London: After centuries of women suffering in silence, it feels like everyone’s suddenly talking about menopause. Finally, the stigma of talking about symptoms such as hormonal rages and fluctuating sex drive is on the way out. Celebrities including Davina McCall, Lorraine Kelly, and Meg Mathews are queuing up to share their stories, while the government is establishing a task force and cutting the cost of repeatable HRT prescriptions.
All this openness is long overdue, but if you are finding menopause symptoms are taking a toll on your daily life, you might still feel at sea when it comes to accessing the support you need. Don’t suffer in silence: get help for your symptoms.
So why suffer in silence when there’s a range of self-care and medical treatments that could help you understand and manage your symptoms better? Take Healthily™, the world’s first medically verified self-care app, and website – it’s brimming with articles and guides reviewed by an internal panel of doctors, with an award-winning and user-friendly Smart Symptom Checker.
You can better understand what your body’s going through with a few quick taps – and then try the trusted tips to feel better. Healthily Clinical Lead and London GP Dr. Aleem Qureshi says, “When estrogen hormone levels fluctuate and fall during the perimenopause and menopause, it can have effects all over the body including the brain, gut, muscles, and joints, and that’s why menopause symptoms can be so different and wide-ranging.
‘Apart from the more well-known symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats, and brain fog, some women may also experience anxiety, cold flushes, and formication (a sensation of insects crawling under the skin), as well as joint pain, a burning mouth, feelings of anger, bloating, and heart palpitations,’ says Dr. Qureshi.
‘The Healthily website provides a wealth of useful information checked by our team of in-house doctors and practical tips to help women cope with their symptoms, providing recommendations on lifestyle measures and information about medical treatments that may help.
‘There are also key flags to talk about when you need to see a doctor – to ensure you’re getting the right help at the right time,’ he adds. Healthily provides wraparound support with My Menopause Story, an online space for sharing your experiences anonymously and reading other women’s stories.
You can also choose to use the Healthily app – it’s the first self-care app to be self-certified as a Medical Device Class 1 in the EU, giving you access to medically safe information and exclusive 28-day plans to help tackle common menopause problems like poor sleep, low mood, and weight gain.
Expect the unexpected!
If there’s one thing menopause likes to do, it’s to throw the unexpected in your path. Feeling anxious? Bloated? Raging mood swings? Whatever your symptoms, Healthily has you covered, with medically-verified information available from livehealthily.com. Read on to find out more about some of the common and unexpected symptoms and how you can tackle them.
‘I know about hot flushes, but why am I getting cold?’ While hot flushes are a common menopause symptom most people have heard about, you might find yourself having cold flushes too. These feel like a sudden chill that comes on at night or during the day.
A cold flush can hit without warning. It’s all down to fluctuating hormones that affect the brain’s temperature regulator, the hypothalamus. While these episodes usually only last a few minutes, they can disrupt your sleep, and leave you feeling tired and groggy in the morning. So what’s the best way to manage them?
Help with symptoms:
HRT can help manage menopause hot and cold flush symptoms by replacing falling estrogen levels. Consult your doctor when deciding if HRT could help you. There are also lots of easy self-help tips you can adopt to relieve menopause symptoms.
Layering up your bedding can cool you down if you’re suffering night sweats or keep you warm if cold flushes are a problem. The same goes for clothing, choose loose layers in natural fabrics. read more
