Around menopause, you may face tricky symptoms in your everyday life. These symptoms can affect your body, your mood, and your thinking.
Feeling better in menopause starts with a better understanding of the vast array of symptoms women experience.
And while there’s no silver bullet for successfully managing daily life with menopause, there are many great strategies that can help. Here, we give you some tips to help manage your physical symptoms, help you think more clearly and have a more buoyant mood.
Understanding Menopause Symptoms
Most women will experience at least some symptoms during perimenopause and menopause. And there are a lot of different menopause symptoms you might experience during your transition to menopause and beyond. Some menopause support organisations list over 70 symptoms!
To make this list less daunting, it’s helpful to group symptoms into those that affect your body (physical), your mood (emotional) and your thinking (cognitive).
Menopause may include physical symptoms, such as:
· Hot flushes
· Night Sweats
· Irregular Periods
· Vaginal dryness
Emotional symptoms of menopause include:
· Mood swings
· Low mood or sadness
· Irritability
· Anxious thoughts or feeling
Cognitive symptoms of menopause include:
· Brain fog (poor focus or clarity of thinking)
· Memory problems
Many menopausal symptoms can be made worse by poor sleep and stress. And some symptoms of menopause can cause poor sleep and stress!
How Menopause Symptoms Affect Daily Activities
Menopause symptoms can have a range of effects on your day-to-day activities.
Physical symptoms, like night sweats, can disrupt your sleep. Hot flushes can happen at any time, and could cause discomfort and embarrassment when you’re out and about on errands, or in meetings at work. Vaginal dryness can make sexual intercourse uncomfortable.
Emotional symptoms can dampen your enjoyment of things that usually delight you. Anger and irritability can strain relationships with co-workers, friends and family members. Anxious thoughts can make decision making harder, or lead you to avoid people, places and projects.
Cognitive symptoms, like brain fog (poor focus or clarity of thinking) can make your usual work tasks take longer and require more effort. Memory problems can cause relational embarrassment or consequences when important conversations are inadvertently forgotten.
One research study found that over 8 in 10 women going through menopause reported that symptoms impacted their work. While most women felt they could speak up to their manager about it, almost 1 in 3 women were not comfortable doing so.
Strategies for Managing Menopause Symptoms
Menopause symptoms may vary in their level of impact on your daily life. But there are ways to balance the negative experiences of menopause with positive actions, with physical management, and emotional and cognitive support.
Physical Management:
- Regular exercise can help with your overall health and feelings of well-being. In a recent study, many women felt that exercising helped their hot flushes and night sweats.
- A balanced diet of vegetables, fruits, and protein can also help your overall sense of health and well-being. Plus, losing weight by eating a healthy, balanced diet might also help reduce the severity of hot flushes and night sweats.
- Make sure you keep up your intake of fluids, mainly water, especially if you experience night sweats. Excessive sweating can leave you dehydrated.
- Mindfulness and relaxation techniques like yoga, CBT, or deep breathing exercises, may help handle your menopause symptoms better.
Emotional Support:
You may not experience any shifts in mood during menopause. However, there is a greater risk of mood changes and irritability during perimenopause.
Having a conversation with your doctor is the best first step in understanding mood changes during menopause. Many of the symptoms of menopause overlap, so a proper diagnosis of the cause of mood changes is vital. It can take time to find the right treatment approach, depending on your symptoms and medical history. Your doctor may recommend medication, or they may suggest other therapies such as:
- Talking therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can help with mood symptoms of menopause, as well as helping you manage hot flushes, night sweats and sleep disturbances.
- Support Groups. There are many online and offline support groups and organisations for women going through menopause. These are great for shared support and advice. You don’t need to deal with your symptoms and stressors alone.
- Lifestyle changes such as more regular movement and cutting back on alcohol are worth considering for mood management.
Cognitive Support:
You don’t need to accept brain fog and forgetfulness as your new normal. Some strategies that could help improve your cognitive function during menopause include:
- Getting better sleep. Poor sleep can make both the emotional and cognitive symptoms of menopause worse. Finding ways to improve your sleep could help improve your mood and your thinking.
- Increasing your dietary intake of brain-friendly micronutrients like vitamin A, C and E, or Omega-3 fatty acids could help clear the cobwebs. If you’re not getting enough of these in your diet, supplements containing these can be a good alternative. You might also want to check your blood iron levels. People with iron deficiency can also have brain fog, so check with your doctor if you need an iron supplement.
- Mental exercises like doing puzzles, reading or learning a new skill can also sharpen and maintain your mind.
The menopause transition gives you an opportunity to reflect on your overall health. It’s a great time to consider making lifestyle adjustments to enhance your well-being. Since the physical and emotional changes during this time can be quite complex and interconnected, starting a conversation with your doctor can be a great first step in supporting your journey.
To help manage the three main symptoms of menopause, there’s Remifemin and Sleep By Remifemin. Remifemin, with the natural plant extract Black Cohosh, supports menopause symptom relief by reducing hot flushes and night sweats. Sleep by Remifemin contains natural active ingredients that help induce sleep and relieve restlessness, as a calmative or nervous system relaxant.
