Menopause can happen in your 40s or 50s, but the average age is 51 in the United States. It’s diagnosed after you’ve gone 12 months without a menstrual period.
Menopause is a natural biological process. But the physical symptoms, such as hot flashes, and emotional symptoms of menopause may disrupt your sleep, lower your energy or affect emotional health.
Hormone treatment is one of the most common medical treatment for the symptoms of menopause. But, hormone’s come with risks and may not be the method to use especially when you prefer taking the natural approach.
In this recent post from Dr. Eric Z, he discusses the use of essential oils to deal with the common symptoms of menopause:
“Best Essential Oils for Menopause
For a vast majority of women, menopause symptoms are mild and do little to disrupt daily life. However, the discomfort of hot flashes, irritability and fatigue can make life exceptionally difficult. (1) Thankfully, for the growing number of women who wish to avoid prescription hormone medications to manage their symptoms, remedies like essential oils for menopause can provide natural and effective relief!
Menopause Risks
Every middle aged woman will go through a major life change where her body transforms from being fertile to infertile by stopping the menstruation process. This is a major life change that can take several months or years, and the completion of the process is known, clinically, as menopause. However, menopause has been the name most people give to the process of this change, and the symptoms it produces.
When a woman’s body starts the process of menopause, estrogen levels begin to drop. This change in hormone levels causes a number of symptoms, including hot flashes, irritability, insomnia and fatigue. For many women, these symptoms make enjoying normal daily activities difficult. In addition, the changing hormone levels can increase a woman’s risk of osteoporosis, which can increase the risk for fractures. This is why it’s more common for elderly women to fracture a hip than other populations. (2)
On that note, it should be of interest that using essential oils for menopause such as juniper, sage, rosemary, pine, dwarf pine, turpentine, and eucalyptus have been found to inhibit bone resorption when added to the food in animal studies. Pine oil, specifically, can protect from bone loss. (5)
Essential Oils for Menopause: Embracing Menopause
If you asked the average woman what she knows about menopause, she would likely give you an answer relating to hot flashes and mood swings. It’s no wonder, as our society and media have made this to be one of the most prominent parts of this life change. These are some of the symptoms of menopause, but they are not the actual change itself.
Interestingly, menopause is a major life change that can bring uncomfortable symptoms, but for many women, it’s also a freeing time. Once a woman has been without menstruation for 12 consecutive months, she is considered no longer fertile and the all-too-familiar hassle of her monthly “blessing” becomes a distant memory. For those who no longer want to take birth control or manage natural family planning any longer, menopause is also a welcomed event.
It is no wonder that many women find themselves celebrating the end of a very long chapter of their lives where they are forced to use pads, tampons and the inconvenience of unsightly stains from menses every month!
Seven Essential Oils for Menopause Relief
Research is clear on one thing: essential oils for menopause work well for many menopausal women. A 2008 article published in the Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine journal summarizes what we do know quite well: (3)
- “Many studies have found that aromatherapy improves psychological symptoms such as anxiety, depression and mood swings, and induces more relaxed states in young and middle-aged women”
- “Several aromatic oils have been recommended as phytoestrogens because they include components related to the sex hormones.”
- “Some of these oils have similar structures and functions such as clary sage, fennel, cypress, angelica and coriander.
- “It has been proposed that geranium oil balances hormones and that rose oil strengthen uterus function.”
- “Evening primrose is recommended as a base oil in aromatherapy for menopausal women.”
This article goes on to report how 60 menopausal women aged 45 and 54 years old responded to a series of essential oil massage treatments in light of these 11 menopausal symptoms: hot flushes (vasomotor), paresthesia, insomnia, nervousness, melancholia, vertigo, weakness, arthralgia or myalgia, headache, palpitations, and formication. Each woman received one 30-min aromatherapy treatment session each week for 8 weeks with essential oils for menopause using lavender, rose geranium, rose and jasmine diluted in almond and evening primrose oil. Compared to controls, the measured menopausal symptoms were greatly reduced in the women who enjoyed regular aromatherapy massage.
Whether one essential oil has more benefit over another still remains to be seen. However, these essential oils for menopause are usually some of the most popular…
1. Lavender Oil
The changing and shifting hormones of menopause can cause feelings of anxiety and problems with sleep. Lavender has long been known to promote feelings of relaxation while lifting the mood, also promoting better sleep in people dealing with insomnia. (4) Adding lavender aromatherapy to the nighttime routine can help improve sleep and relaxation.
It is also suspected that lavender can help calm the body so that hormone levels naturally balance, and a cold compress with one drop of diluted lavender oil can help reduce discomfort in the perineum during menopause.
2. Clary Sage Oil
As women continue to share their story, clary sage oil has been known to effectively help with hot flashes. Those who are feeling a hot flash coming on can get fast relief by rubbing 1-2 drops of diluted clary sage oil on the back of the neck or on the feet. It also is effective when inhaled during episodes. Additionally, clary sage has been shown clinically to be more effective than the monoamine neurotransmitter serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and can specifically menopausal women by: (5)
- Reducing thyroid stimulating hormone
- Decreasing depression
- Significantly decreasing cortisol (i.e. stress levels)
3. Peppermint Essential Oil
Peppermint is another essential oil that can lessen discomfort during a hot flash. Misting one’s face with a water spritzer or using a portable inhaler during an episode can mitigate the symptoms instantly. Since hot flashes are one of the most noticeable symptoms of menopause, having some peppermint oil on hand is a good idea.
Menopause signals the end of menstruation. However, menstruation and menstrual cramping can still occur. In addition, even after menstruation, as many as 50 percent of women experience menstruation-related cramping, a condition known as dysmenorrhea, during the beginning stages of menopause. (6) Peppermint oil may help reduce some of the pain and discomfort of this type of cramping.”
There are a number of other essential oils that are effective for menopause. And in the rest of his post, you can read about them and how to properly use the oils to be the most effective. Finish the post at the link below:
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