Are you preparing yourself for menopause, or how are you preparing?

Here we are at that part of our lives. We’ve talked about so many things here over the years. Now it’s time to talk about menopause.

If you are under 35 or under 40, wait, don’t go. If you say, “I still have a long way to go, I have no irregular periods,” then right now, all of this applies to you too. Please keep reading.

Preparing for Menopause

Menopause, like childbirth or adolescence, is one of the stages of a woman’s life. It’s not a disease 🙂 Let’s agree on that first. Instead of approaching it as a disease, it’s very important to think about “how can I get through this new phase of my life as easily as possible and how can I manage this process?”

The process we call menopause begins at least 10-12 years beforehand. After the age of 35, every woman needs to prepare herself for menopause. Because even after entering menopause, there is still a long life ahead of us. Human life expectancy has increased, and to navigate this period healthily and energetically, we must pay attention to these things. 150 years ago, 55 was considered old, but now it’s still the springtime of life. Looking at the evolutionary process of humans, these 150 years are like the head of a pin in millions of years. We didn’t evolve accordingly, and now we spend half our lives in our feminine cycle, and the other half without. We try to do more with less estrogen. Menopause changes a lot in the body, mind, and soul. How do we prepare for this?

Do you say something like this?

“I’m 40 years old, and I’m still eating and drinking the same things I’ve always done, but I’m getting fat around my waist. My skin is dry, my hair is dry, and my sleep is irregular.”

These are the approaching signs of menopause, and we need to pay attention.

So what should we do?

I’ll explain it below, point by point, with each point detailed.

1. Gut Health: After age 40, our estrogen production will decrease. To ensure our bodies fully utilize the estrogen we produce, we need to achieve excellent gut health; we need to take very good care of our intestines. So what harms the gut? Alcohol, sugar, refined/processed/packaged foods, too many pastries, bread, and genetically modified wheat. If you really want wheat, bulgur, or flour, you can consume small amounts of heirloom wheat varieties like spelt, emmer, and black wheat. There is no such thing as a sugar alternative. They are all sugar. We have no friend other than two servings of real fruit a day. Now that we’ve reached this age, let’s not kid ourselves 🙂 Even if you’re receiving bioequivalent hormone therapy, don’t rely on it alone. You’re adding hormones to the body, but how much of it does your body use? Your gut needs to be strong to synthesize it all. If your gut health isn’t good, if probiotics and bacteria aren’t healthy, you can’t utilize either the hormones you take externally or the hormones you produce yourself. It’s not about getting it into the body, but about it being synthesized correctly within the body.

2. Detoxification: During this period, this system will slow down; our bodies will now eliminate fewer toxins. A process that the body has easily performed routinely until this age will now be slower. Toxins accumulated in the body are the cause of every disease. Therefore, we must reduce the amount of toxins entering our bodies. We need to pay attention to what we eat, drink, the cosmetics that touch our skin, the hair dye we use, and keeping toxic people away from our lives.

3. Muscle Density: We need to increase our muscle mass even before menopause. Bone density loss after menopause is inevitable in women. Muscles will come to our rescue. Besides walking, we need to add functional training. Don’t say, “Everything is too expensive,” YouTube is full of free videos. Again, I beg you, let’s not fool ourselves 🙂

4. Vitamin D: To maintain bone health and density, our vitamin D levels should be at least 60-70. The reason is in my “Bone Health” article. Don’t overindulge in yogurt/cheese and dairy products that the body can’t use and that increase inflammation, thinking you’ll get calcium. Be sure to have your vitamin D levels checked; this is our first need for bone production. Smoking, alcohol, stress, and sugar are things that destroy bone density.

If you want, you can still eat your yogurt and cheese as a hobby, but don’t consider them a source of calcium. The body already produces its own calcium. Let’s just not sabotage this process with the things I’ve mentioned 🙂

Don’t say, “There’s no escape from stress.” None of us can, but incorporate activities into your life that make you happy and relaxed, besides food and alcohol, to relieve this stress. These could be simple meditations. My article “How to Meditate” might help you. Another option is to reduce the things that need to be eliminated. For example, less social media, less digital life, less news, seeing that person who bothers you less often, etc.

We are now grown adults, each taking responsibility for our own bodies. Let’s put our heads together and stop deceiving ourselves. Even if you avoided this throughout your youth, we’ve reached a point where avoiding it is no longer helpful 🙂

These actions will lead to a healthier, easier post-40 life.

I’ll gradually delve into other topics. For now, let’s start here 🙂

Lots of love to all 💗

Sema