My favourite (free) support tool in perimenopause
Menstrual cycle tracking has been a game changer
For me, and for many of my clients as they navigate the ups and downs of perimenopause.
There are a number of reasons for this:
It helps you stay on top of the link between your hormones and your perimenopause symptoms, so you know you’re not going mad, as the low mood, anxiety or rage happen on a monthly basis.
It helps you track whether any of the actions you’re taking to support your symptoms are having any impact. It helped one client notice that the simple step of increasing her hydration reduced the number of headaches she was having in the lead up to her period each month.
It can be helpful to share your learnings with your family. For example, I know that I can be quite short tempered from days 22-26 of my cycle, so I can actually warn family members to either give me a wide berth or go to bed the FIRST time I ask them to! It also means my husband is more likely to cook those nights as I need more downtime in the evening.
It is also free, takes very little time and is a great way to get to know yourself better.
So, what do you do?
You can either use a period tracking app - there are LOTS of them. I use Clue and Life and my Garmin app (mainly to track the length of my cycle, and to predict the low/cloudy days), but I also make a note in my journal every day.
A great place to start is by using a simple circle, divided into 28 sections into which you can add just a few words every day. This is where I started.
After 3 or 4 months you can start to see patterns of symptoms or mood, and you can also see if any of the actions you take make a difference.
For example, I had a client who did my gut health re-set and noticed that it actually stopped her hot flushes and improved her sleep.
I noticed that when I added a tablespoon of ground linseed every day it helped with dry skin and seemed to be linked to my PMS as well.
And I could that when I cut out alcohol my menstrual cycle was more regular.
If you’d like to get started I’ve got a super simple cycle tracker you can download via the button below.