Corinne Wyper, nurse and naturopath
From PMS to menopause, hormones affect your mood, weight, food cravings and even your desire for sex.
The Reproductive Years
As hormone levels fluctuate throughout the reproductive years, symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) can get worse or better, depending on your age – or more precisely, the age of the eggs in your ovaries – and how you’re handling stress. Stress worsens symptoms of PMS, which include mood swings, food cravings, irritability, belly bloating and tender breasts.
If you lead a busy, stressful life that involves juggling multiple priorities – and let’s face it, who doesn’t? – your healthy diet plans may fall by the wayside. To help support hormones at this stage of life, consider Women’s Essentials, a comprehensive multivitamin and mineral formula. It also contains withania (Indian ginseng), an adaptogen that helps the body adapt to stress, and pomegranate extracts providing further antioxidants. Women’s Essentials may be useful when your dietary intake is inadequate due to a busy lifestyle.
Do you experience menstrual irregularity along with PMS? If that’s you and you’d like to be more regular, lessen mood changes and decrease fluid retention naturally, FemmeBalance may help. It’s a complex developed to balance hormones, for healthy menstruation and to relieve PMS.
If it’s menstrual pain that bothers you most, consider FemiPain for natural menstrual pain and PMS relief from high-dose standardised herbs. This natural supplement combines zinc and vitamin B1 with ginger, cramp bark, black cohosh, corydalis and Jamaican dogwood.
Menopause and Beyond: Age 51+
Menstruation continues until perimenopause, when a woman’s body transitions to menopause. Perimenopause, which can last for several years, typically begins when a woman is in her late forties, though it can start earlier or later. During perimenopause, the period becomes less regular and a woman can experience night sweats, trouble sleeping, hot flushes, vaginal dryness and mood problems. Menopause is the cessation of menstruation and fertility, and a woman is post-menopausal twelve months after her last period.
During menopause, oestrogen levels lower, which can cause feelings of sadness, as do progesterone levels, which means a woman may also be more likely to suffer from low mood and insomnia.
MenoPlus 8-PN® has been formulated to naturally support the symptoms of menopause. It contains a broad range of herbs including clinically-trialled Lifenol® 8-PN, a phytoeostrogen that helps relieve the hot flushes associated with menopause (which can occur as a result of low oestrogen levels). The recently updated formula now also features zizyphus to help with irritability, sleeplessness and night sweats, and lavender oil to assist with sleep.
Always read the label. Use only as directed. If symptoms persist, consult your healthcare professional.
