Almost every woman I know of my age is feeling confused and in a state of transition even as most of us are at the top of our game in our careers, financially stable and pretty comfortable with being parents,” said Yvette, 43, a Californian who is the COO of a video game company. “I spend a lot of time with other friends of my age. We talk about the fact that we are widening and softening where we don’t want to and don’t know if it makes us shallow or not feminists to do something about it; the fear that we don’t know how to monitor our children’s screen time; the fact that we don’t really like or need sex very often; our worry that we are losing time to try our ‘dream’ job.” Now, the reason for this is that hormone levels fluctuate while in perimenopause. And sometimes they’ll be the same as someone who is premenopausal, as in not going through perimenopause. So blood tests just aren’t a reliable way of determining if you’re in the club or not. Now, there are times when they might be appropriate and useful such as if you’re experiencing symptoms kind of earlier than you might expect these symptoms to start appearing. Then your GP might recommend them. So if you found this episode helpful then you’re going to love Perimenopause Power because there’s a lot of helpful information and strategies in there to really equip you for your perimenopause and post menopause whether you’re already in it or just wanting to be prepared. Writing this book, I have to say has been such a gift to me personally because it’s allowed me to make decisions ahead of time and to start implementing things now so that I’m really just preparing to have a positive experience of perimenopause. And that’s what I want for you too.

11. Perimenopause — Maisie Hill 11. Perimenopause — Maisie Hill

Instead, NICE guidelines say perimenopause should be diagnosed ‘based on vasomotor symptoms [hot flashes, sweating and heart palpitations] and irregular periods’. ‘Which is why it’s so important to go to your GP with an awareness of what’s going on with your cycle. If someone was to have HRT, that will point to what specific formulations would work well. Ideally it’s an ongoing conversation – as hormone levels change and you maybe go from having plenty of oestrogen to not much oestrogen, then your prescription will shift.’ Mom,” I said. “Did you just call the Bounty paper-towel company to complain about these teddy bears?” Three-quarters of women reaching menopause experience symptoms such as mood changes, insomnia, hot flushes, and night sweats, but there is little in the way of evidence-based information out there to help them presented in a way that's engaging and helpful.

Menopause is actually just a single day

Another reason for having it in book format is that the beginning is full of science. I'm creative, not scientific and I found that hard to follow and it nearly put me off reading the rest. However, if you love science and have a better grip on it than me, it's full of information and knowledge.

Perimenopause: What is it and what can you do? - BBC

So – to those questions. Menopause does not refer to the years when your cycle goes haywire or the years after your period stops. It is a single day: the one-year anniversary of your last ever period, and happens on average at the age of 50 or 51. Postmenopause is the third of your life that follows and perimenopause is the decade or so leading up to it. But oestrogen doesn’t simply gradually fade away, taking with it your periods. In fact, they may initially get more frequent, owing in part to a reduction in the progesterone that regulates the second half of your cycle. Hill describes this stage as ‘very early menopause’ (not to be confused with ‘early’ or ‘premature’ menopause, when periods stop before the age of 40). This then segues into ‘early perimenopause’. It’s in ‘late perimenopause’ that your cycle may lengthen, as oestrogen falls. At some point, most women will experience symptoms related to perimenopause. While you cannot control whether or not your body goes through these changes, you can find ways to manage the symptoms. Why are young girls and women still shamed about periods? Why are older women shamed about menopause? And why is a uterectomy still referred to as a hysterectomy? It's about time all of this stigma was broken down, and society changed. After all, anything you can do, we can do bleeding. Hill says that while some may be able to get through the menopause without hormone replacement therapy, it’s important to take the perimenopause as a window of opportunity. “Scientific literature refers to it as a time we can have lasting influence over our future, and HRT not only helps to manage symptoms in the here and now, but it can also help fend off everything from osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s,” she says. Nowadays, body identical hormones are used, and they’re identical to the hormones we naturally produce – a fun fact is that they’re also made from yams. Whether you take it in a pill or as a topically-applied gel, Hill is emphatic that HRT can make a huge difference to quality of life, both at the time of use and in the future. It isn’t all doom and gloom! Menopause and perimenopause symptoms can have a big impact on your life, including relationships and work.

