Why have my symptoms come back?
I get an awful lot of women contacting me saying, “It’s not fair! I’ve been looking after myself well, I’ve been maintaining a healthy diet, drinking plenty of water, relaxing, I’m taking supplements, and it’s really helped my symptoms. I’ve been feeling so much better, but they’ve suddenly come back. What on earth is going on? Can I up the supplements? Can I take extra herbs to help?”
There can be a number of reasons why this happens, and it is actually really, really common. During menopause, your hormones don’t always play by the rules of smooth and steady. They can go up, they can go down and they can stay static for a while. Itcan end up feeling a little bit like a yo-yo. All these changes that are going on can trigger certain sets of symptoms.
Now you may feel like you’ve looked after yourself well, everything’s nice and calm, and then suddenly the hormones decide to shift again. And that can be the reason that your symptoms have suddenly gotten worse, or you’ve ended up with a new set of symptoms.
The other main reason why this can happen, to be simply put is Life – it changes and so does what is going around you at given times. We know that a lot of issues going on can affect the nervous system and that in turn can affect the type and sort of symptoms that you’re actually likely to get.
So what are the mains reasons that this can actually happen?
Stress
The first one is obviously stress. We know that stress can have a profound effect on our symptoms, and it can really, really make them worse. We’ve also got dehydration, and I’ve talked about this so much, how lack of water can actually make symptoms worse. So it can cause your joint pains, headaches, dizziness, and all sorts of other symptoms as well. So this is a really, really common one. Also, in the cold weather, sometimes we don’t drink enough water when we’re actually having the central heating on.
Infections or allergies
We’ve also got infections or allergies. You could have something as simple as a minor cold, slight irritation, and that could be enough to actually set your symptoms off. You could have had medications from the doctor even a course of antibiotics or other minor drugs can actually trigger symptoms to come back as well. It could be shock, you could have had a sudden shock, a bit of bad news, or just something happening in your life that you weren’t actually expecting, and that can affect your symptoms as well.
Lifestyle
It can be a change of lifestyle. Maybe you moved house, you changed jobs, or some other event has happened in your life that hasn’t happened before. And these things don’t necessarily have to be negative events, it could be something really nice that’s happened, but it can still actually have an effect on your nervous system. It can also be fatigue as well. You know, we’re all busy, we have so much to do, we can run around a lot. And if you’re extra busy, and then extra tired, that can affect your symptoms as well.
Could be your diets slipping, it’s amazing how easy an extra cup of coffee, an extra glass of wine at the weekend, or some cakes, or biscuits, or sweets can actually creep into our lives without actually realizing it as well.
Sleep
We could also have a problem with sleep, and we know in the menopause that falling estrogen can actually affect our sleep as well. So if you suddenly find you’re not sleeping well and your symptoms have come back, then that’s a good indication that the two are actually interfering with each other.
Now, what can you do to help this?
First of all, look back at when these new symptoms occurred, or when your symptoms got worse, and very often you will get a clue. It’s amazing how many women say to me, “Ah! That’s what was going on! I understand what’s happening now.” So just double check over all your diet, do have a good look at it.
Eat a good varied diet
Make sure you’re getting plenty of fresh food, that you’re eating a good varied diet, that you’re getting plenty of protein as well. Because your body needs a lot of protein for all the repair work that’s actually going on. Check that you’re drinking enough water as well, because remember dehydration is a big issue for a lot of menopause symptoms as well.
Relax
If you’re extra busy, then really, really try to get that bit of relaxation in, and I just spoke about that in one of the recent video blogs. And this is free 30 minutes a day can make such a difference to your symptoms as well.
Feeling Low or Tired?
Now if you really find that you are fatigued, really tired, if you find that your mood is low, that you’re getting joint aches and pains, and your get-up-and-go has gone, and you really can’t be bothered, then that may indicate that you’re a little bit low in iron, that your vitamin D has dropped, or that you’ve started to get thyroid problems. Though in this situation it is best to get this checked out by the doctor just to actually rule them out.
And sometimes for women, even though you might not actually be menstruating, you can still get a little bit low in iron, and taking a nice gentle iron tonic can sometimes be nice just to give your system a little bit of a boost as well. And if you are having sleep problems, then we’ve got our valerian and hops remedy to help you get a better nights sleep.
So I hope that’s given you just a little bit of a clue about why things can actually change in the menopause. It’s not always necessarily your hormones that are at fault.
