Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods
This post is for all you forty and fifty-somethings who are looking for some kind of clarity around hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or menopausal hormone therapy.
You want to know if HRT is safe and which type to choose. And you want to know if hormone treatment is actually going to help with the sleep disturbance, mood changes and crazy periods that you’re experiencing now but really didn’t expect to see for a few more years.
Here are the symptoms you don’t want to talk about: heavy, flooding periods; mood swings; insomnia; hot flushes.
It’s not fun to bleed through your clothes or wake at night with your heart pounding and your sheets all wet. And part of you is thinking that maybe you’ve done something wrong to get into this situation. Or, at the very least, that you’ve made the shameful mistake of getting older and entering perimenopause or “the M-word.”
Read moreRescue Prescription for Menopause and Perimenopause
In your forties, you may find you don’t cope as well with stress. It happens because losing progesterone during perimenopause can destabilize the HPA axis or stress response system.
This recalibration of the nervous system is why perimenopause is associated with an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
Read moreHow to Survive the Great Progesterone Crash of Perimenopause
Hot flashes, sleep problems, mood swings, and crazy heavy periods. Is this menopause already? And you’re only 42? No, menopause may still be a decade away. This is perimenopause, which is the two to ten years of hormonal change before periods stop.
Perimenopause can be a tricky time and causes more symptoms than menopause itself. Conventional medicine has surprisingly little to offer. Your doctor will say you’re too young for hormone replacement, so she will likely prescribe the pill or an antidepressant, or tell you just to ride it out.
Read moreWhat Estrogen Does in Your 40s (and How Progesterone Can Help)