When Natural Isn't Enough: Rethinking Perimenopause Solutions

The unexpected intensity of perimenopause symptoms can be shocking and disruptive, even when you think you understand what's happening. A recent episode of hormone-induced depression forced me to reconsider my approach to managing this transition and validated the need for more open conversations about women's health experiences.

• Unpredictability is one of the most challenging aspects of perimenopause
• Hormonal shifts can cause physical symptoms like nausea and dizziness with little warning
• Depression-like symptoms can descend quickly, feeling like "a fog of sadness"
• Natural approaches may not be sufficient for managing severe symptoms
• Considering hormone replacement therapy after trying natural remedies
• Children notice and are affected by parental mood changes during hormonal shifts
• Important to validate women's experiences instead of dismissing them as "crazy"
• Open conversations about perimenopause are essential but too rare

If you're experiencing similar struggles with perimenopause, know that your feelings are valid. I'm here as a resource and happy to point you toward helpful information as we navigate this journey together.

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction and Weekly Struggles
• 1:19 Unexpected Hormonal Shifts and Symptoms
• 4:11 Depression-Like Fog and Family Impact
• 7:51 Considering Hormone Replacement Therapy
• 9:05 Validating Women's Perimenopause Experiences

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

One. This is Steel vs Podcast. This podcast is created for women, by women, to elevate women's voices. I am very happy to be sitting here talking with you today because I have been kind of frazzled this week. As you can tell, the first episode this week was rolling out on Wednesday. I try to do Monday, wednesday, fridays, but you know my motto is giving myself grace. I have to lean into that pretty hard, normally have like a stock of little you know things that I see online or just play little thought starters that I like to bring to everybody just for your own food, for thought. But I've given a lot of honestly time thinking about wanting to record an episode this week to relay something that's impacting me pretty intensely. So I'm going to go with that because it's something that's really been kind of brutal for me and I think if I'm going through it, I know some of you are too and I'd really like to maybe even the playing field here a little bit and let you know that you're not crazy. So I've mentioned a few times before probably more in the past year about going through perimenopause and what that means and like how that's affected me, and I've talked about the fatigue quite a bit, and I have talked a little bit about like cycle syncing and how, with my cycle, there's certain like the week before is kind of like my dark cloud week, where I'm a little bit more sensitive, a little bit more ragey, like whatever. What has happened recently is a shift.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Now, unfortunately, a large part of our bodies especially for women as we get older is that there's a lot of unpredictability around perimenopause and menopause. There is unpredictable amount of time that you're going to be going through everything. There's unpredictability about the kind of symptoms you're going to get and the intensity of the symptoms that you're going to get. Some people don't have any symptoms at all. They fly right through it. It doesn't affect them, they just stop being deteriorated, and they're perfectly happy with that. I am not one of these people, so I and I don't even have it that bad. I'm only in the tip of the iceberg.

Speaker 1: 1:57

What I'm seeing here, though, and part of my concern for all of you, was that I'm going through what I'm going through, but I can step back, and I do realize when something is happening to me that isn't normal to me and for me, I don't lean into it. I almost step back objectively and say okay, jenny, I know we feel this way or I know this is what's happening, but the reality is I don't think this is real and I think this is going to pass. So, most notably past weekend, I started getting hormone shift symptoms and normally for me, when I have a hormone shift or you know, and this is to me I call it hormone shift because I don't know what else to call it but I can feel something happening inside my body. It's like a sense. I don't know how to describe it and I bet you, some of you, are nodding along, going yes, we know, we know what you're talking about. So it's a sense. I get a sense that something is shifting in my body.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Now, this past week it felt like I'm a little bit nauseous. I started to get like kind of dizzy. I just had like an overall, like kind of icky feeling, think like really low grade, like morning sickness, Like that's kind of how it felt. It just felt like kind of crappy. Nothing I couldn't handle, obviously. But I took note and I was like okay, this is happening. And I looked at the calendar. I was like it's not really the right time for anything to be happening. I don't really know why this is happening, but I noted it.

Speaker 1: 3:18

That was like maybe Friday to Saturday, sunday comes along and I'm pretty volatile and I'm yelling at my kids and I'm, you know, really just honestly being a jerk. And you know, I was with my daughters and my kids are very aware that you know when my period is coming or when I have it. I'm not going to be myself. And so my one daughter asked me. She was like mommy, what's wrong? Like why are you acting like this? Do you have your period? And I'm like I try not to laugh about it, but I thought it was funny because she's a young girl, she's only eight, and for her to really already acknowledge this I appreciate it. But I was like I don't know and I said I legitimately said I was like I don't know why I'm acting like this. I was like I think it's my hormones so pretty volatile Sunday and I started to get this feeling.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Now, if any of you have experienced depression, you'll know what I'm talking about when I describe this and I'm going to try to describe this to the best of my ability. But it felt like a fog of sadness settling over me slowly. It was almost the best possible way I can say it, because it was really slow moving and it was really light and at first it was just like all right, jenny, you're going to cry a lot today. Like you can deal with that, you know, just kind of make light of it, it is what it is. But then it got heavier, heavier and I was going to sleep on Sunday night, basically praying that I would wake up on Monday and be okay. Unfortunately that was not the case and I woke up on Monday even worse, and it felt like, because I've gone through depression, it felt like one of the days of like my worst depression episodes, where you don't want to do anything, you want to just lay in a ball and just cry out all day.

