How to Deal with Perimenopause
Long before hot flashes kick in, your progesterone levels drop, bringing on irregular periods, insomnia, irritability, anxiety, depression, and mood-swings – welcome to perimenopause. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to control the symptoms
You could have one or many of these:
* Fatigue
* Low sex drive
* Irritability
* Anxiety and/or depression
* Mood swings
* Hot flashes (aka flushes) and night sweats
* Insomnia
* Weight gain
* Craving for carbohydrates and sweets
* Cold hands and feet
* Some women get increased headaches or migraines.
Use a good natural progesterone cream on your body (one dependable non-prescription brand is Pro-Gest; or you can get Prometrium capsules or a custom compounded progesterone by prescription).
Be nice to your body. This increases the resources your body can devote to dealing with the problem. Eat well, exercise regularly, take a good multivitamin each day (plus Calcium and Vitamin D), and minimize stress where possible (stress “eats” progesterone; the less progesterone, the more symptoms you’ll have).
Take an herbal supplement specifically aimed at relieving symptoms.
Tips
* Perimenopause is like PMS on steroids; many of the tips to reduce PMS can help perimenopause as well. See the wikiHow on PMS.
Category: Premature menopause
