The Wisdom of Menopause Read online

  ALSO BY CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, M.D.

  Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

  Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing

  Mother-Daughter Wisdom

  Understanding the Crucial Link Between

  Mothers, Daughters, and Health

  The Secret Pleasures of Menopause

  The Secret Pleasures of Menopause Playbook

  A Guide to Creating Vibrant Health Through Pleasure

  The Wisdom of Menopause Journal

  Many of the stories that appear in this book are composites; individual names and identifying characteristics have been changed. Nevertheless, they reflect authentic situations in the lives of the thousands of perimenopausal women I’ve seen in my practice over the years. If you think you recognize yourself in these pages, the similarities are strictly coincidental unless I have received your specific written permission to use your story.

  Copyright © 2012, 2006, and 2001 by Christiane Northrup, M.D.

  Illustrations by Scott Leighton

  Copyright © 2012 by Christiane Northrup, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  EBook Edition published by Christiane Northrup, Inc. 2008

  Fully revised EBook Edition published 2012

  Print edition is available through Bantam Books

  www.bantamdell.com

  BANTAM BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Some of the material in The Wisdom of Menopause was originally published in

  Health Wisdom for Women, Phillips Publishing International.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Northrup, Christiane

  The wisdom of menopause: creating physical and emotional health during the

  change/Christiane Northrup.—Rev. and updated.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Tradepaper ISBN 978-0-553-38672-1

  Digital ISBN 978-1-4019-3997-7

  1. Menopause 2. Menopause—Psychological aspects.

  3. Menopause—Religious aspects. I. Title

  Printed in the United States of America.

  2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1

  EBook Published by Christiane Northrup, Inc.

  is a registered trademark of Christiane Northrup, Inc

  For more information about Dr. Northrup and her work,

  please visit: www.DrNorthrup.com.

  This book is dedicated to the pioneering spirit

  embodied in the women of the baby boom generation

  Contents

  List of Figures

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction: The Journey Begins

  Midlife: Redefining Creativity and Home

  Blazing a New Trail

  Chapter 1. Menopause Puts Your Life Under a Microscope

  “Not Me, My Marriage Is Fine”

  The Childbearing Years: Balancing Personal and Professional Lives

  Why Marriages Must Change at Midlife

  My Personal Fibroid Story: The Final Chapter

  The Joy of Co-creative Partnership

  The Forces That Change the Goose Also Change the Gander

  Real Menopause Hits

  My Marriage Goes Bankrupt

  Armadillo Medicine: The Power of Vulnerability

  Celebrating the Past While Creating a New Future

  Chapter 2. The Brain Catches Fire at Menopause

  Our Brains Catch Fire at Menopause

  Learning to Recognize and Heed Our Wake-up Calls

  Is It Me or Is It My Hormones? Debunking the Myth of Raging Hormones

  The Multiple Roles of Your “Reproductive” Hormones

  Embracing the Message Behind Our Menopausal Anger

  Emotions, Hormones, and Your Health

  How Our Midlife Brains and Bodies Are Set Up to Heal Our Past

  Finding a Larger Meaning

  Chapter 3. Coming Home to Yourself: From Dependence to Healthy Autonomy

  The Empty-Nest Syndrome

  Boomerang Babies

  Powerful Feelings, Powerful Healing

  Caring for Ourselves, Caring for Others: Finding the Balance

  Hitting Pay Dirt: Getting Clear About Money at Midlife

  Coming Home to Yourself

  Vocational Awakening at Midlife

  A Road Map for Navigating Unknown Territory

  Chapter 4. This Can’t Be Menopause, Can It? The Physical Foundation of the Change

  What Is Happening in Your Body: Hormonal Changes

  Perimenopause Is a Normal Process, Not a Disease

  The Three Types of Menopause

  Perimenopause and Hormonal Levels

  Is There a Test I Can Take?

  Menopause and Thyroid Function

  Menopause and Adrenal Function

  What to Expect in Your Transition

  Chapter 5. Hormone Therapy: An Individual Choice

  A Brief History of Hormone Therapy

  Bioidentical Hormones: Nature’s Ideal Design

  A Hormone Primer: Essential Information Every Woman Should Know

  How to Decide Whether or Not to Take Hormones

  A Dusting of Hormones

  How Long Should You Stay on Hormones?

