Wisdom of Menopause : The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health During the Change

by NORTHRUP, CHRISTIANE MD

• ISBN13: 9780553804256
• ISBN10: 0553804251
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-30
• Publisher: Bantam

Summary

Dr. Christiane Northrup has become one of American women's most trusted medical advisers. In Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, she broke entirely new ground by demonstrating that women's most common medical problems are often rooted in the basic conditions of their lives -- and that they can return to health by learning to listen to their bodies. She also integrated advanced medical techniques with the best natural remedies, offering readers specific guidance on choosing the right approach for themselves. Now, in The Wisdom of Menopause, Dr. Northrup once again challenges convention. "The change" is not simply a collection of physical problems to be "fixed" -- whether with hormones or herbs -- but a mind-body revolution that brings the greatest opportunity for growth since adolescence. This vitally important new book examines the connection between menopause and a woman's emotional and spiritual life. And it stresses how the choices a woman makes now -- from the quality of her relationships to the quality of her diet--either secure her health and well-being for the rest of her life, or put her future at risk. Dr. Northrup draws on her own life-changing experiences -- as well as on many intimate case histories--to explore the transformative power of these years. Readers will learn: * how menopause literally rewires the brain, triggering a shift of priorities from nesting and caretaking to personal growth and equality * how to listen for the wake-up calls inherent in women's cyclic nature, from PMS to SAD to menopausal symptoms * how the body adjusts naturally to changing hormones, and how to make personalized decisions about HRT and alternative supplements * how to rebalance metabolism shifts and prevent middle-age spread * how to deal with the myths and realities of sexual changes and appearance issues * how to prevent long-term health problems such as heart disease, hormone-related cancers, and memory loss Candid and reassuring, The Wisdom of Menopause elucidates the changes women should expect from ages 40 to 55, and shows how these changes can be wonderfully life-affirming. Instead of dreading menopause as a time of loss, women will hear the real message their bodies are sending -- that this is a time of personal empowerment and positive energy ... and a time for women to break free and thrive.

Author Biography

Christiane Northrup, M.D., trained at Dartmouth Medical School and Tufts New England Medical Center before cofounding the Women to Women health care center in Yarmouth, Maine. Board certified in obstetrics and gynecology, she is past president of the American Holistic Medical Association and an internationally recognized authority on women's health and healing

