A woman’s life is said to be marked by four key phases and transitions: the maiden, the mother (whether or not she becomes a mother in the traditional sense), the maga and the crone. Each of these phases holds power, beauty, grace and wisdom, and when held with reverence, becomes a rite of passage.
As women, it is in the transitional phase of the maga – the metamorphosis between mother and crone – where we encounter perimenopause.
Perimenopause is a bridge we must all traverse. Part of this picture is the hormonal adjustments and fluctuations our bodies must move through. The impacts of these can be no laughing matter, despite these effects being historically sidelined and minimised.
Suffering in this transition, however, is not a full and vital expression of health. To find our passage through, we firstly need to find sure footing. Since some of homeopathy’s earliest days, homeopathic medicines have been used to help ease the sufferings, discomforts and challenges of the perimenopausal path in a woman’s life.
WHAT IS HOMEOPATHY? LIKE CURES LIKE…
Homeopathy is a holistic system of medicine which works to stimulate the vital force – the body’s own self-healing mechanism. Homeopaths understand that this indwelling life force responds to medicines by acting in an opposite way to those medicines. We see this perfectly illustrated in Newtonian physics. Newton’s third law of motion states that “action and reaction are equal and opposite”. This means that in order to stimulate the vital force in a particular way, we must use a medicine that can produce the same symptoms the body is experiencing.
This is from where homeopathy’s famous axiom, “like cures like”, arises. It is not a medicine we need to find to oppose the symptoms of the body, it is that we need to find a medicine that produces those same symptoms so as to work with the body, so that the vital force can respond with that opposite action.
For example, if someone is feeling sleepless, perhaps being kept awake with a rush of exciting ideas and mental energy, the homeopathic medicine made from unroasted coffee beans (Coffea cruda) might be considered to help that person sleep. A skin rash with stinging, itchy, red, fluid-filled vesicles might cause a homeopath to think of poison ivy (Rhus toxicodendron) or even stinging nettle (Urtica urens). Homeopaths study symptoms very closely in all their minutiae in order to identify a homeopathic medicine with all the right characteristics.
These homeopathic medicines are prepared by way of successive dilution and succussion in order to amplify their action on the vital force, and to minimise their mechanical action on the body.
PERIMENOPAUSE
Perimenopause occurs in a woman’s life when she undergoes the process of gradually ceasing menstruation. On a physiological level this involves many changes to the natural cycles of hormones. These new fluctuations can cause a number of uncomfortable symptoms including:
• Mood swings
• feelings of depression, anxiety or both
• increased PMS
• painful breasts
• heavier, more painful or more unpredictable bleeds
• headaches
• sleep disturbances
• feelings of being stressed or overwhelmed
• hot flashes
• dizziness
• exhaustion
• brain fog
• and others
HOMEOPATHY & PERIMENOPAUSE
Here are three common homeopathic medicines that women may find useful in perimenopause, in accordance with the traditional homeopathic literature:
• Sepia – Sepia is what I call the “mother load” remedy! Women who may benefit from Sepia often feel depressed and overwhelmed, usually by the pressures of house work and running a family. They can feel angry at loved ones particularly their spouse or children and can find themselves pushing away the people they love the most. They may feel stuck, as though they need to move vigorously to feel better. There can be hot flashes, menstrual pain, exhaustion, vaginal dryness, decreased libido, and an increased feeling of heaviness in the pelvis around menstruation. The menstrual flow may be either too profuse, or too early and too light for women who may benefit from Sepia.
• Pulsatilla – a woman needing Pulsatilla can often feel weepy, needy and sensitive. She can often be worried that others will abandon her and seek lots of reassurance, comfort, cuddles and affection. Her moods are likely to be highly changeable and varied from day to day, and this fluctuation can be worse around the time of her cycle. If she experiences hot flashes, she might also be quite thirstless, feel very sensitive to “stuffy rooms” and naturally gravitate towards open air. Menstrual blood of a woman who may benefit from Pulsatilla may be heavier, thicker, darker and include clots or mucous. Painful breasts may also be an indicator that Pulsatilla could be useful.
• Lachesis – Once of the “key note” symptoms of Lachesis is women who say they have “never felt well since” menopause, or perimenopause. For a woman needing Lachesis, menopause or perimenopause may initiate a marked change in her state of health and sense of well-being. Symptoms may be accompanied by a sense of tightness or constriction in the chest or abdomen. There can be intense hot flashes which are worse at night, and a dark, scanty menstrual flow. Symptoms seem to improve when the flow begins.
The key point to remember is that homeopathic medicines are always selected on an individual basis. There are hundreds of potential homeopathic medicines which may be of use in perimenopause. Whilst many women may benefit from one of the above, the homeopathic medicine best suited to your unique perimenopausal journey.
You may find in perimenopause that you have only one or two symptoms that you would like to treat. Sometimes these can be managed at home using common homeopathic medicines found in a homeopathic medicine kit. If you would like to go deeper, or have found that perimenopause has been the instigator of many changes to your overall health and wellbeing across many areas, you may like to see a professional homeopath for deeper treatment.
CONCLUSION
Every woman’s perimenopausal journey is unique and different, and the challenges faced may vary from woman to woman. Homeopathy is a holistic system of medicine which works with the innate vital force using the underlying principle of “like cures like” and has a long history of use to help women through this time in their lives. With care and attention to the unique individual expression of each woman, homeopathic medicines may be helpful through the perimenopausal journey.
