Chaos to Calm

Premature menopause: how to support your body naturally (with or without HRT)

Sarah McLachlan Episode 65

Menopause isn’t something you expect to be dealing with in your 20s or 30s, but for some women with premature menopause that is their reality.

Whether you’re navigating early menopause, supporting someone who is, or simply want to understand what’s ahead, this episode reveals how to support your body and mind through this transition, with or without hormone therapy.

Key takeaways

• What are premature and early menopause?
How premature and early menopause can impact your health and why early action can make all the difference in how you feel today and in the years to come.
Why hormone replacement therapy alone isn’t a magic fix and how nutrition, lifestyle changes, and herbal medicine can offer essential support, whether you’re on HRT or not.
How to personalise your approach to menopause support so that you can thrive, not just survive, during this phase of life.

Even if menopause feels like a distant thought or something you’re only just starting to think about, understanding how to support your body, and what you can do now to prep your body, will make a huge difference in how you experience the perimenopause phase.

Sneak peek
"In my experience, the best results come when you support hormone therapy with a healthy lifestyle – proper nutrition, movement, stress management, and sleep. Getting these basics right can make all the difference."

Tune in now to learn more about premature and early menopause, and how to support your body naturally – whether you choose hormone therapy or not – to take back control of your immediate and long-term health.

Links & resources mentioned in the episode

The Perimenopause Decoder
PerimenoGO

Send us a question for the FAQs segment or your feedback, we’d love to hear from you.

Find out more about Sarah, her services and the Freebies mentioned in this episode at https://www.ThePerimenopauseNaturopath.com.au

  • OPEN NOW: Discover how to use food as your most powerful medicine, smoothing hormonal fluctuations and easing perimenopause symptoms naturally. (Yes, you have more options than hormone therapy!) Say goodbye to feeling out of control and hello to feeling more like your old self every day, with PerimenoGO (because who wants to pause anyway?!)
  • The Perimenopause Decoder is the ultimate guide to understanding if perimenopause hormone fluctuations are behind your changing mood, metabolism and energy after 40, what phase of perimenopause you're in and how much longer you may be on this roller coaster for.
  • Been told your blood test results are "normal" or "fine" while you feel far from your best? Discover the power of optimal blood test analysis with The Blood Test Decoder: Optimal Ranges for Women Over 40.
  • For more, follow on Instagram at @theperimenopausenaturopath.

Hello and welcome to the chaos to calm podcast episode number 65. I'm Sarah, the perimenopause naturopath, your guide through this journey of perimenopause. So if you're over 40 and feeling like you're changing hormones are hijacking your mood, your energy, your weight, and you want to change that in a holistic way, then this is the place for you.

Because each episode, my friend, I share with you my views on what the heck is happening in your body, why you're feeling the way that you are and what you can do about it with actionable advice to help you feel more calm in control, less stressed and more comfortable in your body. I'm so glad you've joined me.

Let's get right into discussing today's topic so we can shift your perimenopause experience from chaos to calm. So today, in my intro, I talk about if you're over 40, but today we're talking about a topic that actually it could be you in your thirties, maybe even in your twenties. Today, I want to talk about premature and early menopause.

So two different things, yeah, you might, most of us, I think, expect menopause to be a long time away. And so it can be a bit of a surprise to us if it even happens in our forties, let alone that for many women, they might start feeling the changes. In their mid to late thirties. And some of you might even be feeling things in your early thirties or late twenties.

And that's the, that reality is premature or early menopause. And so when I'm talking about, I'm actually talking about menopause itself here in this time period. So not necessarily perimenopause, which can certainly start and be within the realms of normal in your mid to late thirties and your forties.

Certainly like we know that perimenopause can go from two to 12 years. The average age of menopause is 51. And yeah, so if you are, thinking about going into menopause, let's say 50, make the math's easy for me today. And it's, and perimenopause the time before that transition is 12 years, you could start at 38.