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction: The Journey Begins	1	(2)
Midlife: Redefining Creativity and Home	3	(2)
Why I'm Writing a Menopause Book Now	5	(1)
Blazing a New Trail	6	(3)
Menopause Puts Your Life Under a Microscope	9	(27)
``Not Me, My Marriage Is Fine''	10	(2)
The Childbearing Years: Balancing Personal and Professional Lives	12	(4)
Why Marriages Must Change at Midlife	16	(4)
My Personal Fibroid Story: The Final Chapter	20	(3)
Feeling the Joy of Co-creative Partnership	23	(3)
The Forces That Change the Goose Also Change the Gander	26	(1)
Real Menopause Hits	27	(1)
My Marriage Goes Bankrupt	28	(3)
Armadillo Medicine: The Power of Vulnerability	31	(2)
Celebrating the Past While Creating a New Future	33	(3)
The Brain Catches Fire at Menopause	36	(40)
Our Cultural Inheritance	36	(2)
Our Brains Catch Fire at Menopause	38	(1)
Learning to Recognize and Heed Our Wake-up Calls	39	(3)
Is It Me or Is It My Hormones? Debunking the Myth of Raging Hormones	42	(6)
The Multiple Roles of Your ``Reproductive'' Hormones	48	(5)
Embracing the Message Behind Our Menopausal Anger	53	(4)
Emotions, Hormones, and Your Health	57	(9)
How Our Midlife Brains and Bodies Are Set Up to Heal Our Past	66	(5)
Finding a Larger Meaning	71	(5)
Coming Home to Yourself: From Dependence to Healthy Autonomy	76	(29)
The Empty-Nest Syndrome	76	(4)
Boomerang Babies	80	(2)
Powerful Feelings, Powerful Healing	82	(2)
Caring for Ourselves, Caring for Others: Finding the Balance	84	(6)
Hitting Pay Dirt: Getting Clear About Money at Midlife	90	(7)
Coming Home to Yourself	97	(2)
Vocational Awakening at Midlife	99	(3)
A Road Map for Navigating Unknown Territory	102	(3)
This Can't Be Menopause, Can It? The Physical Foundation of the Change	105	(28)
What Is Happening in Your Body: Hormonal Changes	106	(1)
Perimenopause Is a Normal Process, Not a Disease	107	(3)
The Three Types of Menopause	110	(2)
Perimenopause and Hormonal Levels	112	(2)
Is There a Test I Can Take?	114	(4)
Menopause and Thyroid Function	118	(1)
Menopause and Adrenal Function	119	(5)
What to Expect in Your Transition	124	(9)
Hormone Replacement: An Individual Choice	133	(41)
A Brief History of Hormone Replacement	133	(4)
Bioidentical Hormones: Nature's Ideal Design	137	(5)
A Hormone Primer: Essential Information Every Woman Should Know	142	(12)
How to Decide Whether or Not to Take Hormones	154	(15)
A Dusting of Hormones	169	(1)
How Long Should You Stay on Hormones?	170	(4)
Foods and Supplements to Support the Change	174	(19)
Basic Principles of Herbal Therapy at Menopause	176	(4)
Menopausal Healing Foods	180	(8)
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture for Menopause	188	(4)
Start Somewhere	192	(1)
The Menopause Food Plan: A Program to Balance Your Hormones and Prevent Middle-Age Spread	193	(35)
Making Peace (Once Again) with My Weight	194	(2)
Five Steps to Midlife Weight Control	196	(5)
The Elements of Imbalance	201	(5)
The Hormone-Balancing Food Plan	206	(15)
Optimizing Midlife Digestion	221	(5)
The Final Frontier: Accepting Our Bodies	226	(2)
Creating Pelvic Health and Power	228	(36)
What Is Yours, What Is Mine, What Is Ours? Reclaiming Our Boundaries	229	(3)
Hormonal Imbalance: Fuel to the Fire	232	(1)
Menstrual Cramps and Pelvic Pain	232	(4)
Heavy Bleeding	236	(5)
Fibroids	241	(7)
An Empowered Approach to Surgery or Invasive Procedures	248	(7)
Strengthen Your Urinary Health and Pelvic Floor Muscles	255	(9)
Sex and Menopause: Myths and Reality	264	(28)
The Anatomy of Desire	265	(2)
Sexuality at Menopause: Our Cultural Inheritance	267	(7)
Menopause Is a Time to Redefine and Update Our Relationships	274	(3)
Hormone Levels Are Only One Part of Libido	277	(2)
Secondary Libidinal Support: Estrogen and Progesterone	279	(2)
Testosterone: The Hormone of Desire?	281	(2)
Aids to Lubrication	283	(4)
Telling the Truth	287	(2)
Nine Steps to Rekindling Libido	289	(3)
Nurturing Your Brain: Sleep, Depression, and Memory	292	(36)
Enhancing Midlife Sleep	296	(8)
Depression: An Opportunity for Growth	304	(10)
Memory Loss at Menopause: Is This Alzheimer's?	314	(3)
Estrogen and Alzheimer's	317	(2)
Non-hormonal Ways to Protect Your Brain	319	(4)
Maximizing Midlife Wisdom	323	(5)
From Rosebud to Rose Hip: Cultivating Midlife Beauty	328	(41)
Making Peace with Your Changing Skin	330	(6)
Preventing or Treating Wrinkles	336	(11)
Midlife Acne	347	(4)
Rosacea	351	(3)
Hair in the Wrong Places	354	(6)
When Good Skin Care Isn't Enough: Deciding on Cosmetic Procedures	360	(4)
Varicose Veins	364	(5)
Standing Tall for Life: Building Healthy Bones	369	(40)
Osteoporosis: The Scope of the Problem	370	(1)
We're Designed for Lifetime Sturdiness	371	(1)
How Healthy Bone Is Made	372	(5)
Are You at Risk for Osteoporosis?	377	(4)
Measuring Bone Density	381	(4)
Bone-Building Program	385	(8)
What About Bone-Building Drugs?	393	(1)
Get Strong	394	(9)
The Sunlight--Bone Health Connection	403	(5)
Shore Up Your Earth Connection with Plant Medicine	408	(1)
Creating Breast Health	409	(40)
Our Cultural Inheritance: Nurturing and Self-Sacrifice	410	(2)
The Emotional Anatomy of Breast Cancer	412	(5)
Lifestyle and Breast Health	417	(3)
Eating for Breast Health	420	(3)
Breast Cancer Screening	423	(9)
Putting Breast Cancer Risk in Perspective	432	(1)
The Breast Cancer Gene: Should You Be Tested?	433	(1)
The Effect of HRT on Breast Health	434	(3)
Bioidentical Hormones and Cancer Risk	437	(7)
The Tamoxifen Dilemma	444	(5)
Living with Heart, Passion, and Joy: How to Listen to and Love Your Midlife Heart	449	(46)
The Heart Has Its Say at Menopause: My Personal Story	450	(4)
Cardiovascular Disease: When the Flow of Life Is Blocked	454	(2)
Palpitations: Your Heart's Wake-up Call	456	(3)
Gender Bias and Heart Disease: Our Cultural Inheritance	459	(3)
Arteriosclerosis: Reducing Your Risk	462	(10)
Carbohydrates, Sugar, and Heart Health: What Every Woman Should Know	472	(3)
Cardioprotective Supplements	475	(5)
Foods for Heart Health	480	(2)
What About Aspirin?	482	(1)
Get Moving!	483	(4)
The Heart--Estrogen Link: What's Really Going On?	487	(4)
How to Love and Respect Your Midlife Heart	491	(2)
The Heart-Opening Effect of Pets	493	(2)
Epilogue: The Calm After the Storm	495	(4)
Notes	499	(39)
Resources	538	(31)
Index	569	(23)
About the Author	592

