In my previous blog post, I break down what’s happening with your hormones as you move past your mid thirties and the various symptoms and changes this brings. Click here to read it if you haven’t yet done so and then you can come back to this post which follows on nicely. In this blog post, I outline three important aspects of perimenopause, the transitional phase leading up to menopause, where beginning menopause symptoms often start to appear, and six key nutrition and lifestyle factors that support perimenopause symptoms.
The really good news about perimenopause is that a healthy diet and other good lifestyle habits have a HUGE impact on their experience of it and it’s a massively underutilised tool!
As you move into your 40s, there are some things that likely need to change when it comes to how you eat and how you live. Embracing a perimenopause diet can significantly improve quality of life and help alleviate some symptoms during this phase.
Some of the things you did (or didn’t do) in your previous decades might not work as well (or at all) in your 40s. But rather than see this as a negative, I invite you to view your 40s as an exciting window of opportunity for change. An opportunity to form nutrition and lifestyle habits that are conducive to optimal health and hormonal wellbeing – physically, emotionally and mentally. A wonderful side effect of doing this is relief, or prevention of, symptoms of perimenopause.
Starting to pay attention to your health and habits NOW is a sure-fire way to improve the severity or intensity of symptoms 10-fold.
Not only this, but it will allow you to safeguard your future health and have a wonderful, healthy, strong life in all of your years post-menopause.
3 Important Aspects of Perimenopause that need support:
Calm the oestrogen rollercoaster to shelter your body and nervous system from sharp highs and lows in hormone levels.
Support healthy levels of oestrogen in the earlier stages when it’s higher than ever
Support your body to ovulate more months than it would have done without intervention (so you can make progesterone more often and minimise its decline)
The good news is that you can leverage your nutrition and lifestyle habits to support all of these three aspects! Let’s now look at each of these three areas one by one.
How to get perimenopause symptoms relief in 6 steps
The highs and lows of oestrogen become more erratic and sharp in your 40s. This can lead to symptoms of both high AND low oestrogen all in one day, such as breast pain AND night sweats.
Oestrogen’s Highs
In the earlier phase of perimenopause, levels of oestrogen can be higher than ever before in all of your menstruating years, resulting in sharper spikes in the oestrogen rollercoaster and a worsening of various symptoms associated with high oestrogen. Such as PMS, headaches or migraines, breast pain, histamine-like reactions, mood swings, and heavy periods. Hormonal changes during this time can also trigger hot flashes, adding to the variability of symptoms experienced.
Oestrogen’s Lows
The sharper the spikes, the sharper the drops and the more intense the symptoms of low oestrogen will be. Treatments can help manage these symptoms, and one option is estrogen therapy, which stabilizes estrogen levels. Such as hot flashes, night sweats, headaches, migraines, low or flat mood, low energy, low libido, joint aches and pains, and vaginal dryness.
Smoothing Out The Rollercoaster
For a smoother rollercoaster and healthier oestrogen levels overall, it’s crucial to support the efficient breakdown and clearance of used oestrogen from your body. This process occurs primarily in your liver and then the gallbladder and gut.
Tips For A Smoother Ride
1. Improve Oestrogen Breakdown + Clearance Pathways Through The Liver
Once your body uses a hormone (in this case oestrogen) it needs to get metabolised (broken down) and detoxified (cleared out from the body).
This is a process known simply as ‘oestrogen metabolism’ or ‘oestrogen detox’ and it primarily takes place in the liver, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It never takes time off.
If this clearing process is inefficient, it will lead to a build up of old oestrogen in the body that should no longer be sticking around, and result in symptoms such as heavy periods, breast pain, irritability and mood swings, headaches, fibroids, and breast cysts.
Foods shown to support the liver’s oestrogen clearance pathways include:
Cruciferous vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, watercress, bok choi, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and kale)
Protein (amino acids)
Flaxseed (must be ground)
Oily fish (EPA and DHA Omega 3 fats)
Herbs and spices (especially rosemary, turmeric and loose leaf green tea)
Colourful vegetables (yellow, red, orange, purple, green, brown, white) and fruits such as berries
Other important nutrients for efficient oestrogen breakdown and clearance include choline, B12, B6, folate, iron, magnesium, alpha lipoic acid, and N-Acetyl Cysteine.
2. Improve Oestrogen Breakdown + Clearance Pathways Through The Gut
Once your used oestrogen is efficiently processed in the liver, it makes its way to the gut where it waits to be removed from the body permanently via a bowel movement.
Therefore, your gut and bowel movements are the final stage of healthy clearance of used oestrogen from your body.
So you will want to be passing at least one fully formed, healthy stool per day. Anything less than this can result in that old oestrogen heading back into circulation in your body, increasing your total load of oestrogen and bringing on some or all of those symptoms I’ve already mentioned.
