Although the decline in oestrogen levels after menopause is well known, what is less well known is the importance of progesterone, which balances oestrogen’s effects. This is most important in your perimenopausal years – that’s the time between when your menstrual cycle is disrupted by failing ovaries; and menopause, when your periods stop completely.
I call progesterone the hormone of happiness, because it promotes a stable happy mood. This hormone has a vital role in fertility, as it’s produced by your ovaries after ovulation. Your oestrogen hormones have already promoted the growth of your uterus lining; progesterone secretion instructs your uterus to finish the job, get ready, because there may be a fertilised egg arriving within a few days. If the egg isn’t fertilised, it disintegrates, and complex feedback messaging between the egg, your uterus and your ovaries lets your uterus know that the lining won’t be required after all, and can be shed. The important aspect of this for the perimenopausal woman is that no ovulation means insufficient progesterone in relation to oestrogen.
When considering your hormones, and particularly problematic symptoms, it’s far more useful to look at the relative balance between them rather than absolute quantities. You could have the healthiest oestrogen levels in the world, but unless you have enough progesterone on hand to balance it, you could experience some very unpleasant symptoms in the last two weeks of your menstrual cycle.
After menopause, when you’re not ovulating, your progesterone levels drop – but so do your oestrogen levels, so it’s all in balance.
Let’s revisit the perimenopausal years. As your ovary function declines, you will have more months where no egg is produced, and therefore minimal progesterone, resulting in relative oestrogen dominance. Some of the first signs of this is worsening pre-menstrual tension, sleep disruption, particularly waking during the night, often with anxiety as well. Mood swings, low libido, foggy thinking, bladder urgency, headaches, weight gain…..there’s a long list of problem symptoms that emerge from this hormone imbalance.
You can have a positive impact on your hormone balance by including enough ('enough' is a careful word choice on my part - not just 'some') fibre-rich and phytoestrogen-rich foods in your diet; particularly legumes, vegetables and fruit. Fitness makes a big difference, as does optimal stress management. Natural therapists use herbs, nutrients, diet and lifestyle changes to rebalance your hormones, and may arrange salivary hormone testing first to establish whether a hormone imbalance really is the problem.
The perimenopausal time of your life is an opportunity as well: Once you enter menopause it will be much harder to maintain a toned, svelte body – so here’s your last chance to easily alter your shape and build enough muscle to help you maintain it. As you age, the effort you have put into building your fitness pre-menopause will pay off. But if you stay on the couch, you’ll feel the effects more in your old age.
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