One minute you're fine, the next you're snapping at your partner for breathing too loudly. You're waking at 3 am, forgetting why you've walked into a room, or wondering why your body suddenly seems to be playing by an entirely different set of rules.
Welcome to perimenopause!
If you've started looking into homeopathy for support, you might be wondering which remedy is best. Is there one for hot flushes? Another for anxiety? Perhaps something for the sleepless nights or those days when you feel like a stranger in your own skin?
The answer isn't quite that simple. This is how I know I couldn’t possibly get bored with homeopathy! Working out the clues to get the best suited remedy is why I love being homeopath.
Two women can experience exactly the same symptoms yet have very different experiences of them. One might feel restless, wired and unable to switch off, while another feels flat, exhausted and wants to retreat from the world. Their periods, sleep patterns, emotional responses and wider health histories may differ, too.
That's why choosing a homeopathic remedy based on a symptom checklist alone can be surprisingly difficult. The aim is to understand the individual woman, not simply match a remedy to the word perimenopause.
Looking beyond the obvious remedies
Homeopathy offers several different groups of remedies that a practitioner might explore when building an individual symptom picture. This is why it’s difficult for women to find a remedy on her own.
Flower remedies are often considered when exploring emotional experiences. Are you feeling fearful, overwhelmed, unusually sensitive or struggling to adapt to changes in your life? The particular nature of those feelings helps guide the selection.
Mineral remedies may be explored through themes such as security, responsibility, confidence, boundaries and the pressure to keep everything together. For women who have spent years looking after everyone else, these themes can be particularly relevant to the consultation.
Glandular remedies, sometimes called sarcodes in homeopathic practice, include preparations associated with glands such as the pituitary and thymus. These belong to a different category from flower and mineral remedies. A homeopath working with this approach may consider them within a broader picture, rather than simply choosing one because a woman is experiencing hormonal changes.
So, how does a homeopath find the right remedy?
This is where looking at the whole person becomes important. Rather than asking only, “Are you experiencing hot flushes?”, I want to understand how you're sleeping, what your mood is like, how your symptoms change throughout your cycle, and what else has changed in your life.
My approach is to listen carefully, explore the individual picture and help you consider appropriate support for this stage of life.
Curious about how homeopathy approaches perimenopause? Read my related article, How can homeopathy help me through perimenopause?, alongside my blog on understanding the full symptom picture.
You don't have to navigate every change alone.
Get weekly homeopathy insights and tips into your box.
Interested to know how homeopathy can help you? Let’s have a free 15 minute chat!