Living well with menopause

Perimenopause and menopause are excellent times to review your lifestyle. You may have been leading a healthy lifestyle up to this point but the change in hormones puts different strains on both your physical and mental health. To thrive throughout your menopause, try to maintain a balanced and healthy life including:

Reviewing your alcohol consumption, stopping smoking and managing stress are all things that can help to improve your experience of this time of life.

Dorset has some excellent resources to help you stay fit and healthy, especially during your menopause.

Find advice about managing menopause symptoms with diet and lifestyle from the British Nutrition Foundation, Women’s Health Concern and the British Dietetic Association.

FAQs on weight gain, nutrition and lifestyle during the menopause

Insomnia is a common experience during the menopause often with hot flushes and sweats.

Read more information from Women’s Health Concern.

Sleepio is the NICE-recommended online sleep improvement programme to help you clear your mind and get better sleep. It is clinically proven to help address the root causes of poor sleep and insomnia.

Being more active can also help deal with menopause related symptoms.

A number of studies have taken place to understand the link between smoking and early menopause. It is generally agreed that smoking is more likely to bring forward the onset of menopause 18 months earlier for women who smoke compared to those who don’t.

Nicotine disrupts the conversion of a hormone within the body (androstenedione) to oestrogen which results in a dip in oestrogen levels, thus triggering early onset menopause. Smoking can also intensify menopausal symptoms.

Alcohol can increase some symptoms of perimenopause and menopause.

Perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms can affect women in many different ways, and mental and physical symptoms can often be detrimental to relationships. But help is available.

You cannot know for sure whether you have reached menopause if you are using hormonal contraception like the pill, hormonal coil, contraceptive implant or contraceptive injection. This is because hormonal contraception can affect your periods.

Visit the NHS website for more information about which contraception might mask symptoms of the menopause.

It is still possible to become pregnant if you have unprotected sex during perimenopause until you are certain that you have completely stopped having a menstrual cycle. If having periods, this is usually felt to be 2 years after your last period. Contraception is not needed after 55 years old. Here is a useful guide for which contraception you can use during perimenopause and menopause.

Menopausal symptoms can have a huge impact on your work life. A combination of disturbed sleep, hot flushes, brain fog and low mood can affect your attendance and performance, and research shows that some women reduce their hours or give up their jobs as a result.

Kathy Abernethy – menopause, a workplace issue