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The Perimenopause Passage

We are entering a time in the history of the world where there will be more menopausal women then ever before. An estimated forty million American women are now in or past menopause, and another twenty million, the baby boomer generation, will reach that stage of life in the next decade – one every seven and one-half seconds for the next ten years! This signals a great event. Midlife and menopause are wonderfully rich times of life.

Midlife and menopause mark the beginning of your second life.

The period that leads up to menopause – the Perimenopausal Passage -represents a major life change for women. And there is no way out except to go through it. The choices we make during the Perimenopausal Passage are extremely significant.

Choices about health, nutrition, lifestyle, wellness, and performance require knowledge and a commitment to make these choices work for you. Menopause and midlife offer new possibilities and opportunities. Women today can individualize their choices and design their second life to their liking. Your second life- life at menopause and after- can be in line with your own requirements, needs, dreams, and desires.

The physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual realities of the Perimenopausal Passage demand that you make changes in the way you live your life. The Perimenopausal Passage into menopause is defined by certain physical realities. These physical realities force you to relate to life differently than you did when you were younger. All of your unique challenges in life – health, relationship, career, lifestyle, nutrition, - will be heightened during the Perimenopausal Passage and worsened if you choose to ignore the new requirements and needs of your upcoming second life

The upcoming generation of perimenopausal and menopausal women has not been one to sit quietly by and let life overrun them. This generation of women championed new frontiers in health care for women, changed the face of childbirth, and broke into new career possibilities. This upcoming generation of perimenopausal and menopausal women is awake, aware, conscious, smart, capable, and able to take charge of their own destiny in life. Moreover, they are more likely than ever to take charge of designing their second life, to move consciously through the perimenopausal passage and to live at their best during the menopausal years.

Menopause holds a special promise and you can take steps to bring that promise to fruition by moving consciously and deliberately through the Perimenopause passage. If you connect to your new rhythms and learn how to better manage your moods and energy you will make choices that will create your best life ever.

What is Perimenopause?

Perimenopause is the time in a woman’s life when she begins the transition into menopause. Perimenopause can begin as early as the late 30’s and last to the cessation of menstruation, which usually occurs between the ages of 50-52 years. During the perimenopausal period there are many hormone changes occurring which lead to menopause.

Menopause is the cessation of menstruation. Six to twelve months without a period is the commonly accepted rule for diagnosing menopause. The time period after menopause is referred to as post menopause.

With the prolongation of life expectancy, the menopausal and postmenopausal periods are becoming more significant in a woman’s life. In addition to the 10-15 years during the Perimenopausal Passage, today’s average woman can expect to live at least one third of her life in the postmenopausal phase.

Menopause can bring a new level of freedom and excitement. For many women however, the perimenopause confronts them with a litany of changes and problems including:

• muscle aches and pains
• anxiety
• fear
• nervousness
• increased bladder infections
• severe cramps
• depression
• numbness
• digestive disturbances
• bloating
• dry skin and vaginal tissues
• emotional instability and uproar
• scanty and irregular periods
• fibroids
• cardiovascular disease
• fatigue
• menstrual flooding
• headaches and migraines
• heart palpitations
• hot flashes
• incontinence
• depressed libido
• skin changes including itching, burning and atrophy
• joint pain
• night sweats
• severe premenstrual syndrome
• panic attacks
• dizziness
• dry eyes
• dry and burning mouth
• rage
• restless or little sleep
• sore breast tissue
• hypertension
• elevated blood lipids
• thinning of hair
• increased weight gain
• spotting
• increased yeast infections
• poor memory and concentration...

  ...to name a few.

Of course, there is the ever-present fear of crippling and debilitating osteoporosis.

Doesn’t sound promising, am I right?

The Perimenopausal Passage – Disease or Transformation?

The current medical view of the perimenopausal passage into menopause is as a disease process rather than as a normal physiological process. But I have to think … Does it make any evolutionary sense that women would have a built-in sabotage mechanism for decreasing their quality of life as they enter into menopause?

