Menopause can have a big impact upon your life, from health and fitness, to relationships and work. If you’ve been experiencing changes recently, use this guide to better understand menopause and how to maintain your health and fitness while managing the most common symptoms.
What is menopause?
Menopause refers to the period of time following the end of menstruation. As the ovaries stop producing eggs, hormone levels including oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone, drop which can effect women physically and mentally.
When does menopause occur?
Women usually experience menopause between the ages of 45 and 55, although it can occur earlier, or later. Even though menopause affects all women, doctors can misdiagnose the symptoms, particularly in the early stages. Medical negligence claims are a possibility if this misdiagnosis delays the identification and treatment of related health conditions.
This is thought to be due to a lack of education around menopause, aided by the fact that menopause symptoms are similar to those of other common conditions such as depression, cystitis and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Common menopause symptoms
The sudden drop in hormone levels that characterises the menopause causes physical and mental changes to the body that are as far-ranging as frequent headaches to feeling a loss of self. Not all women suffer from all of the potential effects, but these are some of the most common menopause symptoms to look out for:
Fatigue: Many women report suffering from tiredness during the menopause, particularly in the early stages.
Insomnia and night sweats cause disturbed sleep which can exacerbate a general feeling of fatigue, and it is common to feel irritable during the day due to a lack of rest. This tiredness can also cause brain fog, ranging from struggling to recall words to short-term memory loss.
Anxiety: Anxiety is a common mental effect of menopause due to changing hormone levels in the brain. As the ovaries stop producing oestrogen, the pituitary gland compensates by creating more FSH (the follicle-stimulating hormone). There is also evidence to suggest that oestrogen is linked to our levels of serotonin and cortisol – the “happy” and “stress” hormones respectively.
In addition to making you feel fearful and tense, anxiety can have a physical impact as well. Look out for dizziness, heart palpitations and nausea. Unexplained sweating, often referred to as hot flashes, is a particularly common symptom of menopause anxiety. Anxiety in general can be helped with therapy, medications, cannabis products like these delta 9 vapes, or even a combination of the aforementioned. It’s all about managing your mental health so that you can go about your days as normally as possible.
Vaginal dryness: Most women will be familiar with the fact that changing oestrogen levels can cause vaginal dryness.
This can affect your health in a variety of ways during menopause. Primarily, it causes daily discomfort and pain during intercourse. It can also lead to more urinary tract infections such as cystitis and even thrush.
How can menopause impact on fitness?
Given its many physical and mental effects, there are many ways that menopause could impact upon fitness.
Increased fatigue and anxiety-induced dizziness could influence your usual cardio regime. Listen to your body when you are training and make sure not to push yourself too far. You may wish to shift your focus to strength training and calming activities such as yoga rather than aerobic exercise.
Menopause can also cause joint pain. This is because oestrogen plays a part in protecting your joints, so when the hormone level drops there is a chance of increased inflammation. It can also increase the risk of developing diseases that affect the bones such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.
To reduce the likelihood of inflammation around the joints, opt for low-impact exercise such as swimming and avoid movements that are jarring such as running and jumping.
