Leisa BlanchYou’re eating well. Taking your supplements. Exercising, getting outside, doing what you can to manage your stress. You know your body better than most.
Then something changes.
The coffee that was always fine now leaves you wired. One bad night’s sleep knocks you around for days. Noise, people, a busy week, all of it lands harder than it used to. Digestion turns unpredictable. Recovery from exercise slows. Your mood stops feeling steady.
And you start wondering what’s happening to you.
Ah, we could just laugh at ourselves and our predicament.
I would, however, never dare laugh in front of a concerned and anxious woman sitting with me, telling me, “I’ve always handled stress fine; why can’t I now?” Or, “I feel like my body changed overnight.”
To be honest, it usually hasn’t changed overnight. What’s changed is that months, sometimes years, of gradual shifts have become impossible to ignore.
Here’s why. Perimenopause isn’t a smooth decline in hormones. It’s fluctuations, sometimes wildly different from one cycle to the next. Oestrogen affects mood, cognition, temperature regulation, sleep and your stress response. Progesterone also plays an important role in sleep, mood and nervous system regulation. When these hormones swing, your tolerance for everyday stressors can swing with them.
Caffeine stops agreeing with you. Even small amounts of overstimulation, including alcohol for some women, can suddenly disrupt sleep. Skip lunch and you’re shaky. A hard workout costs more than it used to.
Your margin gets smaller.
You can still cope, but there’s less room before you tip into overwhelm. A stressful week used to bounce off you after one good night’s sleep. Now it might take days. You need more quiet, more recovery, more nourishment, more space away from stimulation than you did before.
This is where the nervous system becomes central to the conversation. Hormonal fluctuation can change how your brain and nervous system respond to stress. If you’re already carrying a lot, you’ll feel it more.
It can be incredibly frustrating, I know, so delving into the details can help you gain the necessary clarity and sense of empowerment.
With my clients, I look at sleep, eating patterns, stress load, recovery, hormones including oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, as well as thyroid function, blood sugar regulation, cortisol, liver and kidney function, and what the nervous system is doing all day, every day.
Perimenopause is rarely just one thing.
A few places you can start on your own:
Notice what your body is actually tolerating now. Sleep, energy, mood, digestion. Keep a loose mental note of what affects them. Patterns show up faster than you’d expect.
Give recovery real attention, not an afterthought. Keep moving, but pay attention to how you feel afterwards, not just during.
Eat regularly. Long gaps without food, especially if caffeine is filling the space, can leave a lot of women shaky, anxious and depleted. Regular meals, adequate protein, fibre, healthy fats, plenty of cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens.
Cut the noise you don’t need. If you’re sensitive, constant notifications, screens and busyness can keep your nervous system switched on longer than it needs to be. Build in real quiet and notice what shifts. I love Qigong, meditation, time in nature and breathwork for this.
Get the basics checked properly. Perimenopause overlaps with nutrient deficiencies, thyroid issues, blood sugar dysregulation and poor sleep more often than people realise. It’s worth listening properly and seeking guidance from a qualified health practitioner. Not every new symptom in your 40s or 50s is something you simply have to accept.
Your body is talking to you every day.
Perimenopause just turns the volume up.
Leisa Blanch is the lead naturopath and director of Gisborne Health Essentials, the largest naturopathic clinic in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria. Leisa is also co-founder of ZEN KI Energy, a bioenergetic wellness brand offering wearable tools, qigong practices, retreats, and an online community for sensitive, aware people navigating an overstimulating world.
For further guidance from Leisa on perimenopause, register for FREE using the code BLISS09 for her upcoming webinar on Wednesday 30th September at 7 pm AEST:
Charlie Lally
John Stephenson
Add comment