In your 40s and then in to your 50s, your body changes. Women gain fat and lose muscle. Our joints become less flexible and we are weaker than we used to be in our earlier years. We may spend hours hunched over a desk staring at a computer. Our bones thin. (Isn’t menopause fun!). Our lives may become stressful at midlife, dealing with teenage children, aging parents, financial stressors and now Covid 19. Yoga, in one simple hour class, takes care of all of these in one fell swoop.
In my practice, I see so many menopausal women who tell me that when they go through menopause, their metabolism slows down, and they’re gaining weight. They tell me that they watch what they eat, they make healthy choices, they exercise, and they just can’t lose weight.
This can be really frustrating because menopause is a big transition in life. I see many menopausal women struggling with those last 15 pounds! As women journey through the lifecycle, their bodies naturally shift in response to hormonal changes that usher them out of the fertile phase of life. Menopause is frequently accompanied by weight gain, muscle loss, and lack of energy, making it challenging to achieve a healthy weight. Many women who have gone through menopause or are going through menopause come to us to help them with weight loss and muscle gain.
Menopause can be miserable. The hot flashes, the night sweats, the mood swings. Of all the menopausal symptoms, for some people the WEIGHT GAIN is the worst! Not only do menopausal women gain weight, they gain around the middle instead of in the bust, bum or hips. Read more to learn 5 important tips for managing menopausal weight gain.
We aren’t taught much about what happens during menopause and the few years before. Read on for some things you didn’t know were related to the loss of estrogen that your ovaries used to make!
Vaginismus is an involuntary, tight contraction of muscles around the opening of the vagina that makes putting anything in the vagina painful, including sex. Dr. Becky Lynn, gynecologist and sexual health specialist talks to Megan Normille, pelvic floor physical therapist about how physical therapy can cure vaginismus.
Sandpaper. That is what my patients tell me about how their vagina feels during sex after menopause. There’s good news though--you don’t have to live that way. There are several things you can do to reinvigorate “down there”.
