But, as Dr. Jerilynn Prior explains in this video, many women feel like they are going crazy during this phase. Here is why.
When healthcare providers don’t understand the early signs of the menopausal transition, they can’t validate the things that women are experiencing. This leaves women feeling worried and like they might be going crazy. Dr. Prior offers ways that you can determine for yourself whether you’ve entered a new phase, a DIY approach. (Full transcript below)
Transcript
What happens when healthcare providers don’t understand the menopausal transition?
A reminder: Dr. Prior doesn’t use the word “symptoms” because she feels it takes a normal life phase — the menopausal transition — and makes it a disease. Instead, you will hear her use the word experiences in place of symptoms.
And it’s no wonder then that a doctor who doesn’t understand that the hormones may change before cycles change thinks that it’s all in our head. That puts a huge burden on women.
But, for many women it makes you doubt— it’s like someone says the room is green when it looks yellow to you. Who is right here? Am I losing it?
How you can determine for yourself whether you’ve entered a new phase.
If women are experiencing these unsettling, mysterious experiences. First of all, they should trust themselves. Second of all, they should have the courage to talk to other women and say, have you had any of this stuff. Because we are afraid to talk to other people…afraid we won’t be validated. Or that it is getting old, which it’s not.
In addition, there are a couple of concrete things that physicians might pay attention to and one of them is to track the length of your cycle. If the cycle is definitely shorter, then that now is in the literature as part of what I call very early perimenopause when cycles aren’t irregular yet, that doctors are likely to pay attention to.
The other is to track the amount of flow and cramps, those more objective things, not mental things. If you have three things that are documented changes that are different than your previous experience, you can know for yourself that you are now in a different hormonal phase of your life. Then you don’t think you are going crazy.
MORE VIDEOS with Dr. Prior: “The Only Conclusion I could Make was that Medicine had it Wrong“, “This is Not Me. When Do I Get My Self Back?” and “Perimenopause is Long, it’s Irregular, it’s Unpredictable but it Ends.”
Dr. Prior is the founder of The Centre for Ovulation and Menstrual Cycle Research.
