Will I Feel Better After Menopause? | Post-Menopause Symptoms, Hormone Truths & What to Expect

Hi there, I'm Eliza Riley, holistic— your holistic menopause coaching specialist and founder of Menopause and Chill. And welcome to this week's episode of Weekly Wellness, where we get real about hormone shifts, healing, and the things that no one told us about midlife. Today I'm answering a question that so many women are wondering, whether or not you've had the courage to ask it out loud. Will I feel better after menopause? And I know it sounds simple, but it's actually loaded with a lot of confusion, sometimes disappointments, and hopefully some quiet hope. So let's talk about what really happens, what can get better, what may not get better, and what you can actually do about it. Right now. So today we're going to cover what post-menopause actually means, why some women will feel better and others won't, the 3 S's that I recommend for midlife wellness, and how to stop waiting for your body to fix itself and to start— and so that you can start feeling better now. So first off, let's start with the myth. Technically, you guys may not know this, but some of you may. Technically, menopause is just one day. Truly, it's just one day. It's the, the anniversary, the culmination. After 365 days of having no bleed, it's that one day. It's the, the next day. Like, that's it. It's that one day. And the day after that, you are technically Postmenopausal, like after menopause, after that one day, and you actually stay postmenopausal for the rest of your life. Like, there's no post-post. Like, that's it. Like, you're postmenopausal for the rest of your life, and there's no finish line. There's no, like, reset button. It's just your body continuing to communicate with you. And here's the thing. Some women actually do feel better after menopause because, you know, no more cycles, no more hormonal swings. They're— they have better moods. They have less PMS, no more pregnancy scares. Like, you don't even have to worry about getting pregnant anymore. But for many others, it doesn't magically improve. And to be honest, most of the women that I work with who are already postmenopausal, They're still struggling with the symptoms of menopause, and so that's what this conversation is about. So first, let's get into the three S's: salt, structure, and sun. Salt. So let's talk about your adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands, and I know if you've been watching me for a while, a few weeks ago I did a whole episode of Weekly Wellness about the importance of the adrenal glands because they are so important. They are so important for for whether or not you're making hormones well, or whether or not your your body is utilizing the hormones that you that you that you make or take in well. So they're they're very important. If you want to go deeper into the adrenal glands, go watch that video. But right now, I just wanted to share with you guys quickly: Your adrenals are responsible for producing stress hormones like cortisol. They also help to regulate blood. Pressure, blood sugar, and inflammation. And that's already like this huge full-time job, right? Like that's a lot for these tiny little because they're not very big. These these little nodes. But as you enter perimenopause, your ovaries slowly you know it's not like an overnight thing, but they slowly retire, and. Your adrenals are handed a new role of hormone production. So for a moment, imagine that your most— that your, that your body is like a, is like a corporation, and your most overworked employee, your adrenals, just got handed an entire other department after like a huge round of layoffs, right? So your adrenals now have to take on this other job when they're probably already struggling to do the job that they are there to do. So, so that's your adrenals. For years, coming back to salt, for years we have been told that we need to follow a low salt diet. If you guys have been told that, or if you think that that's, that that's the, that, that, that is the right thing for you, I'd love to like see you guys let me know in the chat because it's so common. I mean, I talk to women every day who are like, oh yeah, I don't, I don't eat salt, or I very little salt. And And they're all struggling with adrenal issues because salt is critical for adrenal function. And please know I'm not talking about table salt. That stuff, chunk it in the garbage. You don't— you shouldn't be— shouldn't be— you shouldn't be eating that at all. I'm talking about unrefined, mineral-rich salts, of course in moderation, but without enough of it, your adrenals cannot do their job. I apologize, there's a mosquito flying around my face. And I'm not— I really should smack it, but I don't want to smack it on me. Not right now anyway. Okay, so I'm sorry. What was I saying? Table salt. Not table salt, but without good healthy salt, your adrenals can't do their job, and neither can you. So salt. The next thing, structure. And structure is so often overlooked, and it's such a simple thing. Honestly, it's probably one of the The most important and, and simplest and free things that you can be doing for your health that you're probably not even thinking about. Structure is when— I'm sorry, I'll get into what structure is. But structure is how it tells your body, it helps your body to know what to expect. It operates so that your body is not operating in survival mode. It helps the stress hormones. When you're— when you don't have stress, when you don't have structure, your body is Your stress hormones stay elevated, your blood sugar will spike and crash, your energy feels all over the place, and structure helps to regulate your nervous system and your hormones. So, what is structure? It's things like eating meals at regular intervals, and I won't sit here and tell you, like, you need to eat every 3 hours, or you need to eat every 5 hours, or you need to eat every 8 hours, or whatever, because it's really personal. It's, it's what If you, if you have adrenal issues, and again, if you've been on a low salt diet for a very long time, you probably do. Most of us do, to be honest. Even if you, even if you haven't been on a low salt diet, most of us at midlife have adrenal issues. So, one of the best things that you can do for your adrenals is to actually eat more regular, eat smaller, more frequent meals. And it actually tells your adrenals that they're safe, that they can calm down, that they don't have to worry, they don't have to stress. So eating, eating meals at regular intervals that are right for you, having a consistent sleep-wake cycle. That's one of those things that, you know, we think that if we can't get a whole lot of sleep during the week, like maybe we work a lot, or our work hours