This is our BIGGEST sale ever so don't miss out on fastastic savings with our SUPER SUMMER SALE!!! 

One of the questions we are asked many times is 'Which products might help with my symptoms?'. In order to make it easier to find out what natural treatments can help with your menopause symptoms we have re-categorised the shop to make it easier for you.

Categories include Cooling Solutions to help with those hot flushes and night sweats; Nutrition & Weight Control to help you stay in control of your body; Head & Mind to help with anxiety, depression, insomnia & mood swings; Intimate Moments to help with symptoms such as vaginal dryness; Hair, Skin & Bones to improve condition and to combat aching joints; as well as our popular Book section. Hopefully this will make it much easier for you to go directly to the area you are looking for to see what you can take that might ease your discomfort. 

So, take advantage of these reductions to bag yourself a bargain! 

Over two-thirds of women suffer from hot flushes our recent survey results showed, and nearly a half (49%) want more information on HRT alternatives to help with their menopausal symptoms.  But even though hot flushes were the most common symptom, surprisingly nearly 60% of women complained that problems with the head, such as headaches, migraines, anxiety and confusion, were a symptom of their menopause too.  Our present free Top Tip download is 10 Ways to Improve your Headaches and Migraines. You can find this on the right hand side of the homepage. If you know of anyone who may also be suffering, then please share the link with them too.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our questionnaire.  We had a fantastic response and the results and your comments are very helpful and give us a good idea of what support you’re looking for through your menopause.  We will be making changes over the coming months but hope we will continue with this website as three-quarters of you use the internet to look up remedies and treatments for the symptoms of the menopause.  We’re also looking at writing a book based on the Menopause Support Programme as nearly half of you (49%) get your information from books.

We’ve drawn the winner from those that completed the survey and we are pleased to announce that Carol from Plymouth won our goodie box containing a mini Chillow Pillow, a cooling scarf, FEMA 45+ multivitamins, Pure Fish Oil capsules, Spiezia Facial Cleanser, a step counter, lemon Materia Aromatica aromatherapy oil, a selection of Pukka Teas, Walnut, Olive & White Chestnut Bach Flower Remedies, a Recovery Remedy, some Yes! Lubricants and a relaxing cd!

A Ladycare magnet is a small, discreet plastic magnet.  It is a tear drop shape similar to the size of a desert spoon, which you wear all day and night, attached to the front of your underwear, just below the tummy button.  We know that many women find them very helpful in reducing menopausal symptoms after about a month of continuous use.

In a trail of 508 women between 50-67% found a reduction in their anxiety, weight gain, mood swings, vaginal dryness, insomnia and breast tenderness.  Also a 33% decrease in hot flushes, loss of libido, memory lapse and aching muscles.

But how does the magnet work?   I’ve always thought it must be using a similar system to the wrist magnets you use to help motion sickness.  But a recent piece of research shows more clearly how it works.  A trial of 35 British police women measured the levels of the two parts of the nervous system before and then after wearing the magnets for a month.

The first part of our nervous system is our ‘fight and flight’ system and secondly, our ‘rest and digestion’ one.  We know that it is the first system that gets fired up when we get hot and sweaty.  This trail showed that after wearing the magnet for a month there was a significant increase in the ‘rest’ nervous system compared to the ‘fight’ system being stimulated.  So this looks like a plausible explanation as to the way the magnet might be correcting your menopausal symptoms.

To celebrate this new piece of research we’re offering the Ladycare magnets at a special price of £18.95 until April 30th! 

You may well ask!  Although most of us have heard of the menopause, the word ‘peri-menopause’ is not used as often. In fact, when I first heard it, I had no idea what it meant even though I have a scientific background.

Basically, it’s the medical term that can be simply summed up in five words: ‘The approach to the menopause.’

This is important, as unlike childbirth which, once started, it usually progresses fairly rapidly, the menopause can go on for many years. It can stop and then, just as you think it’s all over, it can come back as an encore.

The peri-menopause is the start of all this. It’s the beginning of some of the symptoms such as irregular bleeding, mood swings and tender breasts. It’s the stage where you’re not quite into the full swing of the M word but very nearly – or at least, on the cusp.

So how do you know if you are menopausal or perimenopausal or neither?
 

There may be other health reasons for your so-called menopausal symptoms which is why it’s important to see your GP to rule out anything else. Your doctor may give you a blood test to check your hormone levels. The blood tests won’t definitely say if you are menopausal but they can give an indication by testing the level of FSH in the blood: this is the Follicle stimulating Hormone which stimulates the eggs in the ovaries to ripen. As you get older and the follicles become more resistant the FSH levels, they have to rise to a higher level to try and get the follicle to produce an egg. So if the result is very high, the doctor will say you’re likely to be in your menopause, especially if you have other symptoms such as irregular periods. 
 

However, in the peri-menopausal period, the FSH levels fluctuate from month to month and through the cycle, particularly if you’re still having periods. A temporary raised FSH level can also be because of stopping the oral contraceptive pill, breast feeding, severe illness, hypothyroidism, depression, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and some medicines such as Prozac.

It’s worth knowing that if you’re already taking hormones for a medical condition (including contraception), the blood tests are unlikely to reflect a true reading. So you might need to come off the Pill in order to see if you really are entering the menopausal stage. The tricky bit here is that you could still be fertile so even if you are peri-menopausal, you could still theoretically, get pregnant.

There are also certain over-the-counter medical self-testing menopause testing kits where you can check the level of FSH of your urine on a stick, as in a pregnancy test. To get the best result, take the urine test on the third to fifth day of your period and do it over successive months to get a more accurate result. This will however only be an indication that you are menopausal: you do need to have other symptoms too.

At least five and preferably eight is the result of two new research studies from Oxford University.  In the first study 300,000 people from countries across Europe were assessed and it was found that eating at least eight portions reduces the risk of dying from heart disease by 22% compared with eating less than three portions.  The second study found that eating at least five portions could save 15,000 lives a year by reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer and stroke.    

For menopausal women this is really important as the risk of heart disease and strokes increases dramatically as your female hormones reduce as you go through the menopause.  Also by eating a wide range of plant foods including garlic, celery, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, apples, plums, cherries and rhubarb you are supporting your dropping oestrogen levels as these foods provide beneficial ‘phyto-oestrogen’ nutrients too. 

So how to start eating more fruit and veg?  The best way I know is to snack on fruit between meals (rather than the chocolate bars or biscuits) and at proper meal times make half your plate covered with vegetables.  You might also like to think about some vegetable based recipes.  Two of the favourites here at Menopause Support are for mushroom stroganoff and roasted red peppers.  They’re delicious! If you'd like to have these recipes just send us an email to info@menopausesupport.org.uk – enjoy!  

I had a wonderful walk this morning with the women in my Tuesday morning ‘power-walking’ group.  It was a bright morning before the rain came (again) – but the river had burst its banks with the high tide and the swans were swimming on what is normally the village playing field!

Even though it was difficult to get out of bed this morning – bad night with the ‘sweats’ – by the time I got home I felt revived, full of energy and much more in control of my temperature gauge.  Does anyone else find exercising outside really does help with the hot flushes?  I certainly notice mine get worse when I don’t get outside every day for at least half an hour.

Well, we’ve got the holiday break to look forward to over the next few days so this shouldn’t be a problem – I’m hoping to get into the garden and remove all those rather sad looking plants that have not survived the cold this winter and perhaps get the potatoes in.