So remembering menopause is 12 months without a menstrual period. So it's diagnosed after the fact. So you don't really get to celebrate that last period. It's, you never realize it's your last one until 12 months later. So what I'm talking about today is premature menopause, which is menopause before age 40.

So you have not had a period for 12 months and there's not, Well, not pregnancy, not PCOS on the pill or the marina, you're not on any of those interfering factors, and you haven't had a period you've been diagnosed as being in menopause. That's called premature menopause and menopause in between, 40 and 45 is known as early menopause.

Okay. So that's what we're talking about today, because I know it does impact some people and I am going to talk about hormone therapy as part of it today, because, I know there's a lot of fear and stigma around it, but these times are actually it's pretty important to consider and be open to that at this time.

There's also a lot we can do with food and lifestyle. So of course, I'm going to talk about that today, because that is in my scope of practice. Hormone therapy is not, in a naturopath's scope of practice. So we don't get to talk about that and advise on that. That's something I always recommend that you discuss with your health professional, your doctor, your some gynecologists, whoever's prescribing that for you, endocrinologist, whoever it might be.

So first up, let's I just touched on the difference between premature and early menopause, but premature menopause occurs before the age of 40 and it affects about 1 percent of women. So I mean, it's not a huge number, but I actually think that's more than what I thought it might have been. So yeah, your ovaries have stopped producing eggs, your estrogen levels have dropped, you're not getting a cycle or period anymore.

That is premature and you're younger than 40, premature menopause. Early menopause is occurs between the ages of 40 and 45, like I said, impacts around 5 percent of women. So again, it's a smaller number, but still quite significant. So yeah, between 40 and 45, if you're in menopause, then that's early menopause.

Now you might be thinking, well, I don't know, am I in perimenopause? And so remember I have my freebie, the perimenopause decoder. It's there to help you work out, crack the code of what's happening in your body to are those symptoms looking like. Have you got lots of perimenopause symptoms?

Some of them are kind of unusual. So you might just write it off as some weird sort of unique thing that you've got going on. It could be part of perimenopause. So that'll be in the show notes for you to go and download if you haven't got it already. And let's talk about why does this happen? Why do people go into premature early menopause?

So some things that can contribute genetics. So if your mom, your sister, your aunties someone that you're directly related to, if they went into early menopause, well, then you may be more likely to experience it too. There's also some chromosomal abnormalities that can contribute to it. Like Turner's syndrome.

And it's quite rare within itself as well. So, but yeah, looking at your mom's history and your sisters or aunties, grandmas, what age were they, if they're still alive, to ask? Sometimes it's a bit tricky because they either haven't talked about it before they've passed, and now we can't ask them. Some autoimmune conditions.

So the autoimmune is where your body, your immune system is attacking your own cells. So like Hashimoto's, the thyroid disease, or Graves, rheumatoid arthritis, Addison's disease, they can contribute to premature menopause. The immune system might attack the ovaries and reduce egg production early.

Some infections like mumps or pelvic tuberculosis, must admit, I'd never heard of that before until I was researching this episode, but that, and I would say that'd be those sorts of things happen less likely to happen these days because of modern medicine of Western medicine. And that's something where Western medicine does tend to excel at is treatment of those old diseases.

Lifestyle factors. Super interesting. That smoking has a dose related effect on early menopause, meaning the more that you smoke, the sooner menopause might be might begin. Now, this was really interesting to me because when I was younger, I used to smoke a lot. Like I started smoking in my teens. I know how my kids can't believe it either.

I just, I can't believe it either. It was so silly, but you know, everyone smoked when I was younger. But yeah, and I smoked until before I had my oldest son or maybe 20. So I smoked for a long time and I wonder if maybe that had an impact on me going. I didn't have early menopause, but I was 48 when I went through to menopause, which is a bit younger than average.

So interesting. So don't smoke. Is it another reason not to smoke or vape? Tell your girls. So yes, smoking, the more you smoke, the sooner menopause will begin. And nutrition, and being undernourished or malnourished will impact that as well. And high stress levels. Also plays a role and I think I've talked about it before, but this, honestly, that chronic long term stress in my thirties and into my forties certainly had an impact on going into when I started perimenopause.

