Navigating the Menopause
Updated: Nov 27, 2021
The Mat Sanctuary is hosting a series of lovely evenings on how to navigate your way through the menopause. Working together with a variety of expert speakers.
Tickets to the event are limited and if you want to reserve a mat, please do so here:
Phew that's done. Now you can get into my ramblings about my own latest experience:
Before I start ranting on about the (Peri)Menopause, I should probably start by saying that the one thing I know for sure is that this is your journey.
And it is different for every single woman. Yes, we may all get those terrible ice cold night sweats, moving into the day to suffer through hot flushes, but how we experience them and how they affect us, thát is your thing and not mine to tell. On the evening of our retreats there will be plenty of time to share your story if you wish.
This is mine: I stopped my periods in August 2017, age 43. Young.
Innitialy there was zero hassle. I honestly, apart from horrendous night sweats, had no symptoms.
Hooray. Plain sailing. I can do this. Lucky me.
Over the years, I may have had the odd hot flush. Averaging at about 3 per year I'd say and lasting for about 2 seconds each. They would make me smile, I'd wonder if that was one and then they were gone.
Until this year. All of a sudden the hot flushes came more often and more vigorously, the cold sweats were back at times too, I'd wake up drenched and freezing. And I'm not sure what it was but I didn't and still don't feel quite the same. Something is different, something I couldn’t blame on Covid, like everything else in the last 18 months.
So after a little while of letting this happen, I called the doctor. She was pretty gung-ho about it and having had all my blood tests in the past, she put me on HRT immediately without even seeing me and 24 hours later I stuck the first patch on my leg.
I had spend a good few weeks reading all about it. The pro and cons of the various methods and I decided the patch was for me.
It wasn't.
I have just, rather ceremoniously ripped it off.
I wish I could say I gave it a real good try. That I persevered, but I haven’t have I? Two weeks is nothing. Though it feels like it.
There is no proof that one would gain weight on HRT. None. Apparently.
Yet I gained 2kg in two weeks. Not a rate I want to keep going at. My waist has expanded an inch.
For at least a week now I have been feeling so bloated, like I am in the few days before a mother fucker of a period is about to hit you.
I have a giant ball of jello in my belly, it sits just above the navel and it nicely protrudes over every pair of trousers I don.
At first I thought; stick it out. Hang in there. It will go. It will be just a temporary blip.
Then my boobs started to hurt. I thought it was chafing from a bad bra, but 5 days later I'm starting to wonder it may not be that? Or have I unbeknown to me ran a marathon in that bad bra?
Do not touch my boobs! I will scream!
Then just now, I had a little fitting session of far too much clothing I have ordered online. (Is that a symptom?)
Trousers that are definitely, without a doubt my size and those that are normally gaping at the waist I can just about close…. Just.
They do however give me three rolls of fat spilling over the waistband and a vague hint of camel toe.
One muffin top is not enough. I have three.
I podge my finger in them and cringe. Not easily defeated I try on the next pair of jeans and I can not close the zip.
Can. Not. Close. The. Zip. At all!
That’s it. I undress, saunter over to the bathroom and stand on the scales. I have gained 2kg! In two weeks. That’s what one would have if you have been eating out every night on terraces in the south of France.
“Have you been eating more than usual?” asks the BF.
I glare at him (mood has not improved yet either).
For someone who has not gained any weight for more then 10 years, this is quite frankly ridiculous.
I make the decision: the patch comes off. Now.
I'm not going to sit around and wait until I turn into a middle-aged woman with an expanding midriff to match just yet.
Yes, the hot flushes have become a little less frequent, but apart from that I see no other improvements anywhere and certainly not good enough to balance this out.
Call me vain but feeling low is not going to get improved when I sit at my desk and I feel my belly burst over my jeans.
Sorry to those around me who will still be affected by my Menopause symptoms. I apologise but vanity wins.
It's not even really vanity right? It is my body that feels uncomfortable. Painful even. Tense and tender.
I can choose not to want that without having to feel bad about it.
So I am back to Yoga, breathing exercises and Ayurvedic medicine to help me out. Oh and a lovely Sage cooling gel I make myself.
How are you with your Peri-Menopause?
What is bothering you? What is working for you?
Please drop me a line and share. thematsanctuary@icloud.com
And if you’d like an evening of TLC & sharing, please do join for a Mat Sanctuary Retreat.The evenings will be filled with anything Menopause. Specifically designed to help and release menopause symptoms and to help you navigate your way through it.
Book Here:
We hope to see you there.