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How you can be Menstrual Health and Menopause Informed
This blog is a little out of the ordinary for us, but as a female founded agency with predominantly ‘menstruaters’ this topic is very important to us. We recently held a virtual workshop for our team with Fiona Catchpowle of The Menopause School, which we all found fascinating and educational.
So we have invited her to provide an introduction to menstrual health and menopause for us to share with our network.
How you can be Menstrual Health and Menopause Informed
Personal health and wellness play a direct role in how you show up to face the world.
If you are someone who menstruates, have you ever considered how the menstrual cycle may be having an impact on general well-being, ‘beyond the bleed’?
There are a lot of conversations taking place about menopause, but what we really should be talking about is Menstrual Health, with a lifetime lens.
What is Menstrual Health?
Menstrual health is every single day of a menstruators life. If you are born with ovaries and a uterus, once periods start there is an ongoing conversation between the brain and the ovaries, we know it mostly as a menstrual cycle.
– Dr Lisa Mosconi, Neuroscientist and Author of the XX Brain
How the menstrual cycle interacts with daily and lifetime wellbeing is known as Menstrual Health – or the 5th Vital Sign.
Definition of menstrual health
Menstrual health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in relation to the menstrual cycle.
Menstrual health changes across life stages and we call this The Menstrual Health Timeline.
- The Menstrual Health Timeline is a one-way journey, known as a continuum.
- The blueprint is cast the moment two chromosomes unite.
- The timeline represents ovarian ageing across life stages.
Whilst Menopause is framed as ‘part of the natural ageing process’, so is puberty. From the day periods start to the day they stop, the journey time is most often somewhere between 35-45 years – on average 40 years. During that time there will be around 400-500 menstrual cycles – on average 450!
[Ovarian ageing is a constant biological occurrence, with or without contraception, pregnancy or HRT]
How can you manage Menstrual Health?
- Understand the basic biology of the menstrual cycle – the sex hormones involved in the menstrual cycle are the same ones involved in peri/menopause. So if you want to be prepared for the changes that may occur along the timeline it’s worth making time to understand more about your menstrual cycle.
- Tune into the subtle changes each and every cycle. Learn how to track them in relation to food & mood. This is a simple way to take notes about how you feel each day and is your way of eating, helping, or hindering.
- Scan your body daily from head to toe and answer the questions – How do I really feel? How is my Menstrual Health today? The sex hormones are essential for the smooth operation of all eleven systems in the body, so it makes sense that menstrual health is a complete mind-body experience.
- Explore where you are on the menstrual health timeline and journal your menstrual health history. Collecting data on your hormone health is a valuable resource to reflect on, and helpful if you seek support from a menstrual health-informed holistic therapist, such as a Menopause Doula or clinical practitioner.
If you are meno-curious and would like to learn more about menstrual or peri/menopause health The Menopause School provided a variety of workplace resources and learning sessions, alongside self-referred support from a Menopause Doula.
