medically reviewed by Dr.Aswathy Krishnan
9 mins readPerimenopause also called the menopausal transition, is an inevitable phase in every menstruating woman's life. Many of you experience symptoms for several years before menopause. During this time, your ovaries gradually begin to make less estrogen. This is a transitional period from the menstruating phase to the menopause, which is the complete cessation of menstruation.
Generally, perimenopause symptoms start around your 40s, typically 8-10 years before menopause. But it can even start earlier or later. During this phase, the level of estrogen in your body fluctuates unevenly during perimenopause. You may have your period, but your menstrual cycle may be irregular. You may not have a period for several months during the last year or two of perimenopause. You may also experience heavy or scanty bleeding.
Symptoms similar to those experienced during menopause may also bother you during perimenopause. Throughout the perimenopause, various physical and psychological changes may occur in your body.
Read more on Understanding Premenopause, Perimenopause, and Menopause.
To effectively deal with any health problem, it is essential to understand it in detail. Health problems experienced during the perimenopause are no different.
You need to understand things like what perimenopause is, what causes health issues during this issue, at what age it occurs, whether it is natural, how severe it is, etc. Thus, having the right knowledge about the problem makes it easier to overcome that problem. By avoiding the causes that aggravate the problem, it will be possible to find solutions through simple ways.
Generally, perimenopause symptoms start around your 40s, typically 8-10 years before menopause. But it can even start earlier or later, too. On average, the perimenopause phase can last for around ten years.
Explore these 11 important tips to ease the symptoms of perimenopause and support yourself in integrating overall well-being during this challenging period of your life.
Diet and lifestyle changes are not the only solution for managing perimenopause symptoms. However, your eating habits and how you live can make a big difference in the quality of your life. Paying attention to your food and lifestyle choices can help you maintain long-term health as you enter the perimenopause stage. It can also help you find relief from some of the unpleasant symptoms that occur during this period.
Lifestyle plays a vital role in managing perimenopause. We cannot blame only a poor lifestyle for the discomfort caused during perimenopause; a healthy lifestyle can definitely help ease the symptoms of perimenopause. Lifestyle-based approaches such as a healthy diet, physical exercise or wholesome routines, and stress management may help improve the condition during perimenopause.
Lifestyle modifications and natural remedies help reduce the intensity of the symptoms and promote overall well-being. They also help manage stress and maintain healthy sleep hygiene.
Read more on Perimenopause Symptoms and their management with Ayurveda.
When considering a healthy diet, you should address two things: choosing nutritious, healthy foods and the other one is avoiding foods that lack nutrition. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products are good choices.
What to Eat?
A well-balanced diet is essential during any stage of life, especially during menopause. Here is the best diet for perimenopause.
What to Avoid?
Not all foods are good for your body. It would help if you concentrate on avoiding healthy foods as you choose healthy foods. These are the list of some unhealthy foods to avoid in perimenopause:
Regular exercise during perimenopause can enhance your quality of life during the perimenopause phase and can also be a really useful tool in helping to reduce menopausal symptoms.
Did You Know?
Women who exercise less than three times a week experience more severe perimenopause symptoms, including weight issues, sleep disturbances, and anxiety. Symptoms will be three times more severe than those who do regular exercise.
Now, you may be wondering what exercise you should do.
Any exercise you enjoy and stick with over time will likely be beneficial. Swimming, running, walking, resistance training, and yoga will significantly help you. Aerobic or cardio exercise increases heart rate and breathing rate and increases the body's oxygen consumption. Aerobic exercises engage the body's large muscle groups rhythmically.
Include at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week. Strength or resistance training helps increase muscle power and bone density and improves hormone levels and metabolism.
Perimenopause stress relief techniques mainly include mindfulness and meditation.
Mindfulness practices may help ease perimenopause symptoms like hot flashes, stress and anxiety.
Meditation only requires a little time or special skills and training. You can practice it anywhere, anytime. The main thing required is a willingness to practice. Meditation may be difficult for you to follow at first. But practice will help you become more comfortable in your ever-changing body by adjusting to your needs and calming your stress response.
