Natural remedies for perimenopause symptoms really can make a difference to the hormone imbalance and strange symptoms of perimenopause that actually start in our late 30s.
By adopting these natural perimenopause remedies and simple lifestyle and diet changes we can not only manage perimenopause symptoms but also critically protect our immune systems as our hormones go through significant change and prepare for a healthier, happier menopause.
Having hit – and suffered with – the first weird symptoms of perimenopause in my late 30s and not having a clue what was going on, I tried a whole load of perimenopause remedies, most of which had little effect.
But I found a few natural remedies for perimenopause and some simple diet and lifestyle changes made an enormous difference to my energy levels, mood and strange symptoms so I’m sharing them here and hope they help you too.
For more simple healthy living tips do follow me on Pinterest and check out my other natural remedies.
Natural Perimenopause Relief & Remedies
1. Be An Iron Lady
One of the first major symptoms of perimenopause is heavier and more frequent periods and for many of us that means iron deficiency or anaemia. Fatigue, headaches, exhaustion and palpitations can all themselves be symptoms of anaemia.
Now we can obviously take iron supplements but we don’t always absorb the iron in supplements very well. I was taking a daily multi vitamin that supposedly included our recommended daily dose of iron but still ended up with significant anaemia in early perimenopause.
The simplest natural remedy for anaemia during perimenopause is a weekly dose of super iron rich food, such as black pudding, liver pate, sweetbreads or faggots and I am saying that as an almost life long vegetarian!!
The simple truth is it is very easy to end up with anaemia during perimenopause and even more so if we’re vegetarian or vegan. One vegetarian friend who ended up in hospital with anaemia and pneumonia in perimenopause was “prescribed” a weekly dose of black pudding by a doctor – also a vegetarian – and found it life changing. She says she could literally feel the energy seeping back into her.
2. A Big Old Detox
Sadly sugar, caffeine, alcohol and grotty fats i.e. not the good ones, can all play havoc with hormone imbalance during perimenopause. Putting some time aside in our late 30s and early 40s to cleanse our bodies with a big 6 week detox of all the baddies is a powerful natural perimenopause remedy in itself but also allows the other perimenopause remedies to work better.
3. Good Carb Diet
Once we’ve done the big old detox we need to be really careful not to fill back up again on rubbish processed cakes and sugar. Unprocessed wholegrain carbs do contain key nutrients that are themselves natural perimenopause remedies for symptoms of anxiety, anger, migraines and insomnia.
But we can get these essential nutrients from nuts, seeds, fish and meat and so if you have a tendency to diabetes in your family or are apple shaped a healthy low carb diet can be a better remedy as early diabetes and early perimenopause together are a terrible twosome that make us particularly vulnerable to inflammation and inflammatory conditions in our forties.
4. Regular Mini Detoxes
Now however hard we try we’re not going to get through our forties being pure as pure and never eating anything that exacerbates our perimenopausal hormone imbalance. So we need to build regular mini detoxes into our year for alcohol, caffeine, sugar and grotty fats.
A 6 week detox of each of these will always be a super powered natural remedy for perimenopause symptoms but regular mini 2 week detoxes after periods of indulgence will help rebalance our hormone levels.
5. Grow Your Own Green Sprouts
Another incredibly simple but powerful way to rebalance our hormone levels during perimenopause is to grow our own green sprouts.
Freshly cut sprouting greens e.g. cress are a traditional part of most food cultures worldwide but have been forgotten in many modern diets. Naturally rich in oestrogen and progesterone they can help our body rebalance itself gently as it heads toward menopause and help prevent the sudden swings in our hormones that can be do distressing.
So for a super simple natural remedy for perimenopause just grow some mustard and cress on your kitchen window sill and garnish your food with it regularly.
6. Healthy Gut Snacks
Modern science is now rediscovering the importance of our overall gut health for our body’s management of oestrogen and progesterone levels and preventing hormone imbalance.
So building a good mixture of gut restoring snacks into our everyday diet is another simple but powerful natural way to relieve perimenopause symptoms. And whilst helping with perimenopause they will also boost our immune system and help ease allergies.
7. Understand Our Anxiety & Anger
Bouts of overwhelming anxiety and anger during perimenopause are caused by unstable and fluctuating progesterone levels. Tips 5 and 6 which help stabilise our hormones can help relieve these symptoms but heightened anxiety and anger during perimenopause are to a certain extent unavoidable as our progesterone fluctuates, so our real remedy is to understand how we personally respond to anxiety and adopt strategies to compensate.
As humans we express our anxiety in different ways – some of us run, some of us hide, some of us catastrophise, some of us party, some of us break things up – and these responses to stress triggers do seem to be pretty hard wired in our personalities.
I am definitely a hider. I shut down and struggle with even the most basic communication. By acknowledging this and to a certain extent accepting it I’ve been able to give myself more time to slow down and to put aside time for “swallowing the frog” and dealing with the communication that triggers my anxiety and leaves me feeling exhausted.
8. Rest Rhythms & Rituals
Exhaustion, tiredness and fatigue are major symptoms of perimenopause for many of us. My first four natural remedies in this list can give a lot of relief and help boost our energy but many of us do also have to accept we simply need more rest.
For some of us embracing slow living is the best answer in this period of our lives but for others it is simply getting back into the old rhythms of little rituals of rest during our days, weeks and year with for example :
- Real lunch breaks : where we take an hour and slowly eat our meal and sit and chat or read a book, not run around ticking off our to do list.
- Little tea breaks : a tiny 10 minute break with a cup of tea at 4ish can do wonders for keeping our energy levels up during all the demands of the evening from turbulent teens to food and chores whilst checking emails.
- A day of rest : every religion world has a day of rest for good reason, we need it. Even if you’re not remotely religious have one day a week when you just don’t work.
- Annual retreats : we’ve all fallen for the fallacy that ever fancier and more complicated holidays will help us rest and restore our energy. They won’t and they won’t help with our debt either. We all need a very simple, wifi-free annual retreat to detox from 24×7 always-on living.
So there you go, eight simple but powerful natural remedies for perimenopause that can give real relief to perimenopause symptoms and help us enjoy our forties. I really hope they help. Do share your thoughts.
And for more simple healthy living ideas follow me on Pinterest and check out my other natural remedies for a healthier life :
Leave a Reply