I have practiced hormone, weight, health, and mind optimization for over forty-five years. I retired 9 years ago; at least, that is what I thought. When I retired, my wife and I owned and operated seven medical clinics specializing in hormone and weight optimization. As we enter our pauses (menopause and andropause), our hormones become disrupted, causing us to gain weight, suffer from the inability to lose the extra weight, sleeping disorders, hormonally induced anxiety and depression, loss of interest in being intimate, and lose our motivation to be social. Our internal chemistry, our hormones, governs how we feel, look, live, and think. Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter, which over 30,000 'paused' women and men already have, by entering your email address below and learn the tools we use to optimize our hormones and weight ‘naturally.’
Menopause, Hormones and Sleeping Well
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I was about twelve years old when someone broke into my house and shot me. I was lying on the floor, and I realized that I had been shot in the arm. I couldn't move my arm. With my arm paralyzed, I couldn't get myself up off the floor. I started screaming for help. HELP! HELP! HELP! The next thing I felt was someone shaking me. Wake up! Wake up! My eyes opened, and Mom seemed perturbed with me. "What?" She turned around and left the room. I tried to get up, but I couldn't. I had fallen asleep on my arm, and my arm was genuinely paralyzed from lack of circulation, at least temporarily. Sleep can be a strange dimension. And perpetually sleeping well is essential to create the (YOU) you desire to Be. I have studied sleep for over four decades, and now that I help transform women and men during their pauses, during which sleep has changed for the worse in most cases, I have had to study it even more so. So why is our sleep disturbed by being paused? "It's all about your hormones." Menopause disturbs sleep more dramatically than men in andropause. Remember, I define menopause differently. "Menopause is not ovulating." If menopause occurs when ovulation ceases, what causes a woman to stop ovulating? Recall that in a 28-day cycle, during the first 14 days, estrogen increases gradually day by day until it reaches its peak, which causes her to ovulate. When estrogen doesn't hit its ovulation mark, she doesn't ovulate, and she is now in her first month of menopause. Premenopause is when ovulation sputters. She ovulates some months and misses other months. Her periods become irregular. When women stop ovulating, even if it's for only one month, their ovaries don't produce two hormones: progesterone and testosterone. This lack of production causes some significant sleep disturbances. But let's back up for a moment. "The reason a woman becomes menopausal is because estrogen doesn't hit its mark to stimulate ovulation." ESTROGEN AND SLEEP If you are menopausal, not ovulating, you have low estrogen. Low estrogen occurs before your ovaries stop producing progesterone and testosterone. Having low estrogen levels affects sleep adversely in several ways, including:
ESTROGEN DOMINANCE AND SLEEP Most menopausal women I talk to sleep less than they would like. These women also have gained weight due to menopause. Nearly all of these women test positive for estrogen dominance. Estrogen dominance is diagnosed with a progesterone-to-estradiol ratio of 100 moles of progesterone to 1 mole of estradiol or less. The symptoms of estrogen dominance are:
"Before trying to increase estrogen levels, estrogen dominance must be tamed." Suppose a woman is estrogen dominant and she begins estrogen therapy. In that case, she will become more estrogen-dominant, she would gain more weight, and possibly develop more of the symptoms associated with estrogen dominance. "If you are estrogen dominant, the last thing you would want to do is increase estrogen levels." PROGESTERONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY There are two primary steps my clients take to tame estrogen dominance.
Belly fat makes estrogen, and estrogen makes belly fat, and so on. Belly fat produces an enzyme that converts progesterone and testosterone into estrogen. The chasm that not ovulating causes becomes larger and larger. "The best way to tame estrogen dominance is to lose belly fat." It is my opinion that sleeping problems caused by menopause are caused more by estrogen dominance than low estrogen levels. This might be confusing because low estrogen occurs first. But when estrogen levels lower and ovulation ceases, progesterone is not produced. When estrogen levels are reduced by 40%, ovulation ceases. However, progesterone levels decrease by 80 to 99% once ovulation ceases. Progesterone Replacement Therapy is the second best way to tame estrogen dominance. But if you lose your belly fat and you're using progesterone replacement therapy, and you still have a sleeping problem, then it's time to look into Estrogen Replacement Therapy. ESTROGEN REPLACEMENT THERAPY Once a menopausal woman achieves her ideal, happy, healthy, or bottom weight, and she is still having trouble sleeping or continues to have the other symptoms associated with low estrogen:
Then, she should consider supplementing with estrogen. Most doctors prescribe an estrogen dose that is too large. I'd have my wife begin with a minimal dose. "The reason we prefer a small dose is that in our clinics, we found that the larger the dose, the sooner our patients grew an immunity to estrogen therapy, meaning that the estrogen therapy worked at first, but as time went on, it quit working." Suppose my wife complained of sleeping disorders, and she was at a healthy weight. In that case, the first step I would have her take is to have her test her estrogen and progesterone levels. I would have her purchase a Salivary Assay Kit online to check her estrogen and progesterone levels. If her estrogen dominance was tamed but her estrogen levels were lower than they should be, I'd have her start with a low dose (1/4 teaspoon) of phytoestrogen cream. Phytoestrogen creams come from plants, attach to the estrogen receptors, and act like human estrogen. I prefer natural phytoestrogens than estrogen from a horse. Never use any supplemental hormone without first consulting with your healthcare practitioner. If you are miserable in menopause and would like to talk to me and pick my brain about being menopause awesome, schedule a free consultation. You can ask me your questions regarding menopause, and I will pull from my over 44 years of practicing health optimization to give you my best answer. Click the link below to: SCHEDULE YOUR FREE HOPE FOR MENOPAUSE CONSULTATION We were home this weekend, but not without visiting our favorite local speakeasy, © 2024 | Doc Mac Coaching The FDA has evaluated none of the statements on this website. Furthermore, none of the statements within this post should be construed as dispensing medical advice or making claims regarding the cure of diseases, nor can these products prevent disease. You should consult a licensed healthcare professional before starting any supplement, dietary, or exercise program, especially if you are pregnant or have any pre-existing injuries or medical conditions. The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated these statements. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent diseases.
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Hi! I'm Doc Mac.
I have practiced hormone, weight, health, and mind optimization for over forty-five years. I retired 9 years ago; at least, that is what I thought. When I retired, my wife and I owned and operated seven medical clinics specializing in hormone and weight optimization. As we enter our pauses (menopause and andropause), our hormones become disrupted, causing us to gain weight, suffer from the inability to lose the extra weight, sleeping disorders, hormonally induced anxiety and depression, loss of interest in being intimate, and lose our motivation to be social. Our internal chemistry, our hormones, governs how we feel, look, live, and think. Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter, which over 30,000 'paused' women and men already have, by entering your email address below and learn the tools we use to optimize our hormones and weight ‘naturally.’
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