Excerpts

ONE

Menopause Puts Your Life Under a Microscope

It is no secret that relationship crises are a common side effect of menopause. Usually this is attributed to the crazy-making effects of the hormonal shifts occurring in a woman's body at this time of transition. What is rarely acknowledged or understood is that as these hormone-driven changes affect the brain, they give a woman a sharper eye for inequity and injustice, and a voice that insists on speaking up about them. In other words, they give her a kind of wisdom--and the courage to voice it. As the vision-obscuring veil created by the hormones of reproduction begins to lift, a woman's youthful fire and spirit are often rekindled, together with long-sublimated desires and creative drives. Midlife fuels those drives with a volcanic energy that demands an outlet.

If it does not find an outlet--if the woman remains silent for the sake of keeping the peace at home and/or work, or if she holds herself back from pursuing her creative urges--the result is equivalent to plugging the vent on a pressure cooker: Something has to give. Very often what gives is the woman's health, and the result will be one or more of the "big three" diseases of postmenopausal women: heart disease, depression, and breast cancer. On the other hand, for those of us who choose to honor the body's wisdom and to express what lies within us, it's a good idea to get ready for some boat rocking, which may put long-established relationships in upheaval. Marriage is not immune to this effect.

"Not Me, My Marriage Is Fine"

Every marriage, even a very good one, must undergo change in order to keep up with the hormone-driven rewiring of a woman's brain during the years leading up to and including menopause. Not all marriages are able to survive these changes. Mine wasn't, and nobody was more surprised about that than I. If this makes you want to hide your head in the sand, believe me, I do understand. But for the sake of being true to yourself and protecting your emotional and physical health in the second half of your life--likely a full forty years or more--then I submit to you that forging ahead and taking a good hard look at all aspects of your relationship (including some previously untouchable corners of your marriage) may be the only choice that will work in your best interest in the long run, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

From the standpoint of physical health, for example, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the increase in life-threatening illnesses after midlife, which cannot be accounted for by aging alone, is partly rooted in the stresses and unresolved relationship problems that simmered beneath the surface during the childbearing years of a woman's life, then bubbled up and boiled over at perimenopause, only to be damped down in the name of maintaining the status quo. The health of your significant other is also at stake. Remaining in a relationship that was tailor-made for a couple of twenty-somethings without making the necessary adjustments for who you both have become at midlife can be just as big a health risk for him as it is for you.

