3 More Embarrassing Menopause Questions Answered

Today's topic:

Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I am answering three more embarrassing questions.

So last week, I talked about three really common questions that women find so embarrassing. They feel that they can't talk to either their friends, family, or even their doctor about these issues. But they then come to me and I try and explain, sometimes, these are really common and they're very simple to sort.

Question 1. Does menopause make you windy? I keep farting and burping at the most embarrassing times!

I get many women asking "Why am I getting so windy?", "Why am I burping?", "Why am I breaking wind?" And it can be so embarrassing because it tends to happen in public.

As you approach menopause, falling oestrogen will affect your whole digestive system, slowing everything down. So, what can happen after you've had a meal, the food can sit in your stomach for ages and then you start to feel a lot of pressure, so you have to burp all the time or make some really loud noises because it's just so uncomfortable.

Other things that can happen is that you can break wind from the bowel. And again, sometimes it can be so uncontrollable and if you're in company, if you're at work, this can be very embarrassing.

What can help?

What I recommend in this situation is to overhaul how you eat. Also, make sure that you chew everything slowly because the less pressure you put on your stomach, then the more comfortable you are going to be.

So, chew your food well, chew it slowly. If you are getting a lot of wind or discomfort, you can look at taking bitter herbs such as our Yarrow Complex.

Remember to drink plenty of water but away from your meals. If you drink a lot whilst you're eating, that dilutes all your gastric juices and that can make the wind, and the bloating, and the discomfort quite a lot more pronounced.

A lot of wind can also be due to a high carbohydrate diet such as eating a lot of bread, rice, pasta, cakes. When broken down in the digestive tract, these carbohydrates can sit and they will produce a lot of gas. And that can contribute to all the windy problems. So, this is one issue that you can sort by just overhauling how you eat and what you eat.

Question 2. Can menopause make you feel like you have to pee all the time?

I get a lot of questions about this, with women saying "I'm running to the toilet all the time" or "I need to pee and then when I go, I pee very little and it seems to be happening all the time" and "I find that when I laugh, I leak, or when I run, I leak a little bit."

So again, falling oestrogen can affect bladder function. It can make the bladder valve weaker, which means that when you do things like laugh, or run, or exercise, you tend to leak just because of the weakness there.

You may also find that when you go to the toilet, you feel desperate to go but when you go, you only pass a little bit of urine.

What can help?

So, what you can do about this? A lot of women think if they are running to the toilet all the time, then cutting down the amount they are drinking will help, but this is the worst thing that you can do.

Your bladder can become very sensitive so if you are dehydrated, your urine will become very acidic, and it will basically just burn the bladder and also the urethra.

So, what you need to do is drink plenty of water. It will dilute your urine. Your bladder will become less sensitive and you will go to the toilet less. I know it sounds a bit strange but this is one of the easiest things to fix.

If you find that it's bladder weakness where you're leaking when you do certain things, there's nothing you can take for this but you can look at specific exercises, so there are things like the Kegel exercises that can help. There are also specific

Pilates exercises that can be effective for toning up the whole pelvic area and helping to support your bladder properly.

If you're getting irritability with the bladder, if you're getting a lot of discomfort when you're going to the toilet and you've had it checked for things like cystitis and that comes back clear, then very often, it's just because your bladder's a little bit of inflamed and tender.

You could look at our Cranberry Complex which has herbs in it that are known to calm the inflammation down. But don't forget the water, because that's the easiest way to fix a lot of these issues.

Question 3. Does menopause make you hate your partner or loved ones?

This is quite an interesting one. A lot of women don't realise that menopause can impact you in very strange, emotional ways. And I get quite a few women saying that they just can't stand their partner or friends anymore or they just get irritated by their work colleagues. And sometimes, this can lead to angry outbursts.

I've had some women say that they've even resorted to being extremely physical when they're angry. And then, of course, what happens is when everything calms down, they start to feel so guilty. They feel that they can't control their emotions. They get stressed about it and of course, that just compounds the problem.

So, yes, this does happen. Oestrogen is our happy hormone which helps to keep our mood up. It also helps to keep our less controllable emotions under control.

So, when your oestrogen starts to drop, you can get low mood, but also, you can find it a lot more difficult to control emotions such as anger, rage, irritability, and impatience.

What can help?

Unfortunately, when we get into these situations, our nearest and dearest usually do bear the brunt, but some simple things can help you control your emotions a bit better during menopause.

I recommend looking at mood-calming herbs such as valerian.

You can look at some Flower Essences such as Mood Essence, Female Essence, or Relaxation Essence. These can be lovely just to help when you feel that you're not quite in control of your general emotions.

The other thing to do is talk to whoever is on the receiving end and just explain to them that this is happening because of menopause. It's not you as a person that's feeling this way. It's just the hormones are getting the upper hand at that particular moment.

So I hope you found this interesting. If you have any other embarrassing questions that you feel you can't talk to anybody about, feel free to comment below or there will be a link where you can message me privately and I'll be happy to help.

Key points to take away from this blog:

• Menopause can slow down digestion, which can cause several digestive issues such as flatulence, burping and more.
• Menopause can make the bladder weaker and cause you to have several urinary symptoms such as urinating more often and leaking when doing something. Drinking plenty of water is one of the best things you can do to help your bladder during menopause.
• Menopause can cause a roller-coaster of emotions including low mood, anger and irritability, all of which can impact your relationship with your partner and loved ones, especially if you don't talk to them about how you are feeling.

Until next week, take care