I went into menopause because my mother certainly was not my age, younger age when she started perimenopause and went into menopause. Now obviously medical intervention. So chemotherapy, radiation, surgical removal of your ovaries, that is going to put you into menopause straight away. So, it might be premature, could be early, whenever, if that happens, if you are having a hysterectomy they do tend to try to keep your ovaries intact, but there are other times that they cannot and of course that's going to put you into menopause straight away. 

There's some metabolic disorders, galactosemia, 17 alpha hydroxylase deficiency can contribute to an earlier onset of menopause. And if you have those, you would know because you know them from an earlier age. So one thing to think about too, like if you've surgical menopause that you've been thrust into. It can happen abruptly and that's a sudden change and can be a real shock to your system because even though estrogen sort of roller coasters around in that early perimenopause and even to mid perimenopause.

It's still gradually declining, same with your progesterone. But if your ovaries are suddenly removed, then that's a real sudden change and that's hard for your body to adapt and adjust to really quickly. So you are probably going to have lots of symptoms. Really quickly. So also at that time, they tend to offer you hormone therapy.

And so that's you're, you need to consider the pros and cons for yourself, but just know, otherwise it's going to be, hectic in your body at that time. I did want to cover off there are some significant health risks with premature early menopause to consider. And this is where nutrition and lifestyle can really make a difference for you because you can be shoring up or making sure.

Even if you're not going into early, or premature menopause, thinking about these things in your thirties and especially in your forties is really clever because it's going to set you up for a better, smoother perimenopause and menopause itself. Going into early or premature menopause, you have an increased risk of osteoporosis and falls and fractures.

So we want to stay strong and independent. We want that strong old woman body. And estrogen plays a really crucial role in protecting our bone density. So when it's gone earlier, your bones, lose density quite quickly. So you've got a higher risk of osteoporosis and therefore fractures and falls later in life.

So we need stronger bones. We need calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin K to help keep our bones strong and weight bearing exercise as well. So you don't have to necessarily kill yourself with high intensity stuff and lots of huffy puffy, but you want to do some walking, like weight bearing, do some weights, lift strong weights and things like that to help protect your bones.

At oestrogen, I mean, oestrogen does so much. We all learn about that in perimenopause by the range of symptoms or your unique blend that you might have oestrogen helps keep your heart healthy. So again, losing it early can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. Hypertension. So protecting your heart means that you're going to have the energy.

You're all your cells in your body are going to have the oxygen they need to make energy so that you can continue to have a full and active life and not be limited by being out of breath or not having the stamina or just being too tired all the time, to be able to participate go on the hikes when you're retired, play with your grandkids, just enjoy life right now.

Yeah, and your brain I've talked about brain fog in previous episodes as well. Again, estrogen helps keep our brain healthy. So losing it earlier means that you've got increased risk of cognitive decline and mood disorders like anxiety and depression, brain fog, dementia, we want to be sharp and present and fully engaged with people that matter most to us.

So, again, I'll talk about it in food and lifestyle, but it is really important that we manage our blood sugar levels and insulin levels, which are also impacted by estrogen or the loss of estrogen and help our brain have the fuel that it needs so that it can do the thinking that we need it to do and want it to do.

Of course, if you're going into menopause early or prematurely, it's going to have an impact on your fertility and your sexual health. So, you might reduce your libido and, vaginal dryness. And you can have discomfort during intercourse, all of those things to consider as well. So keeping conversation going with your partner if you have one, but just knowing that might be an issue and to talk with a health provider about what you can do to help with that.

Because yeah, so remember like this episode and this information is not intended as medical advice. You do need to consult with your healthcare professional and get personalized guidance for you. Sometimes that'll be your doctor or gynecologist, someone like that. Other times it might be a natural therapist, like a naturopath or nutritionist or herbalist.

