Your Traveling NTP

I help busy badasses restore their energy so they can get back to building their empire.

How to Fight Perimenopause Symptoms

6–8 minutes

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I get SO many questions about perimenopause. And it makes sense. It’s a confusing time. One day you feel fine, the next you’re crying in your car because your coffee order was wrong. You Google “Why do I feel crazy?” and land in the middle of an article that somehow makes you feel more confused. Sound familiar?

If you’ve found yourself wondering:
“Is this perimenopause?”
“Why do I feel so overwhelmed?”
“How can I feel better?”

You’re not alone. This transition can last 10+ years, so let’s talk about how to flow with this unpredictable stage in our lives.

Perimenopause Symptoms That Might Be Creeping Up

Many of these overlap with signs of general hormone imbalance. So even if you’re just suspecting perimenopause (self-diagnosing queens, I see you), these steps will help rebalance and re-energize your system:

  • Difficulty staying or getting pregnant
  • Breakthrough bleeding or spotting during luteal phase
  • Emotional symptoms feel louder
  • Migraines before your period
  • Heavy flow
  • Shorter cycles
  • Heightened anxiety or depression
  • Inability to handle stress like you used to
  • Ragey. Short-fused. Annoyed at the wind.
  • Avoiding social situations
  • Decreased libido
  • Waking up between 2–4am
  • Trouble focusing, brain fog, forgetful
  • Feeling “off” or unmotivated
  • Not wanting to do the things that used to light you up

While this sounds like a lot, know that you’re not broken, you’re in transition. This is a stage of life that we can either run toward and embrace or resist and let it consume us.

The Four Phases of Perimenopause

Knowing where you are in the process can be helpful:

Phase 1
Cycles still come regularly, but start to shorten. You may go from always having a 30-day cycle to a 23-day cycle. They can also become irregular, bouncing around in length.

Phase 2
You may start skipping ovulation and periods. (No ovulation = no bleed.)

Phase 3
Cycles stretch out—up to 60 days or longer. Hot flashes, dryness, and libido changes may show up here.

Final Phase / Menopause
Menopause is official after 12 full months without a period. Until then, it’s a waiting game. You may go for three months and then have a period.

The Foundations of Hormone Support

Before reaching for fancy supplements or HRT, we start here:

1. Tune In

Ask your body what she needs. Every day. This is regulation. Some days she needs rest. Some days she needs steel-cut oats. Some days she needs to scream into a pillow. Listen.

2. Manage Stress—Every. Damn. Day!

Build a morning or nighttime ritual that includes any of the following to fully ground into your Self each day. Without this dedicated time to practice making space for our internal world, stress will ALWAYS take over.

Emotionally / Mentally / Spiritually:

  • Meditation or breathwork
  • Talk therapy or psychedelic therapy
  • Journaling
  • Nature
  • Saying NO to things
  • Knowing when you’re tapped out

Physically:

It’s important to realize that stress doesn’t just lie in our emotional or mental world. Your body can undergo loads of stress from a poor diet, lack of exercise, or not enough water/electrolytes.

  • Balance your blood sugar (blood sugar is at the TOP of the hormone disruption cascade)
  • Move your body—especially strength training
  • Do hard things to build resilience (yes, cold showers count)

3. Balance Digestion & Gut Health

Most of my clients’ gut issues boil down to:

🧪 Low stomach acid

❌ Liver/gallbladder sluggishness

😐 Enzyme insufficiency

🐛 Dysbiosis (imbalanced gut bacteria)

Adopting a whole foods, nutrient-dense diet typically resolves most of these issues. Supplements like digestive enzymes or bitters can offer support as needed. A temporary heal & seal protocol or therapeutic diet can he helpful, but you don’t need to take probiotics every day forever. Don’t take probiotics every day forever.

4. Love On Your Liver

Your liver is your hormone MVP. It:

  • Helps digest fats (you need fats for hormone production)
  • Filters endocrine disruptors
  • Breaks down used-up hormones

Support it with:

  • Water and electrolytes. Water is only half the battle, you need electrolytes to truly hydrate your cells.
  • Limit or eliminate alcohol
  • Eat fiber, greens, beets, cruciferous veggies
  • Lemon water, dandelion tea, milk thistle

5. Cycle-Sync Nutrients

If you’re still cycling somewhat regularly, match your nutrition and workouts to your cycle.

Need help? Download my FREE guide:

Want to feel like you’re actually working with your body instead of against it? Cycle syncing is your secret weapon. When your hormones shift throughout your cycle, your nutritional needs, energy levels, and even your brain chemistry shift too—so it only makes sense to align your food, movement, and habits accordingly. I’ve created a free downloadable spreadsheet that lays it all out for you: which nutrients support each phase, the types of workouts that best suit each phase, and the herbs that can help ease transitions.

You’ll get a clear, easy-to-follow plan that helps you feel more balanced, energized, and in tune with your natural rhythms.

Download it here and start syncing like the hormone-savvy goddess you are.

Specific Support for the Menopausal Transition

If you’ve confirmed that you’re in perimenopause and are taking all of the steps listed above, be sure to mix in these final non-negotiable steps to truly support your body through this important transition.

📚 Read the book All Fours by Miranda July

This fictional, wildly entertaining, and simultaneously heartfelt, creative examination of life as it transitions during perimenopause is a must-read. There are lots of book reviews and other content about this brilliant book, so I’ll focus on what I took from it, which is that this transition is essentially our opportunity to examine our life, our sexuality, our desires, the way we want to show up in this world- on our terms.

There are tons of great quotes, but this one sums it up for me and actually got me excited about this era that happens in the middle of our lives (if we’re lucky):

“All of the hormones that made me want to seem approachable so I could breed are gone and replaced by hormones that are fiercely protective of my autonomy and freedom.” – Miranda July, All Fours

🔥 Strength Training

Build muscle. Maintain muscle. Muscle supports your hormones, immune system, mood, blood sugar balance/insulin response, metabolism, and sleep.

💥 Adrenal Support

Did you know that your adrenals pick up where your ovaries leave off? They take over estrogen production after menopause, so be nice to them.

Adrenals would appreciate if you:

  • Cut back on alcohol and caffeine
  • Prioritize sleep – a perimenopausal woman needs 7-9 hours of sleep!
  • Regulate stress and blood sugar (yes, I said it again because it bears repeating)
  • Get natural light in the mornings
  • Consider herbs like ginseng or licorice root for short-term support

Helpful Supplements

Always work with someone you trust, but here are a few worth exploring:

  • Magnesium – especially before bed
  • Adaptogens like Rhodiola or Ashwagandha (not forever, not daily)
  • Vitex (chasteberry)
  • Vitamin D – get that sunlight!
  • Liver supportive herbs like dandelion, milk thistle, or burdock root
  • Bio-identical progesterone cream – talk to your doctor/obgyn about your options. Avoid synthetic stuff like progestin.

This Isn’t the End. It’s the Initiation.

I recently had a group call with mindfuless and somatic practitioner Lindsey Akey, and the subject and imagery of ‘crones’ came up. Crones have a negative connotation, but as she pointed out, we need the crones; they’re the wise ones. The ones who’ve done the maiden. Done the mother. And now? We get to step into the next era. The one with more wisdom, more boundaries, and way less bullshit.

Let the gray hair grow. Stop chasing youth. Fuck youth. You’ve built so much. Just imagine what you’ll build next, with all this fire and none of the monthly PMS, none of the dealing with Diva Cups and tampons, and no more worrying about getting pregnant.

It’s not the end. It’s a new beginning. Flow with it.

Let that silver hair flow, witch.

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