Peri and menopause

What is perimenopause nutrition?

This transition is a time to support the underlying changes that are happening naturally (or early if POI or surgical menopause) to ensure bone, cardiovascular, muscle, digestive, and blood sugar health is a priority and that ways to support thriving, rather than surviving when we lose access to hormones that have supported these systems in your reproductive years. 

Many folks finds that things that used to work to support their body in their 30’s simply stop working in their 40’s and 50’s or find themselves with symptoms they’ve never had before. There are so many nutrition tools without restriction or strict rules available to us and growing evidence every year to back these up that we can lean into this transition with a little more guidance and confidence. 

Can’t I just just use MHT/HRT to support this hormone change?

MHT or menopause hormone therapy (previously and often called hormone replacement therapy or HRT) can be really useful for symptoms and we are seeing some growing evidence for long term health benefits such as bone or heart health but we can’t dose these to a level you used to have in your 30′. We still have underlying changes that inflluence cardiovascular health, lipids, changes in blood sugar and HbA1c, bone mineral needs and fibre and protein needs that should be a food focus with a lifestyle element rather than a solely medicated focus. Both work really well together rather than a one or the other approach. Hormone support does not cover calcium needs, fibre needs

I’ve Been told to lose weight/go on a diet to feel better

Complete

Is movement and weight/resistance training really that important?

Low skeletal muscle mass is a risk factor for all cause mortality – basically no matter what the issue is, if you have low muscle mass you are more likely to die from that issue. So, yes, resistance training leading to muscle strength, injury prevention and secondary illness prevention is a crucial part of a healthy ageing plan.