This is not to say that your only options are divorce or heart attack. Rather, in order to bring your relationship into alignment with your rewired brain, you and your significant other must be willing to take the time, and spend the energy, to resolve old issues and set new ground rules for the years that lie ahead. If you can do this, then your relationship will help you to thrive in the second half of your life. If one or both of you cannot or will not, then both health and happiness may be at risk if you stay together.

Preparing for Transformation

At midlife, more psychic energy becomes available to us than at any time since adolescence. If we strive to work in active partnership with that organic energy, trusting it to help us uncover the unconscious and self-destructive beliefs about ourselves that have held us back from what we could become, then we will find that we have access to everything we need to reinvent ourselves as healthier, more resilient women, ready to move joyfully into the second half of our lives.

This process of transformation can only succeed, however, if we become proactive in two ways. First, we must be willing to take full responsibility for our share of the problems in our lives. It takes great courage to admit our own contributions to the things that have gone wrong for us and to stop seeing ourselves simply as victims of someone or something outside of ourselves. After all, the person in the victim role tends to get all the sympathy and to assume the high road morally, which is appealing; none of us wants to feel like the bad guy. But even though taking the victim role may seem a good choice in the short run, this stance is ultimately devoid of any power to help us change, heal, grow, and move on.

The second requirement for transformation is more difficult by far: We must be willing to feel the pain of loss and grieve for those parts of our lives that we are leaving behind. And that includes our fantasies of how our lives could have been different if only. Facing up to such loss is rarely easy, and that is why so many of us resist change in general and at midlife in particular. A part of us rationalizes, "Why rock the boat? I'm halfway finished with my life. Wouldn't it just be easier to accept what I have rather than risk the unknown?"

The end of any significant relationship, or any major phase of our lives, even one that has made us unhappy or held us back from our full growth and fulfillment, feels like a death--pure and simple. To move past it, we have to feel the sadness of that loss and grieve fully for what might have been and now will never be.

And then we must pick ourselves up and move toward the unknown. All our deepest fears are likely to surface as we find ourselves facing the uncertainty of the future. During my own perimenopausal life changes, I would learn this in spades--much to my surprise.

By the time I was approaching menopause, I had worked with scores of women who had gone through midlife "cleansings"; I had guided and counseled them as their children left home, their parents got sick, their marriages ended, their husbands fell ill or died, they themselves became ill, their jobs ended--in short, as they went through all the storms and crises of midlife. But I never thought I would face a crisis in my marriage. I had always felt somewhat smug, secure in my belief that I was married to the man of my dreams, the one with whom I would stay "till death do us part."

Delirious Happiness and Shaking Knees

I will always remember the happiness of meeting and marrying my husband, a decision we made merely three months after we met. He was my surgical intern when I was a medical student at Dartmouth. He looked like a Greek god, and I was deeply flattered by his attention, especially since I wasn't at all sure I had what it took to attract such a handsome man with such an Ivy League, country club background. Something deep within me was moved by him beyond all reason, beyond anything I'd ever felt before with any other boyfriend. For the first five years of our marriage my knees shook whenever I saw him. There wasn't a force on this planet that could have talked me out of marrying him. I remember wanting to shout my love from the tops of tall buildings--an exuberance of feeling that was very uncharacteristic of the quiet, studious valedictorian of the Ellicottville Central School class of 1967.

He, however, was considerably less eager to display his feelings. I couldn't help but notice during the years we were both immersed in our surgical training that my husband seemed uncomfortable relating to me when we were at work, and often appeared cold and distant when I'd try to show affection in that setting. This puzzled and hurt me, since I was always proud to introduce him to my patients when we happened to see each other outside of the operating room. But I told myself that this was because of the way he had been raised, and that with enough love and attention from me, he would become more responsive, more emotionally available.

The Childbearing Years: Balancing Personal and Professional Lives

My husband's life didn't change much when we had our two daughters. Mine, however, became a struggle--one that millions of women will recognize from their own experience--as I tried to find satisfying and effective ways to mother my children, remain the doctor I wanted to be, and at the same time be a good wife to my husband. Nonetheless, these were happy years, for both of us adored our daughters from the beginning and enjoyed the many activities we shared with them--the weekend walks, the family vacations, the simple daily contact with two beautiful, developing young beings.