Many cultures view the perimenopausal passage as a natural progression of life with many positive aspects to it. In many other cultures, the perimenopausal passage is viewed as a socio-cultural happening with its own attending physiological changes similar to the transition period of puberty.

Logically, the perimenopausal passage into menopause is not an error or oversight of nature, but rather the next step in evolution, growth, and development for women.

In the plant and animal kingdoms, what can not continue to grow in a healthy manner it has its own built-in mechanisms to assist it in removing itself as an energy drain on the community and it dies. Women do not die from menopause. Logically then, there should be a next step in evolution and growth that the perimenopause changes facilitate. By shifting the paradigm from which we look at menopause, new possibilities and benefits arise that from the changes that occur during the perimenopausal passage.

Because all women go through menopause and not just a select few, it would seem reasonable to assume that the perimenopausal passage has some benefit to women. The body in its wisdom may shift the hormonal interplay for the continuing benefit of women. Many health care practitioners have observed that women who go through menopause viewing it as a natural, healthy process have an easier time during the perimenopausal passage than women who view menopause as time of crisis and degeneration. Fear, misunderstanding, and dread all seem to influence women's bodies and their experience of the perimenopausal passage into menopause.

The Perimenopausal Passage as a Rite of Opportunity

The perimenopause passage into menopause can be a gradual process with few side effects. In well nourished, vibrant women with strong adrenals and other glands that can pick up the job where estrogen leaves off, women can remain active, attractive, and healthy. Graceful aging can continue, as your body naturally compensates for the changes in the perimenopause transition.

What if the symptoms of the perimenopausal passage were actually a psychological and spiritual opportunity for growth and development rather than a degeneration and decline of usefulness and productivity accompanied by bothersome and unhealthy symptoms?

For instance, hot flashes are thought by some to represent a rising and rebalancing of life-force energy that assists women in burning off stress and attaining new levels of evolutionary development. In some spiritually advanced practices, great increases in body heat are associated with great increases in the flow of vital electricity/energy.

As women go through the perimenopausal passage perhaps hot flashes are the physical manifestations of the emergence of an increased electrical/energy flow in women that opens and stabilizes new channels of energy flow. As women learn to experience this new flow of energy as positive, beautiful, and transforming, they may become aware that in the perimenopausal passage they are experiencing dissolution of habitual ways of viewing the world.

In this process they may be releasing and forgiving unresolved stresses and unworkable patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Hot flashes may be the symptom of a blocked or hampered energy force - the purpose of which is to burn away unworkability and to bring forth stronger and more productive vital energy forces.

Perimenopausal Reevaluation

Authenticity

Perimenopause is a time of mid-life reevaluation when women are pressed to question what the most important things in their lives are. Women may suddenly realize that their lives are out of synch with their values and make important decisions to either adjust to the present circumstances or make drastic changes that allow them to live more congruently with their deeply held values.

Menopause is a time when authenticity and integrity become of paramount importance to women and the perimenopausal passage fosters a self-examination that brings women to a clearer set of inner values and the need to change outer life circumstances to be more in line with these inner values.

During the perimenopause years, you may be driven to have your external world reflect and extend your internal values bringing yourself into a state of integrity or wholeness. Temporary states of stress arising from changing lifestyles are much easier than being out of sync with your core beliefs.

Physical Changes

This reexamination of values in perimenopause is accompanied by physical changes in your body that prime you for coming more fully into your evolutionary expansion and for making a more expanded social contribution. It is a time to begin relinquishing the focus on reproduction and adopt a focus on wisdom and contribution.

The physical changes that occur in the perimenopausal passage are part of an initiation into what can be the most powerful, exciting and fulfilling times of a woman's life. In the years leading up to puberty, your body underwent physical changes in shape and function that enabled you to gain the physiological and psychological capacity to love and mother children So too, in the perimenopausal years, your body undergoes new physical changes in shape and function that enable you to gain the capacity to embrace the world from the vantage point of the wisdom gained throughout your life. Just as in her reproductive years you are the vehicle for carrying the next generation into existence, so too in the menopausal years you become the vehicle to carry the transformations that will support the next generation.