So I want to touch on hormone therapy because, there's a lot of stigma around it or a lot of fear. And I know that sometimes that can come from the natural therapies world, some of that fear. But I just wanted to flag that the Women's Health Initiative study that was done in the early 2000s, suggested that HRT, Hormone Replacement Therapy, posed more risks than benefits and increased risk of heart disease and breast cancer.

So, there was a lot of fear and doctors just weren't prescribing HRT, after that and it'd been around by that time for 40 years and it became popular in the 1960s. It was really promoted as a way to prevent postmenopausal health conditions, like I've just mentioned, like osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease and brain fog and dementia and all of those things that can be a problem for us during perimenopause and menopause.

But yeah, so it, but use really declined then. So now in recent years, it's making a comeback because they have reanalyzed that Women's Health Initiative study data and found that starting HRT in women under 60 or within 10 years of menopause can have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health and reduce mortality.

And I wanted to say as well, that there's also access to body identical or bi identical hormone therapy. Now that is much better than the hormones that were first supplied to women and that influenced the outcome of that study. So, as I said have a conversation with your prescriber and balance and weigh up your pros and cons, but it's definitely not what it was, and it might be the thing that really helps for you.

So, especially if you're experiencing menopause early, your doctors will, if they're onto it and helping you with it, they will encourage you to have a hormone therapy so that you can reduce the risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, that cognitive decline and really protect your longterm health and wellbeing.

So, because earlier menopause does impact our more longevity. So if we go into menopause earlier, there's a risk of us having a shorter life. So I I want to say as well, hormone therapy is not necessarily a panacea. It doesn't it's not a one size fits all solution and it doesn't solve all the problems as well, but it is, it can be part of your picture, your plan. But I, always say to women when they're thinking about it, really, it's a personal decision. There is not, it's not a one size fits all. I certainly don't think that like I see a current trend where it's all like, everyone should be on hormones for the whole rest of their life.

And I don't think that's right either and it shouldn't be that no one has them either. It's really personal choice and decision, and only you can weigh up if it's how it's going to be. And you might try it and it doesn't work. Maybe, I know a lot of women have to fiddle around with doses or different forms of the hormones until they get the right one.

So just know that it's not maybe going to work straight away for you. But what I have noticed in the women using it or the women that start using it is that we need to include proper nutrition, movement, stress management and, sleep and, getting those basics in place because you get the best results when you support that hormone therapy with a healthy lifestyle, food and lifestyle.

So, some women will still experience symptoms even with the hormone therapy. I've had many women come to me, they're taking hormone therapy, feel a bit better in some areas, but in others, they're still having lots of symptoms. And that's where getting the food right for them becomes really crucial. When we get those basics right, those lingering symptoms then resolve, and their overall health improves dramatically.

So what are the basics? Let's talk about them. I talk about them a lot. And honestly, looking after yourself and your body, it actually can be as simple as what I'm saying to you. Like there's no magic bullet, there's no secret fancy process to it. It's just about tuning into our bodies, working with our bodies, working with what they need at this phase of life.

And it can be really simple. So just remember, it's not necessarily about trying to balance your hormones in perimenopause. And it's about helping your body better adapt to the hormone fluctuations and that decline. So that's the same, whether it's premature early or, the average age of menopause, these, I consider these pillars to be essential for health and they can support you through this phase and they'll support you through every phase of life.

If you're not in perimenopause yet, then you start implementing these basics because you are going to be investing in a smooth perimenopause whenever that comes for you down the track or smoother. So we want that my basics include safe sun exposure. We need vitamin D. It's going to help, your bone health, your immune function, weight loss.

If you need that, for mood, like it's essential for so many things. So depending on where you are, 10 or 15 minutes of sun exposure on your skin, you might need to supplement if you live in a less sunny climate. For example, I encourage my clients in Australia in the southern states between April and September to, supplement with vitamin D because it's really impossible to expose enough skin when it's that cold for long enough to activate the vitamin D compounds in our skin.

