacts our health. Our diet is also worse than it was two or three generations ago—more processed food and sugar that causes inflammation, which makes hormone imbalance symptoms worse.

Getting stress under control and improving sleep is essential. Sleep impacts everything else in our lives. I did a whole podcast on sleep, so check that out. But in short, managing stress and nutrition will improve sleep, and good sleep, in turn, helps everything else.

The key is to prioritize your health. It’s like they say on an airplane: put your own oxygen mask on first. If you're not in good health, you can’t take care of others. So, think about ways to prioritize yourself.

We also need to think about exercise. Exercise is beneficial in all areas of life, but especially for perimenopause. Strength training helps with hot flushes, sleep, mood, muscle and joint aches, and pains. Balance and flexibility exercises help maintain muscles, and weight-bearing exercises support bone strength. Exercise also helps with stress management, so it’s critical.

Some women go straight from being postnatal into perimenopause, so there may be barriers to exercising—like pelvic health issues or lack of motivation—but addressing those barriers now is crucial. The fitter we are going into perimenopause, the better we will maintain muscle mass, heart health, and brain health. That way, when we come out the other side, we’ll have fewer symptoms. It's prevention rather than cure.

Another big thing is mood swings. Divorce rates are highest between the mid-40s and mid-50s, and I suspect that menopausal symptoms play a part in that. Educating your family is key. If you notice symptoms, sit down with your partner or family and talk about how they can help. Working on your relationships is vital because hormones affect mood, and oftentimes, you're also dealing with teenagers going through puberty at the same time.

Lastly, having a support network and tools in place is crucial. I was walking with my husband the other day, and I told him, "We should educate you on what's coming." But he faints at anything medical, so I glossed over the details! Mood swings are tough enough already, but having a solid support network is key to making the journey smoother.

So, these are just a few thoughts. There are other things we can do to help prepare for perimenopause, but the main takeaway is: train, prepare, and your journey will be smoother. Address things as they happen. If you want support, feel free to reach out to me via my website or join the podcast group—I'll include the links in the show notes. I'm always looking for guests, so if you have overcome any health challenges, I'd love to hear your story.

For now, take care, and I will see you next time. Bye bye.