Thank You For The Flowers Card

Hormonal Balance in Menopause

The quality of your hormonal balance during your reproductive life will affect the quality of your transition through menopause. Like puberty, menopause is an inbuilt timing mechanism and the two together are the bookends on either end of your childbearing years.

Think of menopause as a plane coming into land. If your hormones are in good shape as you enter into it, you will be lined up with the runway and come in for a smooth landing.

However if you have an existing hormonal imbalance as you commence menopause, your wings will be tipped off to one side and you will not be in alignment with the runway. The result is what is commonly referred to as a 'bad menopause' - when you crash and burn. This burning often takes the form of the dreaded "hot flashes".

Your body has a good reason for giving you hot flushes - the heat and sweat are designed to eliminate any excess oestrogen. Rather than suppress the hot flushes with HRT (which, incidentally, will only add MORE synthetic oestrogen to your body), consider removing the cause of the problem. Several herbs are very high in natural progesterone and natural progesterone is known to displace synthetic oestrogen from your oestrogen receptors.

Not all women experience hot flushes in menopause. Hot flushes are simply a symptom of oestrogen dominance and if you are in good hormonal shape you won't get them at all, or only experience them mildly. For this reason, hormonal problems in peri-menopause (from age 40 onwards) can be a blessing in disguise. They alert you that things are not quite right and give you an opportunity to seek help and give you plenty of time to bring things back into balance before your hormones begin the more intense shift of menopause. It's a lot easier (and wiser) to adjust the tilt of the wings and realign with the runway when you are a long way out than it is upon final approach.

Symptoms of Oestrogen Dominance in Menopause:

Hot flashes Poor Memory Mood Swings Insomnia Irregular periods Heavy periods Fibroids

All of these can be treated with natural remedies.

In my experience the vast majority of women experience rapid and lasting relief from hot flushes and other unpleasant symptoms of menopause with flower essences and professionally prescribed herbs. You are best to consult with a professionally qualified herbalist or naturopath who specialises in Women's Health for individualised assessment and advice, rather than self treating or buying standardised remedies over the counter.

Osteoporosis Osteoporosis is another major concern in menopause. Contrary to what most of us have been told, oestrogen actually causes us to lose bone mass. It is progesterone that stimulates us to lay down new bone.

A word on Calcium Supplements Make sure you are taking natural calcium.

Your liver looks at synthetic calcium and doesn't recognise it. So it doesn't know to send it to your bones. If your kidneys aren't up to filtering it out of your blood and straight into your urine and toilet, you will store it. Not in your bones, but in your joints (arthritis) and blood vessel walls (hardening of the arteries).

How to know if your calcium is natural? Do you recognise the source on the bottle? Or is it a chemical name?

Dolomite, Coral and Slippery Elm are very high sources of natural calcium. Your liver knows what they are, and your body knows how to store them in the place it stores natural calcium - in your bones.

Flower Essences can help

The good thing about flower essences is that anyone can use them. They are totally natural, and completely safe for everyone - from the cradle to the grave - and even during pregnancy.

If you take the wrong one it simply won't work. If you take too much, your body eliminates it immediately.

They are easy and pleasant to take and inexpensive, which makes them accessible to everyone.

Many flower essences can be helpful in menopause, including She Oak, Mulla Mulla and Bush Fuchsia.