24/10/2024
Menopause Day Reflections
I joined a group of friends at a birthday celebration event after a long, tiring, but inspiring day, having participated in a World Menopause Event series of talks at Loughborough University last Friday (18 Oct 2024). I had delivered a workshop on CBT for hot flushes and sleep which was very well received and mentioned this in passing. I was asked to summarise the key messages from the day by some friends who had coincidentally just been talking about the subject of menopause when I bumped into them.
One of these key messages was that it just helps to talk about it. It has been a taboo subject for such a long time and what women want most is information about what menopause is, what to expect and what treatment options may be available to them, to manage their symptoms.
A key factor that can affect the intensity and frequency of hot flushes and sleep disturbance is stress. When we get stressed about experiencing these symptoms we tend to focus more on them, intensifying these feelings and our thoughts feed into these emotions. If we tell ourselves “this is awful…this is terrible…. How will I cope tomorrow?" it is only to be expected that we would get more anxious and potentially have increased severity and frequency of hot flushes, or struggle more to sleep, if we are doing things like clock watching and trying to force ourselves to get some sleep.
Experienced yoga teacher, Bev Lomax, guided us through an excellent breathing technique and also a yoga nidra technique, which seemed in some ways similar to a body scan relaxation technique – one of the many relaxation techniques that can be used to help reduce stress and allow the body to feel more relaxed and able to sleep. These techniques certainly helped us all to feel more relaxed and re-energised just before lunch, ready for some more interesting presentations on various menopause related topics.
When asked for feedback on what it’s like to experience sleep disturbance during peri-menopause, one participant talked about how, as women we are always thinking of others and trying to organise our lives around others, for example, worrying about our work performance the next day, worrying about disturbing our children or partners if we need to go to the bathroom or change bedsheets during the night (those night sweats can get really sweaty!).
We also heard about feelings relating to hot flushes and what others might be thinking when this happens, which can increase our distress in social situations.
One big concern was concerning memory lapses, which can lead to worry about early onset dementia, particularly if this runs in a family. A poignant moment was when the attendees were asked for a show of hands to indicate who had had similar thoughts and feelings when memory fails, such as “I’m losing it” and every single hand in the room went up simultaneously, including my own.
