Tune in
In perimenopause, our cycles, dictated by our hormones start to change. For some of us, our cycle becomes shorter or longer than usual. For others, our bleed becomes heavier or lighter. It's important to become more vigilant and tune into our bodies by tracking our cycles, as it helps us understand what's going on in each month. When we know the dips and the highs, we can adapt our schedules to work in our favour as well as tell others how we are feeling and support us. Keeping a note of our cycle and moods provide evidence that hormones are shifting which can be useful if you see any health care professionals. It also gives us a truer perspective on how we are feeling. For example, you may feel that life has become stormy for you but when tracking your mood daily, you'll realise that it is only a few days that you feel low (transition days when progesterone or oestrogen rise or fall sharply) and the rest of the time you feel ok. If you want to find out more about cycle tracking, we bloody love Maisie Hill's book, 'Period Power'
Track your symptoms
There are around 30 physical and mental symptoms associated with hormone imbalance and fluctuations (message me if you want a comprehensive list) and our experience of these will vary over the course of our perimenopause. It's useful to start making a note of your symptoms - both their frequency and severity - and work out what the triggers might be. We'll be exploring these more over the next three weeks but once you put two and two together on cause and effect of symptoms, then you can actually start to manage and reduce them. Create a journal, or use a free app out to log your mood and symptoms. We bloody love the app @joincario