Good hydration, plenty of fibre from a variety of colourful non-starchy and starchy vegetables, berries, herbs, seeds, and whole grains, and chewing every single mouthful REALLY well are all KEY ways to encourage and maintain healthy daily bowel movements.
3. Minimise Alcohol
Alcohol can increase oestrogen levels in the body, in a couple of ways.
Firstly, the liver will always prioritise the detoxification of alcohol over anything else (oestrogen) because alcohol is such a big toxin.
This means that oestrogen detoxification gets pushed to the back of the queue, and may or may not take place, as your liver can only do so much at once.
Secondly, alcohol has also been shown to prompt the liver to begin converting androgen hormones, such as testosterone, into oestrogen, resulting in higher oestrogen levels. So, really consider whether that extra glass of wine or G&T is worth it or not.
If you enjoy the occasional one glass of your favourite tipple from time to time this is unlikely to be too much of a problem. However, if you’re consuming more than one glass at a time and too often, this could be something to address in case it is impacting your body’s ability to process oestrogen.
4. Minimise Hormone Disrupting Chemicals
Also known as endocrine disruptors, hormone-disrupting chemicals are various chemicals, found in our environment and in various products we may use, that look like oestrogen.
Once they get inside the body they have the ability to get into our cells, just like oestrogen would, and exert an effect. This effect is a very negative one however.
These chemicals can disrupt function and communication of your hormones, wreaking havoc on your hormones and overall health. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is crucial, as it can help mitigate the increased risk of heart disease, especially during menopause.
Not only this, these naughty chemicals can increase the total load of oestrogen in the body, increasing those typical high oestrogen symptoms such as heavy periods, breast pain, irritability and mood swings, headaches, acne, fibroids, and breast cysts.
Where hormone disrupting chemicals are found:
Perfumed/fragranced products (‘parfum’) and products containing parabens and phthalates, which includes shower gels, deodorants, body and hair sprays, creams, hair care, make up, candles, laundry detergents etc.
Household and industrial cleaning products, air fresheners and plugins
Non-natural personal care products such as sanitary towels and tampons
Plastics, plastic bottles, food packaging, straws, food containers, till receipts
Cooking, heating and freezing in plastics
Non-stick pans, plastic cooking utensils
Pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides
What you can do:
Switch to glass and or stainless steel for all of your drinking, cooking, heating and storage.
Gradually switch to chemical-free versions of your favourite products.
Natural skincare brands include Tropic, Green People, Ren and Neal’s Yard.
Natural household cleaning brands include Bio-D, Method and Attitude
If you like burning candles, some natural brands include Neom, Espa and Neal’s Yard.
5. Eat Three Nourishing Blood Sugar Balancing Meals
Perimenopause is NOT a time to restrict calories or specific foods, especially proteins and fats. It’s a time to be really well nourished with ENOUGH calories coming from:
Proteins: chicken, turkey, fish, red meat (grass fed, organic where budget allows), eggs, tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds. PROTEIN is the KEY nutrient for good blood sugar balance, which is essential if you want healthier hormones and a better experience of perimenopause. Aim for 30-40g of protein with 3 meals per day (yes, that includes breakfast).
Healthy fats: olive oil, avocados, oily fish (omega 3), coconut, nuts, seeds
Slow-release carbs: root veg, beans, lentils, whole grains
Fibre + plant chemicals: colourful vegetables, berries, flaxseed, herbs, spices, green tea.
Your body needs a constant supply of many important nutrients, including the omega 3 fats DHA and EPA from oily fish, iodine, zinc, B vitamins especially B12, B6 and folate (B9), vitamin D, magnesium, vitamin A (as retinol, which is only found in animal foods), choline, selenium and zinc.
6. Manage Stress And Support Your Nervous System
Stress is the biggest blocker to ovulation (progesterone production) AND it makes the oestrogen rollercoaster more pronounced!
Your brain will NOT tell your ovaries to ovulate if stress is chronic/you’re always in “fight or flight”. Read more about ovulation and progesterone here.
Busy days rushing from one thing to another, intense workouts, scrolling on your phone, answering WhatsApps, being everything to everyone keep you in a state of chronic stress.
Stress can exacerbate peri menopausal symptoms these symptoms, making it harder to manage them effectively.
Add to this, starting it all as soon as you wake up until the moment your head hits the pillow at night, and your hormones are in for a rough ride in perimenopause.
Simple lifestyle habits shown to rebalance cortisol levels and switch you out of ‘fight or flight’ into ‘rest and repair’ include walks in nature/green spaces, qigong, yoga, deep breathing exercises, meditation, mindfulness, having a good evening wind-down routine and good sleep, and getting your eyes into daylight within 30-60 minutes of waking.
Even just 5-10 minutes a day of some of these things (scattered throughout the day) can make a profound difference.
