Perimenopause May Trigger Anxiety Or Depression

Did you know it’s common to experience anxiety or depression for the first time during the years leading up to menopause? The sharp hormonal swings in the lead up to menopause can impair a woman’s stress coping abilities. Poor mental health, mood difficulties, sleep problems and unpleasant physical symptoms are all typical during the perimenopause years.

Perimenopause is the two to twelve years before menopause. It typically begins when a woman is in her mid 30s. It can cause heavy periods, irregular periods, mood swings, insomnia, and night sweats.

The World Health Organization defines perimenopause as ‘the time immediately preceding the menopause, beginning with endocrine, biologic and clinical changes, and ending a year after the final menstrual period’. Menopause is the phase that begins one year after the last period, or when the blood level of Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) is 30 or above. The first few years of menopause typically cause hot flushes, weight gain around the torso, and insomnia. Perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms can usually be relieved with natural treatments.

Insufficient progesterone is a problem during perimenopause

Your progesterone level will drop long before estrogen does. That means in your forties you may find you don’t cope with stress as well as you used to. This happens because losing progesterone during perimenopause can destabilise your HPA axis (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis. This describes the way your brain and adrenal glands communicate with each other when you are stressed. Impaired function of this system is why perimenopause is associated with an increased risk of anxiety, depression and insomnia.

During perimenopause you still produce estrogen, but the rise and fall is no longer as smooth. Dramatic swings in oestrogen are more common and this also adversely affects mood.

Progesterone improves stress coping abilities

Your progesterone can be converted to the calming anti inflammatory steroid allopregnanolone (ALLO), progesterone calms GABA receptors and it stabilises the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. Progesterone also promotes neurogenesis (new nerve growth) in the hippocampus, further supporting healthy brain function.

A recent study called Estradiol and Progesterone as Resilience Markers showed that lower progesterone during perimenopause is associated with lower life satisfaction, greater levels of perceived stress, and increased risk of depression and anxiety.

How to support your mental health during perimenopause

• You can start feeling the beneficial health effects of progesterone quite quickly by using a bio-identical progesterone cream.  This helps to top up levels of this vital hormone that your body can no longer produce sufficient quantities of.
• FemmePhase capsules contain herbs and nutrients that help to balance female hormones and ease the transition of perimenopause and menopause. The formula contains a mixture of phytoestrogens from herbs and foods, combined with vitamins and minerals, including four different types of calcium and will assist with balancing your hormones naturally.
• Magnesium helps your body to cope with stress. It has calming effects on the nervous system and helps to improve sleep quality. There is magnesium in green leafy vegetables but you may not be getting enough in your diet and could benefit from a magnesium supplement.
• Regular exercise helps improve mental health and stress coping abilities. Exercise also helps reduce levels of visceral fat in the body. This is the deep internal fat inside and around abdominal organs. Levels of this dangerous fat rise after menopause.
• Your diet plays an important role in your mental health. Preparing your own home cooked meals comprised of protein, vegetables and natural fats is important to ensure you get enough vitamins and minerals to produce neurotransmitters and hormones. Folate is found in green vegetables and liver. It’s very important for mental health, especially in people with impaired methylation. Sugar and high carbohydrate foods can cause a glucose spike and then crash. Fluctuating blood sugar has a disastrous effect on mental health.

Perimenopause can cause extremely distressing symptoms for a lot of women. It is typically a challenging phase of life anyway, and the hormonal swings only worsen symptoms. Fortunately there are natural remedies to help.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.