Too Young for Menopause but feeling a little crazy, and with a new muffin top? Before you go into full blown menopause (12 consecutive months without a period), you’re in perimenopause. It starts around 35 yo but most women start to notice it around 45-47 – when your jeans don’t fit so well anymore and you’re caring a bit less about what people think.
This happens when estrogen begins to rapidly decline and you have symptoms like irregular periods, hot flashes, mood swings, weight gain, anxiety, caring less about how you look, (i.e. wearing track pants outdoors), trouble sleeping and forgetfulness.
Estrogen makes you want to look pretty and please others – part of the process of wanting to secure a partner to have babies with. Once this hormone starts to decline a woman will feel less likely to people please as much as she once did. This is the time in her life that B.K.S Iyengar calls the ‘forest dweller’ stage. A time to be free of social and familial obligations – turning inwards, withdrawing from the external world in order to pursue your own spirituality, creativity and …yourself.
Exercise during the perimenopause years is vital, as is mediation, supplementation and having a positive attitude towards moving into the next stage of you life. Kinda hard when you feel fat, tired, anxious and with no sex drive. See my other posts this week to help ease the symptoms.
