There comes a time in everyone’s life when an apple-a-day approach to health and wellbeing really doesn’t cut it. One perky little Honeycrisp just can’t go up against sleep issues, back-and-or-knee pain, night sweats, and fading eyesight… (I’d buy so much stock in Apples™.)
Well, that time for people with female hormones is around 35. In the last few years, my body has started to remind me, physically and often, that I’m definitely not in my twenties (in spite of my recent bar-hopping behavior… more on that later). And while not all of it is related to my cycle, much of it does happen on a monthly and hormonal cadence: the headaches that I now anticipate in my third week, the mid-month cramps when I’m ovulating, and much, much more.
Recently, during a tiresome go, I reached out to a very good friend who happens to be a naturopathic doctor focused on women’s health, Dr Beryl Britton. By “reached out,” I mean that I texted to complain about whatever the fuck my hormones were doing to me as if she was the manager of this operation and could have someone fired. She was so immediately helpful, so knowledgeable (duh) and compassionate, that I felt compelled to share her with all of you, too. I’m on a new, holistic protocol of supplements and, most importantly, feel armed with better information about what the hell is going on *waves hands frantically* with all of this.
Herein, her answers to my burning questions about hormones, perimenopause, what’s normal, what’s not, and lots more…
I'm 35+, what the actual fuck is going on with my hormones?
Hormones can be tricky our entire lives, but once we get into our mid-late 30's our hormone production can really start to change. While the menstrual cycle tends to stabilize and become regular after the adolescent years and early 20's, we can begin to experience changes in our cycles around age 35. At this age, we can begin to include perimenopause as a cause of certain hormonal woes. Perimenopause is defined as the time "around" or before menopause and it can begin 10 years before actually going into menopause. The average age for menopause for those in the United States is 51, so many will go through perimenopause starting in the early 40's, but for some, it could very well be sooner than that.
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