Tell Giselle: Menopause need not be miserable or mean

I have been asked how best to approach menopause for an easier go of it, if that is even possible. Since there are recent articles about menopause that clearly are trying to be of help to women, but are missing key components to wellness, let’s first look at why menopause is such a big darn deal.

For many women menopause occurs around the age of 50. My mother, now deceased, had what is referred to as an early onset menopause. What that means is that by the time she was 37 her menstruation had completely stopped. Her experience, one that I thought I might replicate but ultimately did not, basically meant that my mother began to prematurely age.

My memories of her in those years (while I was not even a teen) are that her hair thinned and turned gray, her skin thinned, and within only a few years she had gone from being a healthy, even slender, weight to being overweight. By the time I was in high school my mother was obese, tired and stressed. Back then, in the seventies, none of this to my knowledge was adequately discussed in the household. I think it was just assumed by many friends and family that women of that certain age started down a path of aging that looked just like her.

It was also a time when health information was not as easily available as it is today, nor as comfortably talked about in private or in public. More commercials back then seemed to be about hair color (does she or doesn’t she use it), rather than addressing the hair thinning that happens with hormones in decline.

I think menopause became a looming boogie monster to many women because it is that time of life that holds even more uncertainties than one’s youthful years. And for those women who are living the perimenopause and menopause years, this phase lasts so many more years than was once thought, thus the boogie monsters multiply as if on fertility drugs themselves.

At first the boogie monster is a woman’s loss of fertility and their youthful looks, as wrinkles appear and skin sags. But then in short order the boogie monsters morph into hot flashes/night sweats, unpredictable and/or painful periods, irritability/mood swings, weight gain, and diminished desire for intimacy with the attendant loss of sensuality. Often it takes the big boogie monster of fuzzy brain/memory issues to tip a woman into getting a more extensive health evaluation.

What I recall about my mother’s description of her menopause experience was that she did not claim to have any of the common symptoms such as hot flashes. Other than that she noticed she would cry more easily and seemed to herself to be more emotional, she didn’t claim to suffer.

That, in hindsight, was perhaps her inability to admit to any weakness that she thought menopause represented, or it might have been an early indication that she had already been in a more treacherous decline, with a loss of any firm grip on reality and what we were observing of her behaviors, as she aged.

Tragically, what had been overlooked by my mother’s doctors, and by herself, was her thyroid. It was essentially kaput and she did not realize this was contributing to her health decline. Her medical problems, as is often the case with those who put off addressing warning signs or who ignore the self-care, included issues with her weight and blood pressure, diabetes, heart and kidney disease, fatty liver, low stamina, and mental instability that caused great strife to herself and those in her circle.

How one’s thyroid is functioning plays a sizeable role in a woman’s (and man’s) overall wellbeing, but it is particularly significant to the cycle of menstruation and cessation. Without going into the medical jargon, suffice it to say that a well-functioning thyroid is a key component to a more pleasant physical and mental aging process.

Without these thyroid hormones, in both sufficient quantity and regularity, the terribly unpleasant changes that can occur during perimenopause and menopause can easily ruin one’s quality of life and affect one’s longevity.

Instead of including thyroid testing as part of regular exams, and during the perimenopause stage (the years leading up to the cessation of menstruation that begins a number of years prior), many women do not learn of their thyroid function until they want to conceive a baby. At that point it is appropriate to undergo a full physical. This is especially important for those women who are having difficulty becoming pregnant.

Low or insufficient thyroid hormones are unfortunately the case in many women, old and young.

My recommendation is to become proactive.

Do not wait for those who tackle the topic of menopause to get the story completely correct. They may inadvertently be doing a disservice to women by passing over, dismissing or being ignorant of the necessity to consider one’s thyroid status, perhaps because they are simply unaware of their own thyroid status.

But let’s not stop with just the stopping of one’s menstrual cycle. The need for thyroid health continues post menopause, that phase of a woman’s life where her cycle has ceased for an entire year. When that occurs, she is in the “post” period, phase of her life.

As one ages, the levels of many of our hormones naturally undergo changes. With menopause, women lose most of their estrogen, while men as they age will also see a reduction of certain hormones, including testosterone. But it is not just aging that does this to us all. Dietary deficits or extremes, certain medications, genetic conditions, chemical/toxic exposures, diseases, obesity and other factors will contribute to these losses or fluctuations that result in a diminished sense of wellbeing or even health status.

These challenging changes to our physicality no longer have to be lived as if we are in the dark ages, suffering alone or in silence. The writers on menopause, as well as our health care providers, would be considerably more helpful to us if they would take even more time to convey how our thyroid affects our overall health through all stages of life.

Optimal thyroid function matters to the menopause experience, just as much as does a woman’s lifestyle choices, stressors, genetics, and chemical exposures matter to health. Until one’s thyroid status is evaluated, many women will needlessly suffer for years, like my mother.

To help women overcome their fear of menopause, and gain a greater degree of control over their body, please share this information with your circle, and join me in becoming an advocate for thyroid awareness. Do not put off having your thyroid levels checked. It only requires a simple blood draw, with the results coming back in a few days. These numbers are, yes, only numbers, but they are a great first step in preparing you for taking the additional steps that will bring you into an aging process that is less scary and way less mean.

For more on this topic, see: https://www.gisellemassi.com/thyroid-wellness-with-integrative-medicine and https://www.gisellemassi.com/loving-post-menopause-with-thyroid-health