How Can Nutritional Therapy Help With Menopause?

What is Menopause?

The menopause is a natural process that occurs between 45 and 55, with the average age for a woman to reach the menopause being 51. It’s a time when the ovaries cease to produce female sex hormones, and a woman stops having periods. Oestrogen levels drop, and this can cause common symptoms such as hot flushes, mood swings, weight gain or insomnia.

Many women seek natural solutions to handling these symptoms, by making nutritional and lifestyle changes.

The extent of hormonal changes brought on by menopause can be influenced by other factors besides the change in the hormones themselves. Consider that not all women experience menopausal symptoms. Why is that?

Here are some of the underlying factors that can worsen menopausal symptoms.

• Imbalanced gut bacteria;
• An overburdened liver;
• A diet of inflammatory foods;
• Elevated stress levels;
• Nutrient shortfalls;
• Compromised thyroid function;
• The wrong type of exercise;
• Too much or too little exercise;
• Poor sleep.

Addressing these imbalances can help you to make changes that can positively influence your experience of menopause.

How Can Nutritional Therapy Help?

We’ll go through a detailed history, to get a picture of what may be contributing to your menopausal symptoms. It may be important to perform functional lab tests to ascertain your hormone levels and how your body is metabolising your oestrogen, as this can impact on your menopausal health.

We’ll also look at your diet and lifestyle, and any habits or patterns that may be affecting your symptoms. The changes that we’ll make will be supportive of you and your body at this time of your life. You’ll eat foods that are healthy and delicious, so you’ll never feel deprived or go hungry, and we’ll also take into account your likes and dislikes.

Alongside the hormone test, I might recommend that you do certain tests if there appears to be other things going on that could be affecting your hormones, such as thyroid, adrenal or liver function, or a stool test. Once your test results are returned (if relevant), we will gain a deeper understanding on what imbalances may be present and specifically tailor your plan as needed.

The goal of your programme is to get you feeling good in your body again, as quickly as possible, so you have more energy and feel vibrant once again. Together, we’ll review your progress on a regular basis, and adapt your programme as we go along, so you’ll build a strong foundation of habits and strategies that can become a natural part of your lifestyle, setting you up for the next chapter of your life.

Read about how I work with clients here.

Ir if you’re ready to reclaim being the best you that you can be, but you have questions, book a discovery call with me or if you’re ready and raring to go, then apply to work with me here.

Ready to address your menopausal symptoms but just not quite 100% sure yet? Click the button to the right to set up a free 15-minute discovery call, so you can get your questions answered.