During the perimenopausal years, before this transformation into menopause is complete, it is common to feel disharmony with your rapidly changing and unfamiliar body. This is the time when the physical symptoms may be experienced.

The hormonal changes that occur during the perimenopausal years affect the liver, the fat cells, the adrenals, the pancreas, the thyroid, and the pituitary and hypothalamus. Many perimenopausal problems occur from hormonal imbalances as a result of the long term effects of stress on the endocrine system and the depletion of and imbalances of important minerals, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids and micro-nutrients.

The feelings and symptoms of ill-health that many women experience may be due to the body's difficulty in being able to naturally compensate for changing hormonal functioning due to accumulated deficiencies and degeneration from years of stress and lack of adequate physical care. With good physical care and attention to the changing physiological needs of the body, these symptoms and feelings of ill health do not have to be an automatic part of the perimenopausal passage.

Mental Evolution

Mental reevaluation during the perimenopausal years is also evident as many women experience vivid dreams, deja vu, increased recognition of synchronicities, more confidence in their judgment, greater self-esteem, and stronger intuition. You may experience a decisive wisdom that helps break old patterns and fuels the move toward authenticity. The mental evolution that occurs during perimenopause also can be experienced as lack of focus on what is happening outwardly, mood swings, and feelings of being overwhelmed in the ability to cope.

While experiencing a decline in the female hormones estrogen and progesterone and a corresponding increase in the production of male hormones (testosterone levels increase twenty-fold), perimenopausal women are also experiencing an emergence of fierceness that Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., terms "the Guardian archetype." During the perimenopausal passage, you may gradually relinquish passiveness and become more assertive. You may expand your vision to encompass the larger realm of humanity. You may awaken dramatically to social responsibility.

Hormonal Evolution

The decline of estrogen levels is usually seen as the essential factor in the menopause transformation that results in the decline of function. The 1,300 fold increase in FSH and LH is largely ignored or viewed simply as a desperate attempt on the part of the body to raise estrogen levels.

During the reproductive years when women ovulate, the pituitary gland releases FSH and LH at mid-cycle. FSH stimulates the release of the egg and LH causes the sac of cells that once surrounded the ovum to convert to a temporary endocrine gland, which manufactures progesterone. As ovulation stops during the perimenopausal years, the body pumps out more FSH and LH in what is commonly seen as an attempt to produce more ovulation. If no more eggs appear, and the body does not produce more estrogen and progesterone that once signaled the pituitary to stop secreting FSH and LH, even more of these hormones are released.

This increase in the production of FSH and LH when they are no longer needed to regulate the menstrual cycle is contrary the natural inclination of the body towards conservation of energy and protein building blocks. Why waste energy and resources in the production of hormones that no longer serve their purpose? Maybe there are other needs for FSH and LH than just to regulate the menstrual cycle.

Pre-menopausally, LH and FSH are high only near ovulation. Brain levels of these hormones wax and wane depending on the menstrual cycle. Post-menopausally, these hormone levels are high all the time. There is some evidence to suggest that FSH and LH may act as neurotransmitters. Dr. Christine Northrup believes that these neuropeptides may turn out to be the "hormones of wisdom," an actual mechanism through which women’s nervous systems are rewired during the perimenopausal passage to become more intuitive.

During the reproductive years, many women report increased receptivity to vivid dreams and intuitive impressions during certain phases of the menstrual cycle. It may be that the rise in FSH and LH corresponds to these occurrences. The dramatic post-menopausal increase in FSH and LH might favor continuous receptivity to intuitive impressions on a daily basis.

In many traditional cultures, post-menopausal women are highly honored for their intuitive wisdom and ability to gain knowledge and insight for the good of the society as a whole. The clarity, vision, and power of post-menopausal women serve as great contributions to society. These valued attributes in post-menopausal women may be connected to their hormonal revamping.

