Did you know that clinical trials have shown that massage is a great way of dealing with many of the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause?  Here are 3 ways that regular massage can be beneficial:

 

1. Massage can help you fall asleep faster, improve sleep quality and help you feel better when you wake up.

2. Menopausal symptoms of anxiety and depression can be reduced.

3. Hot flushes can be reduced

 

Menopause and perimenopause can be challenging!  Women can start to feel the symptoms most commonly in their early 40s, although sometimes they can start in your 30s.  Psychological symptoms like brain fog, increasing anxiety levels and crying at adverts with animals can make you feel like you might be going crazy – but it’s all down to declining oestrogen and a crazy cascade of hormonal changes.  Physically, periods can start getting closer together – further apart – or heavier than ever before, and joints can start getting achy and painful.  Nearly 80% of women will experience some kind of symptoms and up to 65% of women will suffer from sleep disruption – waking up in the middle of the night with brain on full alert refusing to even contemplate going back to sleep.  It’s exhausting!

 

Apart from those more widely recognised symptoms, declining oestrogen also impacts bones, tendons, muscles and joints.  For women who exercise regularly this can lead to an increasing number of injuries – which can be super frustrating and means that you can’t train the way you always have.   Recovery takes much longer than it used to.  Massage is a great way of helping maintain your body and avoid injury and time off training – which sometimes can feel like the only thing that helps keep a degree of sanity in life disrupted by hormonal change.