6 strange sensations during menopause

Today's topic

Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I take a look at six strange sensations that you may experience during menopause and why.

We know the more common menopause symptoms, such as flushes, sweats, anxiety, poor sleep, and joint pain, but there are some strange symptoms and weird sensations that can also be caused by menopause. And a lot of women contact me experiencing these, wondering what's going on, what's causing them, and what can they do to help themselves.

So, I thought I would look at a few today and let you know how you can deal with them.

1. Feeling slightly off-balance

You might feel a little bit lightheaded or a little bit fuzzy.

You might find that you've got vertigo, that you get really dizzy. And you may find that you get ringing in the ears, which is something called tinnitus. This can be caused by several things.

Very often, it can be due to dehydration or low blood sugar. It can also be due to low blood pressure, which can be very common in menopause.

If you're experiencing any of these particular symptoms, it's really important just to get a check-up from your doctor or maybe just ask your pharmacist to check your blood pressure before you go any further.

What else can you do? Make sure you're drinking plenty of water and eat little and often so that you're not allowing your blood sugar levels to dip too much.

2. Feeling spaced out

Some women say they feel as if they're living on another planet, compared to everybody else. This space out feeling can be caused by sudden dips of oestrogen.

So, if your oestrogen drops really quickly, you can get that sudden sensation of not really being quite here.

It can also be caused by the same things I mentioned above, such as low blood sugars, low blood pressure.

For this particular one, if your oestrogen is really fluctuating and your periods are tailing off or have stopped, you could look at our Menopause Support tablets. And again, just get your blood pressure checked, and remember the water, and to eat little and often.

3. Getting a vibration feeling

It can feel as if your whole body's vibrating or it could be tingling, or pins and needles. This is very often due to a slight blip in the nervous system. We know that oestrogen helps to control or help the nerves themselves to function. And if your oestrogen is going all over the place, then nerve function can sometimes go a little bit awry here.

The other thing to be aware of is that getting things like the tingling, the vibrations can be due to medical conditions such as diabetes. It could also be low vitamin D, low vitamin B12 or low iron.

So, if you're getting these symptoms regularly, then just get them checked out by your doctor first. Once you've got that, if everything's okay, then some things can help calm the nervous system, such as magnesium and vitamin B-complex supplement. You may also find calming herbs such as valerian helpful in this situation.

4. Butterfly feelings

You can get a kind of nervous feeling, like a butterfly is trying to get out. Your stomach may be churning. You may find that you get a kind of butterfly sensation in the heart. Some women find they get it in their digestive tract as well.

This is very often a side effect of anxiety if you like. So, it can be adrenaline going around the system. You may find too that this is accompanied by things like palpitations and nausea, so these things can all be connected.

For this particular one, we're looking again at calming the nervous system, so plenty of magnesium, vitamin B-complex and loads of water.

Also, check that you're not having big gaps between eating because low blood sugar levels can cause it.

For supporting the nervous system, you could also look at our Passiflora Complex Tablets which contain soothing herbs, such as Valerian and Passiflora, and supporting minerals for the nervous system, such as magnesium and zinc.

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5. Electric shocks

This can feel like suddenly you're getting a shock, maybe up the arms or up the legs. Very often, the next thing after the shock, you end up getting a hot flush or a sweat. Again, this is due to falling oestrogen affecting the nervous system. Sometimes, the wires (if you like) in our nervous system, end up getting crossed, so messages are not getting through – just like if there's too much current going through your kettle, suddenly, the fuse will blow.

So, your nerves can start to overfire and this can contribute to things like the shocking feeling. This is one that you should definitely get checked out by your doctor, just to make sure there's nothing else going on because it can be contributed to things like diabetes.

It could also be caused by a trapped nerve. So, if you have been doing a lot of sitting, if you've been working from home, if you've got a lot of shoulder or neck stress, then this can be one of the things that can happen. And also, if you're getting a lot of low back pain too, a trapped nerve could contribute to this.

Get your B12 levels checked too because that could be another factor here. Plus remember the water, magnesium and vitamin B-complex and cut down on caffeine because again, that can rev your nervous system up.

Also, sometimes retuning your nervous system can help to alleviate these symptoms so this would be one where when you've had a shower, just for the last few seconds, you turn the cold tap on and that, very often, can reset the nerves. This may be worth trying if you get a lot of these nervy sensations.

6. Formication (feeling of ants or insects crawling inside your skin)

This is a skin one. The name Formication comes from formic acid, which is what ants produce. So, formication is where there's a feeling of ants or insects crawling up the inside of your skin.

With this one, there tends to be no rash. There's no outward sign of anything going on but it can be extremely uncomfortable. It can be extremely frightening as well if suddenly, something happens like this.

So again, this can be all due to the nervous system. You're looking at helping to calm that down with your magnesium, B vitamins, and maybe calming herbs such as valerian.

But again, if there are lots of situations going on where you're not quite sure what's happening if some symptom has suddenly appeared out of nowhere, then do speak to your doctor about it.

I hope you found this one interesting. If any of you have experienced anything like this or something similar, then please do share with us, and especially if you found something that helps.

Key points to take away from this blog:

• Many strange sensations can be experienced during menopause including feeling off-balanced, spaced out, vibrations or butterfly feelings, electric shocks and the feeling that insects are crawling inside your skin.
• Many of these sensations can be caused by the nervous system, so supporting it and calming it can help ease them
• It's best to get these strange sensations checked by your doctor because many can be caused by other conditions or health issues such as diabetes, low blood pressure and vitamin deficiencies such as vitamin D and B12.

Until next week, take care

* Magnesium contributes to the normal functioning of the nervous system

** Zinc contributes to normal cognitive function and the protection of cells from oxidative stress.