Flower of Life II, by Georgia O’Keefe

by Nina

My original overview post on yoga for menopause was in 2015. And the interview I did with Leslie Howard last week Yoga for Menopause reminded me that we have added a few more articles on menopause in the intervening years, so I thought now would be a good time update the overview post. One thing I learned going through the whole process myself is that it lasted much longer than I expected. I’m finally over having hot flashes, but I swear I had them for about 10 years. So I expect the information here in this post is going to help a lot of different people, no matter which phase they are in.

Because there are many different symptoms/problems/issues we may face during perimenopause and menopause, I’ve divided this post into those basic topic areas, beginning with some overviews.

Overviews

Shari Ser started our series with an overview of menopause in her post Yoga for Menopause: An Overview, in which she defines menopause and describes the three stages: perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause.

In the interview I did with her Yoga for Menopause, Leslie Howard discusses the physiology of menopause and how yoga can help you with some of the more difficult symptoms.

In her post Menopause as a Transformative Experience Beth Gibbs discusses how we can change the way we think about menopause and how yoga can support us through the process.

Joint Problems

Shari wrote about joint problems, something both she and I have been experiencing, in her post Yoga for Menopause: Joint Problems. In this post, she discusses arthralgia, the term for menopausal joint problems, and addresses four aspects of using yoga to cope with these problems: pain management, range of motion, muscle strengthening, and acceptance.

Headaches

I wrote about headaches, something my sister-in-law experienced in a seriously debilitating form, in my post Yoga for Menopause: Headaches. In that post, I included links to Baxter’s general posts on headaches, both tension headaches and migraines. I also discussed the relationship between diet and headaches, and provided some tips for changing your diet (if certain foods seems like a trigger for headaches).

Hot Flashes

Beth Gibbs, who is a certified yoga therapist through Integrative Yoga Therapy, wrote our post on hot flashes Yoga for Menopause: Managing Hot Flashes. In this post, she provides background about how yoga can help reduce hot flashes in general and provides two different techniques that can help you head off a hot flash as it is starting.

Fatigue

This was my major symptom during perimenopause, so I had a lot of experience with using asana to both rest and stimulate myself to counteract the effects of what I called a “fatigue attack.” See Yoga for Menopause: Fatigue for information about the combination of restorative and stimulating poses you can use to combat fatigue.

Frozen Shoulder

Although many of us haven’t even heard of frozen shoulder until we get one, this is actually a common problem during menopause and one that I’m all too familiar with. In my post Yoga and Menopause: Frozen Shoulders I discuss what frozen shoulder is, describe the three stages (painful stage, frozen stage, and thawing stage) and recommend yoga practices for each of the stages.

Insomnia

While I have many posts on the blog about stress-based insomnia, I finally addressed insomnia that is being caused by menopause in my post Menopause-Based Insomnia. Because I had most of my hot flashes at night, I eventually realized that I’d been practicing yoga for menopause-based insomnia regularly myself, so it was about time I talked about it!

Depression

Because we didn’t feel that there were different solutions for menopause-based depression, we didn’t write a specific post on depression during menopause, even though it is quite common. So if this is a problem you’re having, start by reading my post Practicing Yoga for Depression: An Overview. The overview is a bit out of date, so if you finish reading all the posts it provides links to, you can search the blog using the keyword “depression” to see if anything else of interest turns up.

Acceptance

The very first post that appeared on our blog on the topic of menopause was my response to a question from a reader. Friday Q&A: Menopause. In this post, I emphasized how valuable the yogic practice of “acceptance” was while going through menopause. I still believe this is essential and I plan to write something more about it soon.

Wisdom from Judith Lasater

During our researches, Shari turned to one of her own teachers, Judith Lasater, for advice about yoga and menopause. See Judith Lasater on Yoga and Aging for Judith’s answer to the question “As you went through peri-menopause and menopause, how did you change your personal practice to address your symptoms and adapt to your changing body?”

 

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