As qualified counsellor and member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar recently on various topics with different speakers. Diane Danzebrink who is a Well Being Consultant and known as The Menopause Counsellor, was one of the key note speakers.
She is leading a campaign to raise awareness of the menopause in the work place, you can find her on face book and on twitter. She had some very interesting points to make but also some very factual information too some of which I was unaware of and thought would be worth sharing. Firstly the subject of oestrogen, as I have blogged before it nourishes tissues but what I didn’t realise was, that our brains are also full of oestrogen receptors and it also protects bone, heart, regulates cholesterol and in fact there are oestrogen receptors throughout our body.
This started to make me think of what the effects our decreasing oestrogen levels, are really having on many aspects of our health. Then there is progesterone which is the main calmer and promotes good sleep, normalises blood sugars, reduces anxiety and unfortunately is the first hormone to fall rapidly. She also touched on sometimes a taboo subject, vaginal dryness which in itself is at best uncomfortable, but it also often results in repeated UTI’s because of the lack of oestrogen in the pelvic area and the tissue in that area becoming very thin, leading to dryness, soreness and irritation. I recommend a book by Jane Lewis ‘Me and My Menopause’ for more information on a very important subject.
