I love what I do, and I I love learning about things that will help my clients.
I attended a workshop recently on ‘The Collision of Trauma and Menopause”, and I wanted to share with you. This is something that really interests me, and many of my clients experience issues like PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder), hormonal and peri-post menopause related difficulties.
However they also experience a kind of stigma and general ignorance about how these issues affect people with uteruses.
In fact, when I just googled PMDD (to check my spelling!), the first suggestion on Google was “PMDD how can I get my GP to take me seriously”. This is something I hear often from clients who find themselves struggling to be heard with medical professionals, even feeling subject to medical ‘gaslighting’ where their experiences are invalidated or even denied. This can be incredibly distressing and isolating.
So how do trauma and menopause collide?
In this workshop I learned that a multitude of studies suggest that people who have experienced trauma, and who have higher amounts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are more likely to struggle with more severe menopause symptoms.
They also found that psychosocial stressors (including trauma like physical/psychological abuse and financial instability) were associated with worse menopausal symptoms and well-being even decades after they happened.
So we see that there is a link here and that peri and post menopausal people experience not only difficulty with being shamed and believed, but also worse symptoms if they have gone through difficult experiences. What a crappy double-whammy to deal with.
What can help?
Research is now showing what we have suspected for some time- that emotional stress and trauma impact on our physical bodies. We need to find ways to reduce the effects of this.
At Peridot Counselling, you'll find a safe and understanding environment for anyone going through tough times, and this includes anything related to your physical health. I have heard clients saying “Sorry, TMI”- but there is no need to apologise. We all have physical bodies, this is where our mind lives. Nothing is Too Much Information in your session, and I will strive to understand your experience as best I can.
Having a safe place to talk about both your mental AND physical health and have this validated can be a healing experience for them both. I am a big advocate for including the body in counselling and there are lots of ways we can do this, soothing your whole ‘system’, that work really well in conjunction with talking therapy.
If this is something that sounds good to you, please get in touch, I’d love to hear from you. And if you are interested in this subject, there are some links and resources that may be useful below.
Take good care,
Tiffany
Menopause resource library: https://www.balance-menopause.com/
Book: What Fresh Hell is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities and You by Heather Corinna What Fresh Hell Is This? - Google Books
Queer Menopause Collective: https://www.queermenopause.com/queermenopausecollective
Book- Second Spring- Kate Codrington https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Second_Spring/6_k4EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Annice Mukherjee- Books, podcasts, articles, resources: https://linktr.ee/annicemd
Book- Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging -by Alexandra Pope, Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Wise_Power/c-FfEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Online menstrual cycle retreat https://www.redschool.net/wild-power-retreat
References:
Faleschini et al (2022)
Kapoor (2022)
Metcalfe et al (2022)
Thurston et al (2008)
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