Types of fatigue in perimenopause and menopause & tips to boost your energy

Today's Topic

Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I take a closer look at the types of fatigue you can experience in perimenopause and menopause, and recommend ways to boost your energy and fight this fatigue.

It's really interesting because today, probably, the most common menopause symptom that we're getting queries about is fatigue, and it's actually overtaken hot flushes and night sweats! This is clearly a huge issue for so many women.

Most women will experience fatigue to some extent, and at some point, during perimenopause and menopause. It can be overwhelming and it can affect your day-to-day life.

So, what I'm going to do today is look at the different types of fatigue that you can experience, and what you can do to help yourself.

6 types of fatigue you can experience in perimenopause & menopause

Firstly, let's look at some of the common types of fatigue you can experience at this time:

1. Emotional fatigue

During menopause, you tend to become more anxious. You get more emotional. You may cry more or get more upset. You may become more sensitive with other people. And these types of emotions can be very draining. And, if you continually experience emotional fatigue, you can end up getting more and more anxious, suffering more and more low mood, and feeling more and more irritated.

2. Physical fatigue

This is probably the most common one. You just find that you go to bed, you sleep, but when you wake up you're still tired. You have no energy. You just don't want to do the things that you used to be able to do physically. Maybe the gym's out the window, you can't even face going for a walk. And maybe your job is quite a physical one and you just find that you can't cope as well as you used to.

3. Mental fatigue

With this one, you may think, "Oh, I can't be bothered to do anything." You just feel as if your get-up-and-go has gone. You lose your enthusiasm for everything. And again, very often, it's with exercise. You just can't be bothered. It may well be you can't be bothered with other people. You can't be bothered with your work. You can't be bothered with the world in general. You just feel that you're stuck in this kind of grey place and nothing seems to make any difference.

4. Food sensitivity fatigue

This is quite an interesting one because you may find that, half an hour or so after you've eaten, you feel as if someone has pulled the plug. You can't move. And again, that can affect you both mentally and physically.

5. Burnout

This is probably the most serious one. So, this means that your energy on all levels completely disappears. You have no energy to do anything, to deal with daily life. You may not even want to get out of bed. You might not even want to face the day.

6. Adrenal fatigue

This is a little bit of a sneaky one. Your adrenals are two glands that sit above the kidneys and they look after your nervous system. When these little glands get extra fatigued, that can have a huge impact on many different areas of your health. So, in a nutshell, adrenal fatigue can cause flushes and sweats. It can cause anxiety. It can affect your sleep. It can cause joint aches and pain.

A good tip for identifying that it's this one, is if you feel tired but you're also wired. So, it's like you can be very jittery, or full of nervous energy, but at the same time you can feel fatigued.

What can you do to boost your energy and fight fatigue?

There are lots of simple things you can do to help yourself:

Eat well: So, eating well is important. The physical changes that are going on in perimenopause and menopause use up huge amounts of your energy, and if you're not getting enough nutrition then your energy levels are going to be affected in all sorts of different ways.

Eating well will make sure that you have the necessary vitamins, minerals, and all the other nutrients that your body needs to be able to cope with this. So, you're looking at phytoestrogen-based foods, plenty of protein, healthy fats, and loads of different vegetables as well, just to give you everything that you need.

Avoid foods that will spike your blood sugar levels: If your blood sugar levels get raised quickly, they very often then crash quickly too. And that's when you get that sudden fatigue, where you're okay one minute and the next minute, your energy disappears.

And I know that was me, around 2pm, I felt like I could sleep for hours because I just felt so tired. So, that would be caused by things like your coffee, fizzy drinks, fruit juices, and foods high in salt and sugar as well.

Eat little and often: This can help keep your blood sugars more stable. The more stable they are, the more likely you are to conserve your energy and also have energy available when you need to do that little bit more.

Regular exercise: I know this is a bit of a strange one. If you're tired, how can you exercise? Exercise produces feel-good chemicals that lift your mood and energise you. Even a 15-minute walk at lunchtime can be beneficial. If you want a 10-minute exercise program to do first thing in the morning, in the evening, or the middle of the day, YouTube is a fantastic resource. You can do a little bit of exercise just to get everything moving without even having to leave your living room.

Remember magnesium: Magnesium is vital for energy and contributes to a reduction in tiredness and fatigue. During menopause, we tend to burn up a lot more of it, and it's sometimes not quite so easy to get enough from our food. So, taking plenty of magnesium-rich foods will prevent fatigue. It will give you that little bit more energy.

You can top it up with supplements such as our Menopause Support. This is a menopause supplement that contains magnesium, phytoestrogens from soya, and hibiscus.

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• Made from soya beans
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• Support for all stages of the menopause
• Unique formulation
• GM Free, suitable for vegans

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Find Menopause Support tablets in a store near you

B vitamins are also important: The B vitamins help to produce energy for us. So, I very often recommend a 50 milligram supplement on a daily basis. Take it with your breakfast, because as it's a little bit of an energiser, so you don't want to take it in the evening when you want to sleep.

Sleep well: If you don't sleep well, you are going to be fatigued the next day. And I know, again, sleep is a huge issue for many women. I've got lots of info on how to sleep better that you can check out if you want more information.

Rest and relax: This is the one where I think most menopausal women will go, "Rest, how can I rest?" It's so important. Again, your body can only cope with so many things at once, and as women, we have this pride thing that we can multitask. But it can also be our undoing if we keep doing so many things on a daily basis. We're just going to run out of energy. And remember, fatigue is your body's way of telling you it can't cope and it needs to rest. So, 30 minutes of 'me-time' a day, is worth its weight in gold and can make a huge difference quickly.

When to see your doctor

If you try these tips and advice and you find it doesn't make any difference, or if you have got to the burnout stage, then it's really important to seek medical advice or go and see a complementary practitioner.

Other health issues can creep in during perimenopause and menopause, such as underactive or overactive thyroid. It could be vitamin D or B12 deficiency. It could be low iron. It could be diabetes, and it could also be heart disease. All of these can appear at this particular life stage, and these will all cause fatigue, which is why it is important to get this checked by your doctor.

Your doctor can do tests just to eliminate these conditions and then, if everything is fine, you can look again at your lifestyle and maybe make a few more tweaks.

I hope you found this one helpful. Did you do anything to help your fatigue or need more advice? I love to get all of your questions and hear all of your tips and advice so please keep them coming.

And until then, I will see you next week for another edition of A.Vogel Talks Menopause.

You may also find these topics helpful:

7 reasons you're always tired during menopause

Best foods to fight menopause fatigue

How do you stop fatigue during perimenopause?