I did sometimes resent the disparity between what I contributed to the upkeep of our family life and what my husband did. Once, when the children were still young, I asked him if he'd consider working fewer hours so that I wouldn't have to give up delivering babies, an aspect of my practice that I dearly loved. He replied, "You've never seen a part-time orthopedic surgeon, have you?" I admitted that I hadn't, but suggested that this didn't mean it couldn't happen with a little imagination on his part. It was not to be, however. It was I who, like so many other women, became the master shape-shifter, adjusting my own needs to those of everyone else in the family.

In the early years of our family life, I was also becoming increasingly aware that the inequities that bothered me in my marriage were a reflection of inequities that existed in the culture around us. I saw many people like my husband and me--people who had started their marriages on equal grounds financially and educationally, even people who, like us, did the same work--and always, once the children arrived, it was the wife who made the sacrifices in leisure time, professional accomplishment, and personal fulfillment.

Change Yourself, Change the World

During those often exhausting years, I began to put into action some of the ideas I'd been developing about women's health--while always being careful not to say much about those ideas at home, where I knew they would not be welcomed by my husband. Inspired by my own experiences as well as those of my patients, and buoyed by the conviction that my ideas could make a difference in people's lives, in 1985 I joined three other women in the venture of establishing a health care center we called Women to Women. The idea of a health center run by women for women was virtually unheard of at that time. Our central mission was to help women appreciate the unity of mind, body, and spirit, to enable them to see the connection between their emotional health and their physical well-being. I wanted to empower women, to give them a safe place in which to tell their personal stories so that they could discover new, more health-enhancing ways of living their lives.

I knew that sometimes this would involve challenging the status quo, because the inequities of the culture take a terrible toll on women's bodies as well as their spirits. But as I practiced this new, holistic form of medicine, which was quite revolutionary for its day, I realized that the fact that I had a normal, happy family life, as well as a husband with conventional medical ideas who practiced in the same community, provided a kind of cover for me. It made me appear "safe" at a time when my ideas were considered unproven at best, dangerous at worst.

My three partners in Women to Women and I bought an old Victorian house that we could convert into a center for our new practice. We all agreed that we wanted to keep our husbands out of our new venture, lest their participation undermine our enthusiastic but still tender confidence in ourselves as businesswomen.

Of course, in my case, at least, that didn't necessarily mean that I didn't want my husband's support. I clearly remember a day at the beginning of the building and site renovation. Two bulldozers sat on the lawn, workers were everywhere, and the existing building had been torn apart. At that moment the whole project suddenly became real for me, and I realized that my colleagues and I were now responsible for paying for all of this. This was an overwhelming thought. When I came home that evening, I uncharacteristically reached out to my husband for help in calming my fears. "I'm scared," I told him. "I'm not sure I can do this." He replied, "I hate it when you're disempowered like this." I quickly realized that I'd been foolish to expect anything from him.

His response to my uncharacteristic and risky moment of emotional vulnerability simply reinforced the coping style I'd developed in childhood, a stoicism that was a necessity in a household where emotional neediness was frowned upon and we were told to "keep a stiff upper lip." Another favorite saying in my family was "Don't ask for a lighter pack, ask for a stronger back." So, as usual, I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps, dug into my inner resources, and pretended that I wasn't afraid.

As it turned out, Women to Women became a great success. Our work struck a resonant chord with our patients, and the center grew steadily by word of mouth. As excited as I was about what I was doing, I could never interest my husband in any of the ideas about alternative medicine that were at the core of my new clinical practice. We did, however, have enough other areas of mutual interest that I didn't think his attitude toward my work mattered. In fact, I was rather proud of myself for being able to sustain a loving relationship with a card-carrying member of the American Medical Association.

Marrying My Mother

Looking back, I see that in marrying my husband I had made a secret and mostly unconscious vow that I would do whatever it took to make this marriage work and be the woman I thought he wanted--as long as I could also pursue the work that I loved. Unbeknownst to me, I was re-creating with my husband many aspects of the unfinished business I had carried over from my relationship with my mother, a fact that would only begin to dawn on me some twenty-two years later, as I entered perimenopause.

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Excerpted from The Wisdom of Menopause: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health During the Change by Christiane Northrup
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.