Is It Menopause, Or Is It The Weather?

There’s a lot of to-do around menopause these days, with more women than ever before suffering from hormone imbalance-related symptoms starting as early as their late thirties. and continuing into their mid to late fifties. There’s so much noise around it, that for the past decade I’ve been convinced that all of my mental and physical problems have been stemming from my body not producing enough estrogen and progesterone.

Now, I’m not here to negate the possibility that some of my symptoms have resulted from hormone deficiencies, nor am I here to belittle any problem any of my peri- or post-menopausal readers might be suffering from.

But I recently discovered something about myself that I wanted to share, because I believe the truth of it will help some other women who are in their forties and fifties.

My Big Discovery.

Before I get into That Big Discovery, I need to share a smaller, related discovery I made a couple of years ago. That discovery was that the sensitivities of Highly Sensitive People become more acute with age. In the recent past when I spoke on the topic, I mentioned that due to my extremely sensitive nervous system, changes in the weather affect me both physically and mentally.

That Big Discovery I recently made? The weather has been affecting me more than I realized. Here’s how I figured that out.

As I write these words, it’s the middle of March. From early February until now, the weather changes from day to day and from week to week have been even more extreme where I live than they usually at this time of year…which, by the way, has always been the most difficult part of the year for me to get through. It’s gone something like this: A week of winter weather, including highs in the thirties and sleet, ice, and snow falling from the sky. Then, within two weeks of that, a few days in a row of sunny days in the sixties or even high seventies. Not five days later, it’s in the forties and raining.

For an entire month, all I wanted to do was sleep for the rest of my life. I wished I didn’t have a husband and son to take care of, and I didn’t care if I ever wrote another blog post, crafted another novel, or produced another video.

My digestive system went whacko along with the weather, making it even more difficult to drag myself through each day.

And though I realized some of it, particularly the depression, had to do with the weather, I thought most of it had to do with my hormone levels having fallen to new depths.

My lightning bolt moment.

It was another dreary, cloudy day. Not cold, as the predicted high was to be in the near sixty, but humid, therefore chilly. I not only felt fatigued, but also had realized that I’d gradually been feeling more depressed over the past couple of days.

Then, I get into a conflict with my teenage son. We mostly get along, and knowing he’s also Highly Sensitive, I’m usually careful to speak to him calmly and respectfully. But on this particular day, I was on edge. As was my son, I could tell within a minute of his starting a conversation about his “need” for a waterproof case for the camera I’d given to him for Christmas.

Emotions began to escalate, and I lost all my patience. I snapped.

He got upset and stormed out of the house.

Then, the answer hit me like a lightning bolt: the atmospheric insanity was what had been sucking  all the energy out of my body.

To confirm it, I turned to my husband and asked if he was feeling the weather. Was he tired or headachy?

Maybe a little tired, he replied, and definitely depressed.

Well. I know this might shock some of my readers, but neither my husband nor my son is post-menopausal. Their emotional state had nothing to do with a lack of estrogen and progesterone.

What was going on with all three of us?

Our serotonin levels were down.

Serotonin does more than I realized!

Now, I’ve known for quite some time that lack of serotonin is what causes Seasonal Affective Disorder, anxiety, and depression. Something about sunshine encourages the production of our happy brain chemical, and when clouds cover the sun for a long period of time, it can lead to negative thoughts and emotions. I’ve noticed this happen in my husband and son, as well as in myself.

I’ve also suspected a connection between low air pressure and serotonin production.

But that day, more pieces of the puzzle fell into place. It can be the clearest day possible, but if the wind is from either the north or the east, it affects my mood. And not only my mood, but also my energy levels.

I realized that low levels of estrogen and progesterone weren’t causing my fatigue. it was, instead, low levels of serotonin.

A quick search the next day cemented my new knowledge, as I discovered that proper levels of serotonin are required for the adrenal glands to function well. Low serotonin therefore leads to low energy and sleep disorders.

The good news is, there are several natural ways to raise serotonin levels relatively quickly. That fateful day, I spent five minutes sniffing rosemary essential oil, and just like that, my energy went back up and my digestion began to improve.

I had suffered needlessly for several weeks.

The issue of serotonin for health is so important that I’ve decided to write a whole other post and make a whole other video about it. For now, I want to close by addressing my fellow late middle-aged women who have been suffering from what are typically considered symptoms of hormonal imbalance, even when they are endeavoring to live as healthy a lifestyle as they can. 

I want to encourage you to start paying attention to the weather, how you feel on cloudy days, when the wind is from the north or east, (or, I guess from the south if you live in the Southern Hemisphere), when a storm is brewing, when the humidity is high. You might just find a pattern. 

You might discover that many, if not most, of your problems have had nothing to do with your hormones, and everything to do with the weather.

Peace to you, and may blessings abound in every area of your life.