  Chapter 6. Foods and Supplements to Support the Change

  Basic Principles of Herbal Therapy at Menopause

  Menopausal Healing Foods

  Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture for Menopause

  Start Somewhere

  Chapter 7. The Menopause Food Plan: A Program to Balance Your Hormones and Prevent Middle-Age Spread

  Making Peace (Once Again) with My Weight

  Six Steps to Midlife Weight Control

  The Hormone-Balancing Food Plan

  Optimizing Midlife Digestion

  The Final Frontier: Accepting Our Bodies

  Chapter 8. Creating Pelvic Health and Power

  What Is Yours, What Is Mine, What Is Ours? Reclaiming Our Boundaries

  Hormonal Imbalance: Fuel to the Fire

  Menstrual Cramps and Pelvic Pain

  Heavy Bleeding

  Fibroids

  An Empowered Approach to Surgery or Invasive Procedures

  Master Program for Creating Pelvic Health

  Urinary Health

  Chapter 9. Sex and Menopause: Myths and Reality

  The Anatomy of Desire

  Sexuality at Menopause: Our Cultural Inheritance

  Menopause Is a Time to Redefine and Update Our Relationships

  Hormone Levels Are Only One Part of Libido

  Secondary Libidinal Support: Estrogen and Progesterone

  Testosterone: The Hormone of Desire?

  Aids to Lubrication

  Telling the Truth

  Ten Steps to Rekindling Libido

  Chapter 10. Nurturing Your Brain: Sleep, Mood, and Memory

  Enhancing Midlife Sleep

  Depression: An Opportunity for Growth

  Memory Loss at Menopause: Is This Alzheimer’s?

  Hormones and Alzheimer’s

  Nonhormonal Ways to Protect Your Brain

  Maximizing Midlife Wisdom

  Chapter 11. From Rosebud to Rose Hip: Cultivating Midlife Beauty

  Making Peace with Your Changing Skin

  Preventing or Treating Wrinkles

  Midlife Acne

  Rosacea

  Hair in the Wrong Places

  When Good Skin Care Isn’t Enough: Deciding on Cosmetic Procedures

  Varicose Veins

  Chapter 12. Standing Tall for Life: Building Healthy Bones

  Osteoporosis: The Scope of the Problem

  We’re Designed for Lifetime Sturdiness

  How
Healthy Bone Is Made

  Are You at Risk for Osteoporosis?

  Measuring Bone Density

  What About Bone-Building Drugs?

  Get Strong

  Healing Your Fitness Past

  The Sunlight–Bone Health Connection

  Shore Up Your Earth Connection with Plant Medicine

  Straight, Strong, and Flexible for Life: Master Program for Healthy Bones and Joints

  Chapter 13. Creating Breast Health

  Our Cultural Inheritance: Nurturing vs. Self-Sacrifice

  The Emotional Anatomy of Breast Cancer

  Program for Creating Breast Health

  Breast Cancer Screening

  The Promise of Thermography

  Putting Breast Cancer Risk in Perspective

  The Breast Cancer Gene: Should You Be Tested?

  The Effect of HT on Breast Health

  Bioidentical Hormones and Cancer Risk

  The Tamoxifen Dilemma

  Chapter 14. Living with Heart, Passion, and Joy: How to Listen to and Love Your Midlife Heart

  The Heart Has Its Say at Menopause: My Personal Story

  Cardiovascular Disease: When the Flow of Life Is Blocked

  Palpitations: Your Heart’s Wake-up Call

  Gender Bias and Heart Disease: Our Cultural Inheritance

  Reducing Your Risk for Heart Disease

  Carbohydrates, Sugar, and Heart Health: What Every Woman Should Know

  Cardioprotective Supplements

  Foods for Heart Health

  What About Aspirin?

  Get Moving!

  The Heart-Estrogen Link: What’s Really Going On?

  How to Love and Respect Your Midlife Heart

  The Heart-Opening Effect of Pets

  The Intellect Is Certain It Knows, but the Heart Always Wins

  Epilogue: The Calm After the Storm

  Resources

  Notes

  About the Author

  List of Figures

  Figure 1: The First Two Wake-Up Calls: PMS and SAD

  Figure 2: Currents of Wisdom

  Figure 3: The Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Ovary Connection

  Figure 4: Reward Across the Life Cycle

  Figure 5: Why Traumatic Memories May Be Relived at Midlife

  Figure 6: Emotional Anatomy

  Figure 7: Hormone-Producing Body Sites

  Figure 8: Menopausal Symptoms Timeline

  Figure 9: Kinds of Estrogen

  Figure 10: Kinds of Progesterone

  Figure 11: Body Mass Index Chart

  Figure 12: Types of Fibroids

  Figure 13: Pelvic Organs with Supporting Muscles

  Figure 14: The Clitoral System

  Figure 15: The Anatomy of the Skin

  Figure 16: Female Vertebrae

  Figure 17: Bone Remodeling

  Figure 18: The Lymph System

  Figure 19: The Heart-Emotion Connection

  Acknowledgments

  I would first like to acknowledge all those whose skills and insights helped me birth the first edition of this book during my own perimenopause back in the early 2000s, especially Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D., Ph.D., Joel Hargrove, M.D., and the masterly and legendary editor Toni Burbank.