Speaker 1: 5:00

Now my husband poor thing, bless his soul and his heart didn't really know. Obviously he doesn't know, he doesn't know what's going on inside my body and I'm not really forthcoming. I mean, I am forthcoming, but you know he didn't know, like leading up to like oh, in my head, like what had been happening, and so he thought I just got overwhelmed and you know he was trying to comfort me and tell me it's okay, like just take things one step at a time, don't. And I was like no, no, that's not it. And I had to explain to him like it's like this weight of sadness, like just kind of hanging over me, just like a weight, and I was like I'm trying to shake it off, but I can't seem to shake it off and I was like I I don't know what to do. And you know, I found it.

Speaker 1: 5:43

I was panicking a little bit because, logically, I know that sadness, that kind of depression, sadness, has no place here. I'm okay. Yet I couldn't. It was just there Now, slowly, throughout the day, and this is what I said to my husband. I was like it's going to go away. It's truly just like a hormone imbalance and then we go back to balance, like it is what it is. And it did. And by the end of the day I was feeling a little bit more like myself.

Speaker 1: 6:04

By Tuesday I was back to myself. Today I'm even better, a better version of myself, or probably the best version of myself. The part that's mind blowing to me is that this even happens Like to be perfectly transparent. This level, this intensity level, I shocked me. This time it really did. It knocked me for a loop, because normally I know what's happening. I can feel it. I try to take it easy on myself, I try to like.

Speaker 1: 6:30

This one was like out of the blue. I wasn't expecting it, I was not prepared for it, I was kind of frazzled with it Because of all that. It really forced me to take a minute, to take a step back. Now, what I've been doing over the past year or so or a couple of years is I've been investigating, like, natural pathways to dealing with perimenopause and menopause. There's a lot of products out there that you can leverage for support. So I've tried pretty much all of them because I, you know, truly would like to take a natural approach to my body transitioning into, you know, being a I can't say adult a grown woman. No, you know what I mean Older woman. So I'm trying to, you know, just prepare myself for that, help my body along.

Speaker 1: 7:16

But this episode really scared me. Now there's a couple things too to it that I'm just like you know, do I really want to play Russian roulette with my life? And just, you know, not know what's going to be happening and how my home is going to shift, and just have to go with that? You know what, if it shifts on a really momentous day where I'm where I really want to be happy and I can't because I'm, like, devastated by, you know, a hormone shift, like I don't want to live a life where I can't have any rhyme or reason. So I have made an appointment with my doctor to discuss next steps for potentially, hormone replacement therapy. Now there's a lot of information out there for hormone replacement therapy that kind of goes either direction. There's a lot of people that are against it, completely against it. There's information that says, like, hormone replacement therapy causes cancer.

Speaker 1: 8:07

I can say that because of the work that I do, that I'm considering hormone replacement therapy because for me and for my health and for my current situation, I think this is going to be a good solve. It's going to address a lot of perimenopause symptoms that are irritating, that I've just been dealing with because I didn't really want to put a product into my body. But now I'm at a point where I want to take that leap and I want to take that step because I don't really want to put a product into my body. But now I'm at a point where I want to take that leap and I want to take that step because I don't want to live a life that I can't have any kind of control over this part. There is a part of me that is still hesitant because, as I said, like I'd like to address this naturally, but I don't. I know what I don't want and I know I don't want my kids growing up with a mom who is falling to pieces the way that I did on Monday. Now they didn't really see it, but I felt it and I don't want to feel like that.

Speaker 1: 9:00

So I wanted to share all that with you, because I think that these conversations do not happen often enough. I think that we're not as honest with each other about this part of our lives, because it is very personal and it is very hard to share it, to be perfectly honest with you, because you do feel a little bit crazy, like what. I can't deal with my own body, like what. This is ridiculous, but it is that, like really it is that. So I will keep you all informed as I make my way through this journey, as I always have been and I always will.

Speaker 1: 9:31

I wanted to share this with you guys again, because I think there's probably some of you out there that are experiencing similar things and being told you know, get over it, or you're being told you're crazy, you're being told it's in your head, you're being told a lot of things and basically your feelings are not being validated. And I'm here to tell you that you have a valid reason for feeling everything that you're feeling, and I am here as a resource and happy to point you in the direction of some good resources out there that could help you navigate this. So I appreciate all of you with me. I appreciate you guys hanging in there with me when I have these off moments where I can't get an episode recorded. I hope to have you guys on with me on this journey for many, many, many more episodes to come. Thank you all so much and I will catch you on the next one. Take care.