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Proactive Perimenopause

Louise
Written by Louise Viveiros
Jan 20, 2025   •   
Proactive Perimenopause

The Proactive Path of Perimenopause

Perimenopause and Menopause were hot topics in 2024 and I’ve no doubt that this trend will continue into this year. It’s very much the time for a Proactive Perimenopause. I read recently that in ‘2025 more than 1 billion women are now experiencing menopause with countless millions in perimenopause’. As a woman in her late 40s and a practitioner dedicated to helping midlife women navigate this transitional period of their lives, I’ve spent endless hours reading, researching and diving down rabbit holes to pull out gems from the bedrock around the subject of female health and fitness in their midlife years. And what I’ve discovered is refreshingly simple (not easy).

Out of 5,000 mammal species only 6 are known to go through menopause and we are the only primate

Many claims are made around specialist training programs with intricate nutritional protocols alongside complex testing regimes (blood work etc), niche supplements as well as pharmaceuticals and medical interventions. These are then neatly packaged into solutions and marketed heavily. But are these ‘things’ really helping us to proactively traverse what is a key rite of passage for female humans? To navigate undulating terrain and tricky territories whilst juggling everyday life? Or do they complicate the feeling of confusion even more?

Perimenopause today

We are mostly reaching midlife in a semi-crumpled heap. If you are reading this it’s likely you’ve followed a fair few fitness, nutrition and supplement protocols over the years. And from those experiences we will have likely picked up a few nuggets of wisdom that DO actually work well for you. Keep hold of those. But we are very distracted by the shiny objects. We have been well trained to need external support for everything. Whereas a lot of the power we need now is actually right at our fingertips, inside us.

What do the majority* of midlife women need to assist them in this transition?

*there will always be exceptions

As astounding as it sounds – we simply need to continue with, refine and develop the basics foundations of health that underpinned our approach wellness throughout ours 20s, 30s and 40s! Continuing to master the fundamentals. This doesn’t mean that we bypass or are exempt from some of the more choppy waters of perimenopause but perhaps, just maybe, it might means that we will be able to transition through mid-life with less extreme responses and better long-term outcomes.

A RISING FIERCE Prescription for a Proactive Perimenopause

Nothing niche, nothing special, just solid well-documented and supported practical for women in their forties and fifties.

  • Effective Exercise
    Move more (but not rigidly stuck to the rule of 10k daily steps!)
    Move well (learn techniques & skills & adapt to your unique body)
    Strength (with a decent amount of weight relative to your skills & capacity)
    High Intensity Cardio (real HIIT/SIT is insanely hard!)
    Power & Plyometrics (jump like a little kid!)
    Recovery (work as hard at this as you do with the above)
  • Nourishing Nutrition
    Protein – understand this properly & apply it
    Carbohydrates – understand this properly & apply it
    Gluten – reduce/stop
    Drink water – fluorine free & with minerals
    Alcohol – reduce/stop
    Caffeine – reduce/stop
  • Supportive Supplements
    Magnesium, Magnesium, Magnesium!
    Vitamin D3
    Vitamin C
    Zinc (potentially)
    Omega 3 Fatty Acids
    Beef Liver & Collagen
  • Life-changing Lifestyle
    Sleep habits
    Environmental toxins remove/reduce
    Stress management
    Nature immersions
    Soul (spirit or trauma) work – deal with that darkness!

Imagine a world where we were all able to effectively and sustainably do the above with the support of society around us – how different the world would be.

Yet we seem to occupy a frenzied, fast-paced world that sucks us off centre multiple of times a day. And our bodies are doing the absolute BEST they can to keep up – often presenting us with signals and signs that they are not coping but even if we hear them we aren’t listening and responding.

The female body requires safety and stability not unstable experimentation
Laura Lyons

Is it any wonder that when our hormones begin their natural path of realignment we start to experience more pronounced and extreme reactions? That one reaction cascades into another and we seriously begin to struggle with the changes we are experiencing? Then we either try to battle on alone or, we ask every external source to help ‘fix’ us? The truth is that we need to own where we are, who we are and where we are heading. We can all make changes today that will elevate our health but we have to choose to do it and then actually DO IT.

Louise Viveiros is Midlife Midwife operating in Geelong, Victoria. She shares her path of Rising Fierce with midlife women wanting to meet the challenges of midlife with grit and grace.

Louise
Written by Louise Viveiros
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