are, are, are long, then we think, well, we can catch up on, on our weekend. And it's really— that's a stressor on your body. You really should be trying to get the same wake up and go to sleep at the same time every night. And the cool thing about structure, about doing this, about doing— so if you find the routine, find structure that works for your body day in and day out, and if you stick to it for a while, like it may take weeks or months. Before your body gets into— out of fight or flight, out of stress response, and into like rest and digest and into healing. And then when you have that night where you didn't get to sleep early enough, or when you had to wake up extra early, or you weren't able to eat the meals that you wanted to, or when you wanted to, your body's like, that's okay, we got this. But when you're consistently irregular, And staying in that, in that high stress zone, your body is constantly like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, like it just can't, it can't settle into anything. And so it's so important to, to give your body rhythm, not chaos. And that's, this is actually where I, why I recommend to everyone I work with To begin with, gentle symptom tracking. Just noticing things like what you eat, when you sleep, when you wake, because that's a huge communication signal, and how you feel. So, and no pressure, no judgment, just observation. And it's so important, like, not just to write things down, because of course you want to write them down. You can't go back and look it over if you haven't written it down. But you write it down so that you can go back and look for And of course, the word just flew away from me. But you look for— you track— I can't think of the word. Where— so like, so you know that if you have that glass of wine, then it's going to give you hot flashes overnight. I know that's a very obvious one. But you look for things like that. You look for connections. You look where you can say, okay, when I didn't get enough sleep, then I also was having like level 10 hot flashes where normally I only have like a level 2. You can actually start to make those connections. And that's so important. And if you'd like help with that, I actually created a set of journal pages to guide you through the process. And you can get them for free when you sign up for my weekly wellness newsletter. And bonus, you'll actually get notification of these conversations and what we're talking about each week in my newsletter. And let me go ahead and share that link with you guys. In the, in the chat, and if you're watching the replay, then I will make sure that that's available for you as well. So the third thing is sun. Finally, sunlight. Yes, I'm going to talk about sunlight. Natural sunlight is actually one of the most underrated hormonal tools we have, and most people don't realize this, but vitamin D really isn't a vitamin; it's a hormone. And we synthesize it best from sun exposure. No judgment if you're— if you have to take, um, um, a supplement of, of, uh, vitamin D. Not everyone has, has, has Louisiana sun like we have here. But, um, but if you have access to the sun, then you really should be getting out and getting as much of it as you, as you can throughout the year. And they're really— and so there's, there's certain ways that you can do it to really maximize Sun exposure, you want to make sure that you're getting it through not just your skin but through your eyes. So every morning, as close to— I say, like, if you're someone, if you're one of those women who wakes up in the middle of the night, you know, if you wake up at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning and then you're just up, well, then you can step outside when the sun comes up. But if you're not awake that early— I am not— but if you're not awake that early, as soon as you wake up, as soon as possible, you want to step outside. You want to look to the east. Don't look directly at the sun because that's actually not good for your eyes, but look to the east so that you're looking in the direction where the sunlight is coming from. You want to make sure that you don't wear sunglasses, don't wear your glasses, don't wear contacts, and honestly wear as few clothes— as little clothing as possible because you want to make sure that as much sunlight is coming in through all of your cell receptors as possible. And even just 5 minutes, that small habit will Better cortisol rhythm, more stable energy, improved sleep, and hormone balance. So here's the part that really matters: your body is always communicating with you. I want you guys to to we have to we have to try to get out of this this mindset of symptom. Means like war, you know, like, like every symptom is, is like an act of war against us, right? Symptoms are not failures. They are messages from our body, and you do not have to keep translating them alone. That's what— that's where I come in. That's what I do. And I do offer free strategy sessions for women who are ready to stop spinning in confusion and really get clear on what their body is saying to them. If you would like to have to book one of these strategy sessions, I will put the link in the chat, or it will be there for you if you're watching the recording. Just know that I only have room for a few spots each week. So if they're gone, you can message me and I will put you on the waiting list for the following week and I'll get those out to you right away. But if, if, if you do, if you are able to to get to grab a spot, or if you are ready for a spot, grab one now. Don't wait, don't wait too long. And let me go ahead and put that link in there as well for you guys. There we go. And so let me just leave you guys with this. It's not too late. Sure, it would have been amazing if we had thought to start doing this work that we're doing now in our 30s. Because it would have made this transition so much easier. But most of us were simply not given the tools to understand the importance of even these simple things— sunlight, salts, and structure. But what matters is— because we can't go back and fix that and change that. But what matters is what you do now. And you don't have to wait another year. You definitely don't need to wait another 10 years. You don't have to suffer for another day. The sooner that you start supporting your body, the sooner you are going to start feeling like yourself again. Thank you guys so much for joining me. Thank you so much for your patience with figuring out the speaker. I swear I'm gonna get used to that. It's having the speaker that I actually have to turn on every time I use Zoom. But I apologize for, for that once again. Thank you guys again for, for joining me for this week's Weekly Wellness. I'm Eliza Riley, and I will see you next time. Bye, everyone. Bye.