Post-Menopausal Zeal

Margaret Mead has spoken about the mid-life years as a time when women come into what she terms "post-menopausal zeal." During the perimenopausal passage, you may develop a passionate protectiveness and an unwillingness to be self-effacing, an unwillingness to put up with situations that are unjust and undesirable. The perimenopausal passage is a time when you may develop boldness and a fierce directness for your own rights and those of others. Women who in their twenties and thirties who may have tolerated bad situations and unfulfilling circumstances and relationships are no longer willing to put up with giving away their lives to other people and getting very little back. They develop a strong resolve to take back their own lives and their own power. After spending your first life being nurturing and receptive and taking in the world, in their second life you may find that you must lookout for yourself in a manner which gives you more power and authority.

During the perimenopausal passage, you may find that you no longer have a hard time saying no to people and circumstances that are draining and do not assist or nourish you. It is not selfish or wrong to meet your own needs. Continuing to place other people and situations ahead of your own needs depletes your resources to the point where you may become depressed or ill and no longer have the energy - or ability - to make a positive contribution to yourself or others.

As the ovaries make less estrogen and progesterone and more androgens (male hormones), women are physiologically enabled to use their male aspects to set their own boundaries, to speak up for themselves, to decline to stay in situations that are not congruent with their values, and to empty out commitments, friends, and possessions that do not support their values. This increased testosterone level assists women in accessing their male qualities and in acting with authority, developing the passion and self-confidence to act with integrity and becoming free of the fear of other people’s judgments. During perimenopause you may develop the ability to act with awareness, care and compassion without being afraid of what others think or of reprisals for being yourself.

This self-assessment, the discarding of that which is unworkable and the resulting transformation, brings about a burst of new and exciting energy. The increase in FSH, and the entire hormone makeup that is developing during the perimenopausal passage, may be the basis for the rewiring of your nervous system. You may have direct access to intuitive wisdom and guidance greater than your own individual capacity. As you come into menopause, you can act with vision and with the compassion and assertiveness needed to bring about new levels of health, hope, and freedom.

The Perimenopausal Passage to the Gifts of Menopause

Many women find that perimenopause is a time they experience major changes in their thinking and lifestyles. You can learn to use your perimenopause symptoms as an impetus for transformation. You can gain the awareness as to how to best assist your body in the unimpeded flow of new and heightened energy that brings you more fully into your power and potential.

Perimenopause symptoms can lead to a reevaluation of health habits and ways of coping with stress that will bring increased health and vitality. Learning to move the body chemistry out of stress mode and into relaxation mode can lessen suffering from stress and relieve some perimenopause symptoms such as night sweats and hot flashes. Learning how to better manage your moods and energy allows you to more easily connect with your new emerging natural rhythms and access the gifts that are now available to you.

The Perimenopausal Passage into menopause can be an exciting and invigorating time. By creating the physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual environments that are most conducive to supporting the chemical and electrical conditions in your body that promote the natural menopause transition, you can journey through the perimenopausal years with awareness and understanding. With appropriate life style changes, nutritional and herbal support, better management of your moods and energy, and a willing to explore the depths and breath of your wisdom, the promise of menopause can unfold for you.

By the year 2015, nearly 50% of women in the US (nearly 60 million) will be menopausal. This creates an historic opportunity to bring to bear the promise of menopause in an enormous, strong, self-sufficient, mature, authentic group of women dedicated to health, hope, and freedom.

Bone Resorption Assay checks for accelerated bone loss - a high risk factor for osteoporosis.

Female Hormone Panel analyzes the bioactive levels of female hormones throughout your menstrual cycle (or in the absence of cycling).

Adrenal Stress Test - measures your response to stress and reveals adrenal imbalances that may be impacting your health

Gastrointestinal Health Panel - non-invasively evaluates gastrointestinal function and health

Food Allergy Test - With this test you can determine the primary cause of hidden adverse food reactions.

© Copyright 1997 - 2008 by Mary Ann Copson and Evenstar. All rights reserved.

About the Author:
Mary Ann Copson is the founder of the Evenstar Mood & Energy Wellness Center for Women. With Master's Degrees in Human Development and Psychology and Counseling, Mary Ann is a Certified Licensed Nutritionist; Certified Holistic Health Practitioner; Brain Chemistry Profile Clinician; and a Health, Wellness and Lifestyle Coach. Reconnect to your physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual natural rhythms at
http://evenstaronline.com

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