Mindset & Menopause ~ Our Bodies Rewriting the Rules

part 1 ~ growing through change

I know I’m not alone in struggling with the new normal that midlife brings, so over the next 4 weeks, I am going to share a series of posts that encompass what I have learned along the way, with the hope that you may find some camaraderie and new tips to help you with your own journey.

Just in case you were wondering, menopause is not just one day…… I take that back, menopause itself is!🤯 Menopause is defined as the first day after a woman has gone 12 consecutive months without a period. Since it is late fall, I will compare it to a wicked Krampus. If your cycle happens to make an appearance even the day before that twelve-month hiatus, then the clock starts over! What I will be talking about is what I am still dealing with, which is Perimenopause. It can go on for as long as 10 years, and I am well into it.

Masses of hormonal shifts begin as we leave our childbearing years behind, and it is confusing and irritating. It is more talked about now than in previous generations, but so many women really have no idea what is going on with their bodies, and it can be a scary time. Similar to going through puberty, we start feeling that our bodies are rewriting the rules.

As women approach mid-life, estrogen levels start to fluctuate and then drop. Most women notice that their periods stop being predictable. They may become shorter, longer, heavier, or lighter than usual, and the spacing between periods may change, until a woman starts to skip her periods altogether. Eventually, they will cease. During menopause, a woman’s ovaries stop producing eggs and produce fewer female hormones.¹ When it is over, she can no longer get pregnant.

*****on the farm, we’ve raised chickens, and I knew that hens hatched with a certain number of eggs that were their lifetime’s stock. I don’t know why I never applied it to myself!? Did you know that “We start off with millions of eggs in our ovaries when we’re still in the womb and then by the time we’re born, we’re down to 600,000—which sounds like a ton, but that’s a huge decrease just by being born,” Dr. Katz said. “So, those eggs are slowly breaking down every day, every minute, every hour, naturally.”²

This is a major biological transition, and it is different for everyone. Over the next four weeks, we will talk about how to create a growth mindset and, through that, how reframing our thought processes can help us to embrace the challenges we are encountering. I’ll discuss a different topic each week to empower you to embrace his season of life. Please join me for my upcoming posts, and if there is a specific area you want to hear about, let me know! We need to seize the badass women we are becoming!

• When Change Feels Like Chaos~ decoding symptoms

• How to Feel More Like Myself ~ supports to get us through

• Reframe ~ learning to observe, reflect, and adjust

Until next time,

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1. Endocrine Connection

2. AMA