Friday Q&A: Yoga and Menopause

A Beautiful Branch by Brad Gibson

Q: Now that I am making the transition into menopause, I would love a post or several on how yoga can make things less problematic.

A: In my mind there are two different ways to approach the “problems” of menopause, one about which our staff here at Yoga for Healthy Aging knows quite a bit and the other not so much.

By this I mean that even though I myself have gone through menopause, I don’t consider myself qualified to, say, create a sequence for hot flashes, which is just one out of a long list of typical symptoms. And Baxter doesn’t consider himself qualified to do so either, mostly due to his gender. So for that type of advice, we will be seeking a guest contributor. Until then, I highly recommend the menopause sequences in the book The Woman's Book of Yoga and Health by Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden, which devotes an entire section to this topic (though we don’t necessarily endorse the accompanying recommendations for herbs and supplements).

However, what we do know quite a lot about here is how to approach a situation like menopause with equanimity, both through stress reduction practices and a yogic attitude (based on yoga philosophy). By this I mean something like: Did I have hot flashes during perimenopause and menopause? Yes I did/do. Do I consider it a problem? No, not really. I mean, it isn’t exactly fun, but I’ve just accepted it. And that helps a lot. More even than Patricia’s wonderful sequences (which I did practice, especially the fatigue sequence). And while Baxter and Brad don’t have to cultivate equanimity toward menopause, that equanimity thing sure comes in handy for aging in general. I began exploring this topic in my post "Acceptance, Engagement, and The Bhagavad Gita" (see here), but I’ll write another post on acceptance in the near future, maybe even next week.

There are a couple of symptoms of menopause that I do feel qualified to write about and those are depression and insomnia. That’s because for many years now I’ve made this area of yoga (emotional wellbeing) my focus. And I will be addressing both depression and insomnia on the blog in the future, though probably in a general context rather than just in relation to menopause.

Finally, if you can tell us more about what you consider to be “problematic” about menopause, either because you are going through it now or because you are concerned about going through it later, please let us know. That way, when we plan our future posts, we can give your topics a priority. And anyone else should chime in with their questions and concerns!

--Nina