HRT has had an unfairly bad rap

Na het lezen van De Cyclus strategie begon ik al met het bijhouden van mijn menstruatiecyclus. Mijn agenda er naar inplannen gaat me nog wat te ver maar het gewoon dagelijks even noteren helpt me al zo veel vooruit. Op de één of andere manier is mijn cyclus ook regelmatiger geworden. Wat gaat dat worden na het lezen van dit boek ;)? But here’s what I want to know: why are Generation X women arriving in their 40s knowing something is going to happen, but without a clear idea of exactly what that is?

Perimenopause is a window of opportunity for Maisie Hill: ‘Perimenopause is a window of opportunity for

Other positives, letting no be a complete sentence at last, no longer giving a shit about what other people think of you, not having a cycle anymore. For some of my clients this is a complete relief and very welcome. For others it’s bittersweet, and others miss theirs greatly. Then we have fully stepping into who you are, not explaining yourself or apologising, putting yourself first. And often a huge surge in creativity, and ideas, and the desire to do what matters most to you and really prioritising that for yourself. Menopause, defined as a full year with no period, hits women on average around the age of 51. But the years before that cessation – called perimenopause – can be more emotionally and physically fraught than we anticipate. We change a lot during these years. And, as we may remember from puberty, transitions can be awkward. Our bodies and our moods frequently betray us, but one of the worst parts of perimenopause and menopause is that no one talks about them.I know that some of you will be in the early stages of perimenopause and trying to conceive. And thinking about it, one of my clients has just started using progesterone to improve her perimenopausal symptoms. And her GP actually cautioned her that her fertility could increase, so, to be careful and use contraception.

Maisie Hill

I rarely read non-fiction, but being a health librarian, when I became dimly aware I was perimenopausal a couple of years ago I started trying to research what I was going through. I was horrified by how little factual, unbiased, evidence-based information was out there. There's plenty of new-agey or militant feminist writing about the end of our fertile years, but actual facts rooted in research and lived experience? Not so much. There was a hitch in this: WHI had been looking at what the hormones did in women aged 50 to 79. The aim was to figure out if this type of hormone treatment could help protect these women from heart disease and other illnesses. It was not about short-term hormone therapy for treatment of symptoms in women in their 40s and 50s. But many midlife women heard only “cancer” and went off HRT immediately. Hello lovely people. I have just walked to my studio and in contrast to the other week when it was all snow and ice here and I was wearing three layers, leggings, jeans and then waterproof hiking trousers on top, it’s very different this week and today. It’s the most gorgeous day, very sunny here in Margate and there isn’t one single cloud in the sky and I’m only wearing jeans. So I’m feeling quite chipper even though it’s day 23 which is not usually when I feel chipper. So as not to call attention to ourselves as women, we pretend it’s not happening.’ Illustration: Hanna Barczyk/The ObserverThis book is so accessible - the language is very clear and conversational. The first chapter is called 'WTF is happening?' which immediately sets a conversational tone. A later chapter is entitled 'Moody Bitches'... hilarious! The scientific terms are broken down and simplified - the hormones are even likened to celebrities (The Beyoncé, The Kirsten Stewart)! When discussing symptoms of perimenopause, Maisie Hill offers a range of potential treatments for each. These vary from medication to alternative therapies to psychological interventions. There really is something for everyone. And the author totally normalises all of these, empowering you to make an informed and rational decision about how you might want to approach treatment for perimenopause. She provides case studies detailing how she has worked with specific individuals. That’s how Good Morning America got the story. Everybody went insane,” she continued. “In that week, every American woman went to her cabinet and took out her hormone prescription and flushed it down the toilet. Which, of course, was ridiculous, because the WHI Part One was the only study that was stopped at that point. That was the oestrogen plus progesterone. The oestrogen-only went on for another two years. It eventually showed a decreased risk of breast cancer, not an increased risk of breast cancer. implying it’s not enough to do some resistance training, CrossFit specifically is where it’s at (Member of a CrossFit box by any chance Maisie?)