  For this updated version, I gratefully thank:

  Marnie Cochran of Random House for her enthusiasm and editorial skill.

  Theresa Zoro for her veteran publicity skills.

  Ned Leavitt for being a soul-mate agent.

  Scott Leighton for both his medical illustrations and his wonderful energy.

  Hope Matthews, my Pilates teacher, for assisting me in keeping my body flexible and strong.

  Julie Hofheimer, my massage therapist, who is a midwife of both body and soul.

  Fern Tsao and her daughter Maureen Manetti for their skill with Traditional Chinese Medicine and for keeping my chi flowing freely.

  My team at Hay House, Louise Hay, Reid Tracy, Margarete Nielsen, Dani Riehl, Donna Abate, and Nancy Levin, and the entire staff of both Hay House and Hay House Radio for helping me pleasurably produce my website, PBS shows, and radio show—and also orchestrating uplifting speaking engagements.

  Judie Harvey for her Web and editing skills, and great sense of humor.

  Doris Cohen, for her impeccable skill as a psychologist and friend who also has access to rock star angels and spirit guides.

  Katy Koontz for living out her scribe archetype with such skill, speed, and panache. She has been a godsend during this and so many other writing projects.

  Sue Abel for helping keep my home clean, restful, and beautiful and for taking such good care of my cats when I’m not here.

  Mike Brewer for keeping my home and grounds maintained and lovely.

  Abby Shattuck for her gardening skills and feeling for plants and the earth.

  Chip Gray and the Gray family of the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport for providing delicious, gourmet, low-glycemic, organic food in a beautiful setting. They have created an invaluable oasis of comfort, warmth, and nourishment that I treasure.

  Paulina Carr for her cheerful willingness to do whatever needs to be done. And also her ability to stick with it until she gets an answer.

  Janet Lambert for her superior bookkeeping skills and general all-around great attitude.

  Diane Grover for being the rock at the center of my whole life—keeping everything organized, clear, fun, meaningful, and on track. She is the woman behind the woman—and also the woman beside the woman. She is a first-chakra genius for whom I am enormously grateful every day.

  Charlie Grover, Diane’s husband, whose good humor and willingness to provide backup and down-to-earth commentary are precious.

  To my daughter Kate for being the perfect CEO (creative expansion optimist) for Team Northrup.

  To my daughter Annie, who truly is the diva of the word and of my heart.

  My mother, Edna, for continuing to be an inspiration about what’s possible in one’s eighties. To my late father, George Wilbur, whose work was the inspiration for my approach to women’s health. To my sister Penny Kirk and her husband, Phil, who have been such good friends and business co-creators. And to my brothers, John and Bill, and their wives, Annie and Lori. I cherish them all more than I can say.

  Christiane Northrup, M.D.

  INTRODUCTION

  The Journey Begins

  In the year or two before I actually started to skip periods, I began to experience an increasingly common feeling of irritability whenever my work was interrupted or I had to contend with a coworker or employee who was not as committed to accomplishing the job as I was. Looking back, I recall that when I was in my thirties and my children were younger, their interruptions when I was in the middle of writing an article or talking on the phone were only mildly irritating to me. My love and concern for their welfare usually overrode any anger or frustration I might have felt.

  But as I approached menopause, I found myself unable to tolerate distractions such as my eighteen-year-old asking me, “When is dinner?” when she could clearly see I was busy. Why, I wondered, was it always my responsibility to turn on the stove and begin to think about my family’s food needs, even when I wasn’t hungry and was deeply engrossed in a project? Why couldn’t my husband get the dinner preparations started? Why did my family seem to be almost totally paralyzed when it came to preparing a meal? Why did they all wait in the kitchen, as though unable to set the table or pour a glass of water, until I came into the room and my mere presence announced, “Mom’s here. Now we get to eat”?

  The same thing occurred when it was time to get into the car and take off on vacation. Only when I myself made a definitive move toward the door did my family mobilize. It felt as though my presence caused them to lose their own personal initiative to take charge of a situation, be it dinner or a family trip. Still, during my child-bearing years I accepted this, mostly good-naturedly, as part and parcel of my role as wife and mother. And in so doing, I unwittingly perpetuated it, partly because it felt s
o good to be indispensable.

  During perimenopause, I lost patience with this behavior on all levels, whether at home or at work. I could feel a fiery volcano within me, ready to burst, and a voice within me roaring, “Enough! You’re all able-bodied, capable individuals. Everyone here knows how to drive a car and boil water. Why is my energy still the organizing principle around here?” My indignation grew as I mumbled to myself, “If I were a man in the prime of life and at the pinnacle of his career, I wouldn’t be interrupted like this. Everyone would be wondering how to help me, instead of the other way around!”