Using hypnotherapy to ease symptoms of menopause

Menopause is the time that marks the end of your menstrual cycles. It’s a natural part of ageing that occurs when a woman’s periods stop and they can no longer fall pregnant naturally.

For some, periods may stop suddenly. However, most people will start experiencing symptoms of menopause a few months or even a few years before their periods stop completely. On average, women will experience menopausal symptoms for up to four years after their last period. For some, symptoms will last even longer.

During menopause, you may start to miss periods or notice your cycle becoming longer or shorter. Potentially, you may also experience more or less blood flow. 

Menopause typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 55 years old, with the average age of ‘reaching’ menopause being 51. However, it can start earlier, with women experiencing symptoms in their early 40s or younger. This is known as premature menopause and affects around one in 100 people.

While there is no way of knowing what age a woman will be when they reach menopause, often, they can get a good idea from when their own mother started experiencing symptoms.

Symptoms of menopause

Other than the known effects it can have on your period and fertility, there are many other symptoms that you may experience. Common symptoms include hot flushes and night sweats, yet, as detailed by the NHS, other symptoms include vaginal dryness, discomfort during sex, difficulty sleeping, low mood or anxiety, a reduced sex drive and problems with memory and difficulties concentrating.

But these only tell us the physical impact of this phase in a woman’s life. In reality, menopause is much further reaching than the effects it has on your body.

For some, it can feel like a loss. A loss of femininity and fertility. And whether you have children or not, this stage in your life takes away the ability to choose to conceive naturally. And for those who have not yet started a family but wish to, this can be incredibly hard to accept.

Menopause is also known to affect feelings of confidence and self-esteem. The hot sweats can cause discomfort and in some, feelings of embarrassment and women may start withdrawing from social situations as a result. 

Not being able to get a good night’s sleep can create complete exhaustion, which may lead to you feeling unable to cope with difficult situations or even day to day life. Less sleep can also impact the immune system, so you may find yourself falling unwell more often. Meanwhile, difficulty concentrating or remembering things may lead to you feeling unable to perform as well as you once did at work, or other areas of your life.

So while menopause is an entirely natural process of ageing, it can have a far-reaching and potentially devastating impact on a woman’s life.

Treatment

There are treatments available to help combat the symptoms of menopause. Some may benefit from hormone replacement therapy (HRT) a treatment that helps to balance hormone levels in the body, while others may turn to complementary or holistic therapies such as acupuncture, aromatherapy or even beads and magnetic patches to ease symptoms.

Therapy can also be beneficial, as it helps a person to understand and process the changes they’re going through and come to a place of acceptance. Talking therapies can also help you manage feelings of anxiety and low mood, as well as rebuild confidence and self-esteem. In addition, therapy can support individuals and couples who have perhaps experienced difficulties in changing sex drive and general self-worth.

A healthy lifestyle has also been found to help ease menopausal symptoms, and there are plenty of over-the-counter products such as creams and lubricants tailored to ease symptoms of menopause.

Hypnotherapy for menopause

If you’re currently going through menopause, you may find that a combination of treatments works well, or you may have to try a couple of options before finding what works for you.

This is where hypnotherapy can also be effective. The benefit of using hypnosis is that each session is tailored to the individual client and their own needs. So, if several areas of your life are being impacted by menopause, each of these can be addressed by one solution, without the need to turn to multiple treatment options.

Hypnotherapy is most effective when it treats one issue at a time, allowing you to create new pathways and habits in the brain. If you have multiple concerns you’d like to address, you may find that you’ll need a series of sessions to address each of the effects in turn. 

You may find that through hypnosis, you learn how to dial down the temperature in your body to counteract the hot flushes that come over you. It can teach you relaxation and breathing techniques to support your overall well-being. And it can help you to regain your confidence and self-esteem so that you feel your best self.

And like any loss or change, hypnotherapy can support you in coming to terms with it; accepting where you are in life and the options still available to you.

So, if you are experiencing the symptoms of menopause but are looking for an alternative solution to HRT that can support all the areas of your life affected by this change, then why not give hypnotherapy a go? Your hypnotherapist will work with you to tailor a solution to meet your needs, and together, you will come up with a treatment plan to help you achieve your desired outcome.

Your hypnotherapist will work with you to understand what you’d like to gain from hypnotherapy and the symptoms you’d like to address, and together, you’ll come up with a tailored plan to help you enter this new stage of your life with confidence.