Maga Woman Magazine - issue #1

The next hormone that starts to drop is testosterone.
The drop of this hormone is not as
great and the symptoms are a bit more subtle
and they include:
decreased sex drive
decreased sensitivity in erogenous zones
decreased sense of well-being, energy
and ambition
signs of depression
thinning of pubic hair
While the progesterone and testosterone
levels start dropping the oestrogen levels stay
high relative to the other hormones but over
time the oestrogen levels start to drop as well
causing the following symptoms:
hot flushes and/or night sweats
vaginal dryness
low energy and ambition
depression and mood swings
dizziness
mental confusion
urinary incontinence
recurrent urinary tract infections
higher risk of vaginal infections
You might notice that in at least one of the
above lists are some symptoms that you have
been experiencing, this could be a sign that you
are in the peri-menopause stage of life.
Common Symptoms
Whilst all of the above hormones are produced
by the reproductive organs they are
also produced by the adrenal glands. Ideally as
your egg supply gets lower the adrenal glands
should be able to produce enough hormones
so that the drop in hormones from the reproductive
glands doesn’t impact your health
too much. Unfortunately due to the modern
lifestyles many women are living their adrenal
glands are tired by the time they reach this
stage of life and there is not enough hormones
produced from the adrenal glands. This is one
of the reasons that many women experience
severe menopause related symptoms.
The most common symptoms that women
experience are:
Hot Flashes and Night Sweats — this is the
sudden heating of the body from the inside, it
can include sweating and flushing of your face.
For some women hot flashes are only a minor
discomfort but for others it severely reduces
their quality of life. Excessive heat and sweating
at night can disturb your sleep along with the
physical discomfort that occurs.
Poor Sleep — as mentioned above poor
sleep can come with night sweats but for some
women they simply find it harder to sleep at
night. There might be nights where you feel totally
wired and can’t get to sleep or maybe you
are waking at the same time each night.
Infrequent or irregular menstrual bleeding
— as your egg supply drops and your
hormones shift you can find that your period
becomes irregular. You might miss a month,
or have a light bleed one month and a heavy
bleed the next, or maybe you seem to be having
a period every 2-3 weeks. There are many
changes that can happen to your monthly cycle
which are part of the menopausal shift. It is
quite common for women to not have a period
for 3-4 months and then start taking some
herbs (which I will cover in the next article) and
then their period starts again and becomes
regular for a while.
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Maga Women Magazine