A holistic approach to reproductive health
What is perimenopause?
What is perimenopause? It’s a natural transition that indicates the bodily changes that can occur before menopause, which marks the end of reproductive years. According to the Mayo Clinic, once you’ve gone through 12 consecutive months without a menstrual period, you’ve officially reached menopause, and the perimenopause period is over.
Sadly, perimenopause has a negative reputation, so in this article, we’re going to explore what it is, how the symptoms can show up and addressing those symptoms naturally.
Perimenopause: What’s happening?
Women aren’t designed to have babies for their entire adult lives. So we know that it’s natural for our hormones to shift as we get older.
Perimenopause is often blamed as the cause of pronounced shifts and big erratic cycles for anyone 30+, but what if there’s more to it? Let’s take a look at the bigger picture – what if the mineral imbalances in our bodies are the real cause of symptoms like hot flashes, persistent low iron, heavy bleeding, mood changes, fibroids, PCOS and unpredictable cycles?
What if the symptoms are actually a signal from our body saying, ‘hey, I need some time out, please help me’?
What if you body has become so depleted of minerals over the years, that the hormones can’t do their job?
Hormones = signal givers
Eg. the hormones oestrogen and progesterone play a role in signalling it’s time to menstruate
Minerals are needed for hormones (to be able to send signals), but if we haven’t got enough minerals or they aren’t recycling effectively in our body, the signals might be inconsistent and erratic. What if THAT is the reason our cycles are becoming irregular?
Consider this…
- Your body is stressed – who isn’t?!
- Stress leads to inflammation in the body (we call this oxidative stress but don’t worry if that doesn’t mean anything to you)
- Your body has been recruiting oestrogen to help manage inflammation in the body
- You haven’t got the right ratio of oestrogen to progesterone to maintain consistent cycle length, duration and heaviness.
So if you’re stressed and things are out of whack with your minerals, Is it any wonder that your periods are being impacted?!
Stress + mineral loss = hormone imbalances
Hormone imbalances lead to hot flashes, mood changes, unpredictable cycles
Balance your minerals to address your symptoms
So now that we understand that minerals might have something to do with our symptoms, what can we do? And, ideally, are there natural solutions?
Yes, there are natural ways to address the symptoms that are pegged as perimenopause that don’t require 1,500 potions and creams, synthetic hormones or surgical removal of your uterus.
Introducing…. The Root Cause Protocol.
Also known as the RCP, The Root Cause Protocol is a research based lifestyle designed to support our bodies back to balance via predominantly food-based minerals, vitamins and stress reduction. It focuses on getting minerals like magnesium, iron and copper (just to name a few) back into balance when we’re depleted and/or imbalanced.
If you recognise that you might have blamed perimenopause for your symptoms, don’t beat yourself up. Now that you know better, let’s see if we can change it up!
Different action = different result 🙂
The first thing we recommend you do to get back into balance with your minerals, is to start having an adrenal cocktail each day. You can read all about what they are and how they work here.
Once you’re up and running with that, you’ll likely start to notice a difference. After a couple of weeks, you can then start to explore the rest of the RCP. Download the RCP Handbook here to see the full protocol.
If you’d like personalised support, you can book a consult with one of our RCP Consultants here. We offer mineral analysis if you want to see where your minerals are at right now.
On the topic of perimenopause leading to surgical menopause
In past generations, hysterectomies were often rapidly encouraged by physicians. Perimenopause barely existed in conversations with doctors and care providers. Sadly, a hysterectomy was suggested long before what would considered a typical menopausal age. It was often provided as the only way to solve all reproductive problems (you and I now know better) in one ‘easy’ step. It was presented as the main (or only!) solution in many instances and a lot of people were steamrolled into the decision. If that’s you, we’re really sorry that this happened to you.
If you’ve had a hysterectomy, the underlying mineral imbalances will still be there, so we encourage you to consider addressing them so that other symptoms don’t pop up giving you yet another thing to manage.
Whilst we can recognise that a hysterectomy is a personal choice that can sometimes feel as though it’s the only option (even nowadays), back then, women were told that natural options either didn’t exist, or couldn’t help them.
The RCP is a natural solution that I wholeheartedly support and recommend, even for people who feel or have been told that a hysterectomy is the only option. So, if you are considering major abdominal surgery, is it worth a try? Perhaps this article has convinced you to try the RCP, or at least opened up the RCP as an possibility for you.
On a personal note, my own family has a history of hysterectomies. I’m the first woman in at least three generations (it could be more but we don’t know for sure) on my Mum’s side to still have my uterus in my early 40s. I follow the RCP, in case you hasn’t gathered that already. Before the RCP, I had PCOS, fertility issues, long cycles and severe hormonal headaches/migraines. I’m grateful for the massive improvements and my health is the best it’s ever been in my 40s. So you can see why I love working with people to improve their reproductive health and unwanted symptoms. If you’d like to book a consult, click here.
These “women’s issues” as it’s so painfully referred to, are so common and yet we are generally ill-informed. I believe that periods, menstruation, cycles, perimenopause and menopause should be openly discussed and not topics that are kept behind closed doors. Awareness has the potential to influence more body autonomy and if you ask me, that’s a bloody good thing.
To wrap things up, perimenopause is being blamed for mineral imbalances. The Root Cause Protocol can help address these imbalances and you just might find that you end up with fewer symptoms by giving it a go. Start with an adrenal cocktail, and then move onto the rest of the protocol. If you want a woman’s touch, get in touch with the team.
If you’d like us to write an article on how to support your body after a hysterectomy, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this post or sending a message here.
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If you’d like to learn more about this and discover what other everyday supermarket items to steer clear of, we’d love to share some more info with you. This is one of the many healthy habit topics we explore inside the Health Club, our online membership that anyone can join. We host live Q&As, we share resources and we are here to guide you along your journey to better health.
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