So our body can create the vitamin D that we need. Now, one of my basics is daily joy and alongside of self love and acceptance. I kind of bundled them into one for this podcast episode. So finding some joy in every day, doing something that brings you joy, even if it's only for a few minutes, for five minutes, it's going to help manage your stress levels and build your stress resilience and build your dopamine levels in your brain.

Keep you happy, which is what your brain wants for you. So if we don't do things like that, it's going to direct you to do it in a way that it knows works really well, which is a glass of wine or some chocolate, which, yes, I know they're very nice, but they're not really great for our body and our cellular health.

So, and stress makes menopause symptoms worse or perimenopause symptoms worse. It makes everything worse. And our stress resilience declines in perimenopause. And menopause because of lower progesterone or no progesterone. 

So it's really important that we do have our daily bits spurts of joy or dopamine spurting moments. And also practicing self love and accepting your body through these changes, rather than hating on it and being like, Oh, why is it doing this to me? I hate it. It's, thinking of how wonderful your body is and how much it's carried you through in life, but also loving on your body, just like you would on a friend and giving it what it needs so that it can feel happy and calm too.

Doing that is going to help reduce those symptoms for yourself. I know it might seem trite, but it is really true when we're pushing against our body and hating on it and trying to punish it into submission, it doesn't work, it doesn't feel good for us. It doesn't work for our body when we, support it, nourish it, give it what it needs.

It can do what we want it to do. Carry us through all the things we want to do. Now, social connections, don't underestimate the power of social connections because they again, give us dopamine and serotonin, those two lovely mood and happiness molecules in our brain and nervous system. Social connections, give us emotional support but reduce stress and improve mental health during any time of life, but particularly in perimenopause and menopause. 

Then thinking about food based nutritional support. Now I was talking about cardiovascular disease being higher risk. If you go into perimenopause or menopause early or prematurely and your bone health. So specifically around that we're thinking about increasing, omega threes, those essential fatty acids that are found in flax seed oil, fatty fish that has the skin on like salmon, sardines, mackerel nuts and seeds.

They all support your heart health and reduce inflammation, which is really. important in protecting against cardiovascular disease. They also improve your cellular health and that means that improves how your cells work including your hormones and how your hormones combined to those cells. So it's not just about cardiovascular health.

They actually really important for each of your and every one of your cells because your cells have a double layer of those essential fatty acids, those omega threes around them. And they work best with those and they'll serve you best with those. So encouraging you to eat those foods as well. Calcium rich foods I mentioned calcium before.

So, you want leafy greens, almonds, nuts and seeds, goat's cheese, like goat's dairy, sheep's dairy, sardines, salmon with the bones, those sorts of things, eating your sardines with the bones as well, those small fish whitebait, all of those lovely things. Broccoli is great for calcium as well.

So a nice wide varied diet, including lots of those different foods that are rich in, in calcium, and the healthy fats and oils as well. I mentioned vitamin D. Now it's hard to get from food, but you might consider using ghee or butter if you don't have a problem with the cow's milk protein.

 And the fats and oils as well too, because we need those for making the compounds that make up vitamin D. Cholesterol is one of them. So, remembering my cholesterol podcast that I did as well. So thinking about that before you pushed into taking the statins and reducing your cholesterol levels there.

Now I want to talk about herbal medicine. It's not something that I talk about a lot because I tend to, I love food as medicine and lifestyle changes, but herbal medicine is a secret weapon that naturopaths and herbalists have, not just for perimenopause and menopause, but really any phase of life and illness as well.

But again, it's not a one size fits all solution. And I don't like to mention herbs because I don't want you to just go and buy something off the shelf at the chemist or the health food store. Because they should be personalized your experience of perimenopause and menopause is unique and everyone's is unique.

So the herbs that work best for you are going to be different to someone else's, like friends. So, some one woman might need with anea, which is also called ashwagandha. They might need the stress support and the immune support that it offers. Well, another you might benefit more from black cohosh, which is great for hot flushes and hormone support, and maybe someone else might benefit from Vitex, but if your symptoms are more related to progesterone imbalances there, but I always think use Vitex really judiciously, judiciously, because it is a really powerful herb and it can actually make anxiety worse in some women because of its impact on dopamine.

