Menopause Matters

Never in history, has it been so fashionable to be a menopausal woman.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I don’t seek to diminish the very real symptoms experienced by many women, and it’s certainly refreshing to see women’s health discussed openly these days.  However, this discussion concentrates very much on the negative, neglecting to acknowledge the many women who do not have a negative experience of menopause, and therefore reinforcing the stigma.

The menopause industry, is flourishing. You can’t view social media, without being bombarded with targeted adverts for lotions, potions, consmetics, supplements, services and treatments, all tapping into this. Conversation is also often weighted in favour of a one size fits all approach to treatment, and it should be of concern, that this is resulting in the, once again, normalising of pharmaceutical intervention. After all, how long will it be, before we see discussions about the introduction of HBT (Hormone Balancing Therapy) for teens going through puberty?  Could that be the next suggestion, and would we really think it ok to prescribe hormone altering medication to our teenage children? And if not, is there not another option for women too?

Maybe we need to alter how we think of this period in our lives, and acknowledge that maybe there is more than one factor at play.

Women in their 40’s and 50‘s are dealing with:

·       Struggles with teenage children going through problems or exams

·       Work or career pressure

·       Worries over retirement and income instability

·       Care responsibilities

·       Bereavement

·       Divorce

·       House moves

·       Modern diet and toxin load

·       Household chores and maintenance

·       Health worries

Each of these problems are enough on their own, but in the 40’s and 50’s the entire list collides, in a way that does not happen at any other life stage.  Then when you factor in, that women are dealing with all that at a time of hormonal change, you begin to see that modern ‘menopause’ is not just about hormones. 

Menopause itself, is nothing new.  Women have dealt with this ‘Change of Life’ since time began.  But never before in history, were they expected to take on as much as they are right now, alongside.  So you can understand, why so many women are being swept along in the current wave, feeling that everything is related to menopause, or ‘perimenopause’, and are for some reason, listening to the celebrities telling them that HRT is the big catchall solution to it all.  For some, it may be, but just take a beat, and think about the list above.  Women are being encouraged to take hormone replacing drugs, because they are overwhelmed, in the same way that so many are being sedated with anti-depressants, rather than treating the underlying stress/grief/anxiety/ trauma that are causing symptoms in so many people.  Life is hard right now, but drugs are simply a panacea.  So, what is the answer?  Well I’m not jumping on the bandwagon here, claiming homeopathy is the answer for everything.  This is more of a rant rather than a sales pitch.  That said, when we take a case and prescribe a homeopathic remedy, we don’t just prescribe the remedy of the day, for each complaint, as with modern medicine.  We take a more literally holistic approach, looking at physical AND emotional symptoms, encompassing everything a patient is experiencing at that time.  We also consider when and what makes those symptoms worse, looking for patterns.  Then we consider genetic inheritance, and how that may impact the patients experiences of life.  In this way, we don’t take a 10 minute, pitiful look at a woman purely as a hormonal mess that needs rebalancing.  No, we look at the hormone imbalance and how we may seek to address it, then we look at what in her life is making that hard to bear, and we also consider what else, such as diet, organ support and lifestyle choices might support her to move forward unencumbered and enjoy her life to the fullest.

In homeopathy we look at the whole and seek to prescribe a remedy that will support the patient on every level, not just suppress the symptoms with a chemical bandaid.

Rant over. Thank you for listening.