Disturbed sleep can affect all areas of your life. Lack of sleep can make you feel irritable or depressed. It might cause you to be more forgetful than normal and could lead to more falls or accidents.
Research shows that waking up from sleep may trigger hot flashes rather than the other factors. Incorporating healthy habits at bedtime can help you get a good night's sleep.
You have many ways to treat and get rid of perimenopause symptoms, including prescription medications. For some people, prescription medications work well, but not everyone wants to take them. There are other ways to treat your perimenopause and menopause symptoms.
Perimenopause natural remedies are also a good option. Herbal remedies for perimenopause are discussed further.
You have multiple choices of herbs, and they help you overcome symptoms or reduce their intensity. However, it is advised not to start any herbs without discussing them with your healthcare practitioner. Only a professional healthcare person can advise a suitable herb with an accurate dosage for daily intake.
However, it is important to discuss your dosage with your healthcare practitioner. If the dosage is too high, you could experience painful side effects.
Bioidentical hormones for perimenopause are refined hormones designed to have effects similar to those made by your body's glands.
When you are unable to find relief from your perimenopause symptoms with diet correction, lifestyle modification, exercise and herbal supplements, bioidentical hormones can help you correct hormonal imbalances that occur during perimenopause.
You must discuss with your healthcare provider for hormone replacement based on your symptoms and health history.
As you age, your body does not retain as much moisture as it used to. This decreased water content in the body affects your health more during perimenopause. Drinking sufficient quantities of water is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your health and ease your symptoms of perimenopause.
During this phase, hot flashes and night sweats can lead to additional water loss, requiring increased fluid intake to stay hydrated.
Caffeine is known to enhance arousal, mood and attention. Sensitivity to caffeine will differ from person to person, but a significant percentage of women have shown triggering of symptoms by caffeine use. Try to avoid or limit the amount of caffeine you drink and switch to decaffeinated varieties or drinks that are lower in caffeine, like antioxidant-rich green teas.
Going through an inevitable phase of your life called perimenopause is not an easy task. Although perimenopause is not a disease, the problems you experience during that phase or its symptoms are as severe as a disease. Although this phase is unavoidable, there are many solutions to prevent or reduce the severity of the discomfort you experience.
By understanding perimenopause in-depth, you can bring about many changes by incorporating a proper diet, lifestyle, and daily exercise. Also, managing your body's hydration, using herbal supplements, maintaining mental health, and sleeping well can help you a lot.
A combination of strategies will help you overcome the difficulty. However, to handle such a combined strategy plan, you may need the advice of a doctor. The doctor will choose a suitable plan for your age, body type, symptoms, and lifestyle. Our Nirva platform team of doctors and health consultants is always ready to craft a strategy outline that fits your needs. Why wait? Start your journey to relief from perimenopause discomfort at least a day in advance. Consult with our experts now!
Dr. Sudarshan Cheral
Dr Sudarshan Cheral is an Ayurveda practitioner with over 9 years of rich clinical experience. Also, as an experienced Ayurveda medical writer with more than 4 years in the field, he has skillfully contributed to Ayurveda literature, assisting in writing 4 books and translating 2 essential texts. Dr. Sudarshan is deeply committed to the art of teaching and has guided numerous international students on their journey to mastering Ayurveda.
By observing changes in your menstrual cycle, hot flashes, sleep disruption, mood swings and weight gain, you can understand that you are in perimenopause.
Yes, it is still possible to get pregnant during perimenopause. However, the chances of getting pregnant are lower because of inconsistent ovulation.
If you have not had a period for 12 consecutive months, you should consider that you have reached menopause.
Yes, weight gain is one of the common symptoms of perimenopause. Hormonal changes during this period induce weight gain.
Yes, perimenopause can affect your mind. Due to hormonal changes, mood swings, stress, anxiety, and depression are common during perimenopause.