So, no two women will have the exact same herbal prescription, even if they're all going through perimenopause or menopause. And that's because of the other factors that can be involved as well. Like there might be an underlying thyroid condition or gut health issues. Your past health history comes into play here and all of it plays a role in how your body is adjusting to the hormone changes of perimenopause and menopause.

So I always suggest work with a naturopath or herbalist to ensure that your herbal treatment is tailored to you, what you need and will address not just the symptoms, but the root causes, what's driving how you're feeling there as well. And this is particularly so in early or if premature, if you're like, if you have a thrust into surgical menopause, herbs are definitely going to be of great assistance to you to really help reduce your symptoms in that sudden, when it, as when it suddenly stops.

You can certainly do food and lifestyle as well, but sometimes, although that you can feel the benefit of the changes within a few weeks, you really might want some support straight away and Herbs can offer that, but you know, I, you really do need to talk with someone to, for them to work well.

And yeah, so you might, be listening or reading the blog with my tips and think, well, yeah, that's really great. But how do I do that? How do I get that into my meals and into my day? And I would say the key is to start small pick one or two areas to focus on and gradually build them into your routine.

Maybe it might just be adding more leafy greens to your lunch or something like that, or taking a short walk in the sun in your lunch break. Maybe set aside a few minutes each morning to journal or meditate. My watch reminds me to pause and take some breaths. Maybe you could turn that on your phone or something like that.

Every little bit helps, even if it is only a minute or two. I'm always reminded of a quote. That I keep on my desk and it tells me to make a change, start with a few minutes a day. And that's what I would encourage for you. And of course, if you want, I'm always here. I have my programs. I have PerimenoGO.

If you're after sort of self guided DIY, with nutrition plans and lots of recipes for you to make it easy to implement this style of eating that supports your best health in perimenopause and menopause and beyond. Or I have the chaos to calm method, which is more, be handholding and personalized to you as well as to your phase of life as well.

So feel free to reach out. We'll find out more on my website about those. There as well. So you know, navigating perimenopause and menopause, it's not easy, but it can feel really overwhelming if it's early or premature because you're, it's likely that none of your friends are going through it with you and you can feel quite alone.

But I want you to know that with the right community, the right knowledge, strategy, support, you can actually sort of take back that control and manage your symptoms and protect your long term health, which is really what it's all about with premature and early menopause, easing your symptoms, helping you feel good, but protecting that and preserving and optimizing your long term health so you can live a long and an active life. I consider maybe hormone therapy is right for you, whatever decision that you make, nourishing food, lifestyle changes, and maybe some beautiful herbal medicine is going to be really helpful to support your choices and help calm that chaos.

So remember that every woman's journey is unique. What works for you might be different to what's worked to others. But you still have the power to shape how this chapter, how this phase unfolds for you. And don't be disheartened if you try something and it doesn't work, there's lots of different things that we can do and something might work well for you, but not and not someone else or vice versa.

It can be a lot quicker. I will say if you have someone guiding you, a professional guiding you, on what might work for you and more efficient, but certainly, you can do it. So I encourage you to keep trying. Don't give up, know that you're not alone and there's always support available to help you feel your best.

And that my friend is all for today. Thank you so much for listening and sharing your time with me. Check out the show notes for the links to those other episodes and resources I've mentioned today. That's www.chaostocalmpodcast.com. You'll find the show notes wherever you're listening to this podcast as well.

While you're there, don't forget to subscribe. So you don't miss an episode. You could leave a review. I would really appreciate that. That helps other women have the chance to find me and find out more about their options in perimenopause, or you could share it with a friend who might benefit from hearing more of my advice and experience there as well.

So next episode, I'm excited to be talking about the signs that your liver is overloaded. And don't worry, I'm going to tell you why you need to even care about that. Cause I know you can think, Oh, who cares? So that's the next episode there for you until then keep working on moving your perimenopause experience from chaos to calm.

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