‘The only thing predictable about menopause is its unpredictability’ Dr Jen Gunter, author of The Menopause Manifesto .
Could not have said it better myself. I was 44 when I had my first menopause symptom. But I didn’t know it was a menopause symptom. It was a severe night sweat, and when I spoke to my girlfriends, they dismissed it as the start of menopause, because ‘I was too young to be in Menopause’. And I was, but I was in Perimenopause.
However, NOONE even knew about perimenopause back then. Therefore, NOONE warned me about it. NOONE was even talking about it.
I did a lot of research online and talking with women who had just gone through it, trying to get my head around it. All the while, the physiological changes and symptoms were debilitating. They affected every aspect of my life.
This lasted for 6 years. Then I was in Menopause/Post Menopause and EVERYTHING about the woman I knew had changed. How do I navigate through this? How do I feel ME again?
So, what did I do differently once I arrived in Post Menopause? NOTHING! Yes, nothing, because I had no idea that these biological changes meant changes for my entire body, not just my ovaries.
What I found out was truly eye-opening in the sense of being a woman and ageing. Due to the declining circulating oestrogen in our bodies, post-menopause increases the risk of:
I needed to find out why and what I could do about it, so I went on a weeklong, well-being retreat to find some answers.
It was a whole week of education on ageing well, which made me realise that everything I was doing prior to menopause in relation to nutrition, exercise, mental health, sleep, etc was now not going to cut it if I wanted to live a long healthy life while I aged. A life that allows me to keep doing the things I want to do, right up until I fell off my perch.
Here is what I learned:
And that’s when I got really excited. What if I could bring this information to other women by conducting workshops, not weeklong retreats.
Let’s be real, we will spend at least 30-40 years in menopause. We want to live those years healthy, strong, mobile, cognitive and vibrantly.
My workshops are about understanding how menopause affects ageing and introduce measures to help prevent frailty and cognitive decline as we age.
A Life Reset workshop focuses on: