14 Dec Welcome to the Menopause: Hitting the Help Button
By Jacqueline Lucas Palmer.
The big M or Menopause is a word I’ve repeated for approximately 18 months daily like a mantra. It’s HUGE and many women fall victim to some typical symptoms and undesirable effects, yet the likelihood is that no one has warned you about it. Unlike a market saturated with IVF and pregnancy manuals, how to give birth at home, in a pool, with or without drugs, get your body back, your sleep, your breasts – you are unlikely to be inundated with YouTube clips on how to cope with ‘the Change’, what to expect, and many ways to make the turmoil manageable. You can feel pretty isolated as symptoms include sleeplessness, depression, anxiety, hot flushes, night sweats – the physical equivalent of walking towards a cliff and being pushed over the edge. And indeed you are alone, as friends and partners, colleagues and family are unlikely to be going through it with you.
The terrors strike at any time between (generally) your late 40s and early fifties, and just as your hormones are all over the place, no two people will feel the same. Some people react so badly that their regular routines render them helpless, and friends and family are co opted to lend a hand or take over. It’s a moment where women tend either to go into hiding, or reach out to a number of therapies for help.
Julia Bueno and Jane Edwards, co founders of the London Psychotherapy Network suggested a blog, but the idea of eliciting an audience for my personal menopausal misery made an unlikely twitter. I could not have contemplated injecting humour or energy into the scariest life cycle ride of all time. Women often cry out in childbirth “Why the fuck didn’t anybody tell me!” In the menopause there is a feeling of experiencing first hand the ultimate taboo involving changes in hormones, mood, fertility, appearance, energy, sexuality, in an emotional journey in the direction of ones mortality.
The good news is that women are getting together more to offer support and speak up in the silence of this journey. As a menopause survivor I can personally start the ball rolling inviting links to support your transition…most importantly to reach out and BE WARNED DON’T TRY THIS ALONE! Keep adding to the Help Button contact list, and remember that talking therapies help, as well as good diet, exercise, yoga and meditation, acupuncture, herbalism, homeopathy and cranial osteopathy. Let’s hear from men suffering the MANopause too…
Hit The Help Button:
The Wisdom of the Menopause by Christiane Northrup
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Marylin Glenville, Nutritionist
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Dr Jan Toledano Bio Identical hormone
Visit Site – 02039057580
Dr Yehudi Gordon, Gynaecology & Bio identical Hormones
Visit Site – 0207 4830099
Carla Lamkin Cranial Osteopathy
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Mary Strugar, Nutritionist
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