Knowing your body is important, and having the right information can make transitions in life easier. That’s a key message from Alyson Lippman, an advanced practice nurse.
Lippman, a board member at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun in River Hills, has worked in women’s health for the past two decades. With her Shorewood business, Midlife Midwife MKE, she is working to meet the needs of women going through perimenopause and menopause.
Generally understood as one year after a person’s last menstrual period, the clinical definition of menopause is when the ovaries stop producing estrogen, Lippman said. The average age of menopause is 51. Perimenopause, when the body prepares to stop producing estrogen, can last for 3-4 years or more.
Classic symptoms include night sweats and hot flashes, Lippman said. She said some people report changes in their memory or their ability to stay attentive. Others note anxiety or changes to their sleep patterns or changes in their mood, among other symptoms.
Lippman said the symptoms during perimenopause and menopause are similar, but with less volatility during the latter.
Individual experiences differ, Lippman said. She said people can turn to a variety of options for help.
“There is hormone therapy out there that can be helpful,” Lippman said. “There are different ways that people can change their diet. There are exercises that we know are really helpful and contribute to longevity and better quality of life during midlife and later.”
For example, she said, a health care provider could check a patient’s thyroid health, as women may experience changes to their thyroid function midlife. A provider also could look at estrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels.
“There are estrogen receptors all over the body, and so estrogen does contribute to a lot of the physical and emotional symptoms that happen in perimenopause and menopause,” she said.
The goal of such interventions, Lippman said, is so people can “feel their best and continue to function.” She said many patients communicate that they want to continue to feel “vital.”
Given that menopause signifies the end of a person’s reproductive years, Lippman said the experience can have an emotional component.
“Some people feel free or relieved (about) no more periods and don’t have to worry about contraception,” Lippman said. “Other people feel a sense of being lost or now what, especially if (their reproductive years) didn’t bring them exactly what they expected.”
Loved ones can provide support for a person experiencing menopause, Lippman said. For example, they can encourage someone to self-advocate, to find the right practitioner and to find the right interventions for symptoms.
Importantly, she said, people should not be critical of the changes a person experiences during menopause.
The experience of menopause tends to attract a focus on the negative, Lippman said. Some take a more positive view, she said.
“Sometimes people feel freer not having the fluctuations that come with even just a normal menstrual cycle and having just more consistency,” Lippman said. “There’s that sort of emotional freedom of setting down the reproductive years and then becoming this equally important, vital woman in the middle of her life through the rest of her years.”
Alyson Lippman’s Midlife Midwife MKE is at midlifemidwifemke.com.
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