How Women Can Support Themselves Through Perimenopause

Perimenopause can be seen as a threshold — not a breakdown or an ending, but a crossing from one chapter of life into another. For many women, it arrives unannounced - sleep becomes elusive, emotions surge without warning, the mental load feels heavier, and strategies that once helped stop working.

If this is happening to you, you are not alone and you are not falling apart. This is your body undergoing one of the most significant hormonal and neurological shifts of your life.

What is Perimenopause?

Perimenopause is the transitional phase before menopause, when the ovaries gradually produce less oestrogen and progesterone. It typically begins in the mid-to-late 40s, can start as early as the late 30s, and lasts on average four to eight years. Menopause is defined as 12 consecutive months without a period. Everything leading up to that moment is perimenopause — a whole body and brain transition.

What's Happening in Your Body?

Oestrogen doesn't simply decline — it fluctuates dramatically, which is why symptoms can feel so erratic. Oestrogen influences mood, memory, sleep, temperature regulation, bone density, and cardiovascular health. Progesterone, which has a naturally calming effect on the nervous system, often declines earlier — showing up as increased anxiety, poor sleep, and heightened stress sensitivity. Many women describe a profound change in their stress threshold: things once manageable now feel overwhelming. From a somatic perspective, this is the body asking for something different.

Many women enter a deep period of questioning about values, roles, relationships and purpose. This is an invitation to turn inward and listen more honestly to what is truly needed.

How to Support Yourself?

• Get informed and supported physically. Speak with a naturopath about herbs that could support hormone health.

• Tend to your nervous system daily. Gentle movement, breathwork, grounding practices, and genuine rest are not luxuries — they are necessities during this time.

• Nourish your body. Increase protein, calcium, Vitamin D, and omega-3s. Reduce alcohol and caffeine. Support steady blood sugar to ease mood swings and energy crashes.

• Move your body and listen to what it needs. Weight-bearing and cardiovascular exercise support bone and heart health. Enjoyable restorative movement, like dance and walking, is a great way to support your nervous system.

• Create space for your inner life. Expressive arts practices — journaling, movement, painting, collage — offer pathways into the inner world that words alone can't always reach. You don't need to be artistic. This time offers a beautiful opportunity to show up for yourself in new creative ways.

• Reconsider what you're carrying. Many women arrive at perimenopause running on empty. This phase can be the body's way of saying: we cannot keep doing it this way. Try and find ways to manage life and responsibilities – reaching out for support and say no to extending yourself is not easy for many women.

• Seek connection. Many other women understand the powerful medicine of this time.

If perimenopause is bringing up overwhelm, grief, or identity disruption, counselling can help. My work integrates somatic and expressive arts approaches to support women through this transition with greater ease and self-understanding. Reach out to explore how we might work together.

Myvanwy Fleur — Counselling Therapist