I was about twelve years old when someone broke into my house and shot me. I was lying on the floor, and I realized that I had been shot in the arm. I couldn't move my arm. With my arm paralyzed, I couldn't get myself up off the floor. I started screaming for help.

HELP! HELP! HELP!

The next thing I felt was someone shaking me.

Wake up! Wake up!

My eyes opened, and Mom seemed perturbed with me.

"What?"

She turned around and left the room.

I tried to get up, but I couldn't.

I had fallen asleep on my arm, and my arm was genuinely paralyzed from lack of circulation, at least temporarily.

Sleep can be a strange dimension.

And perpetually sleeping well is essential to create the (YOU) you desire to Be.

I have studied sleep for over four decades, and now that I help transform women and men during their pauses, during which sleep has changed for the worse in most cases, I have had to study it even more so.

So why is our sleep disturbed by being paused?

Menopause disturbs sleep more dramatically than men in andropause.

Remember, I define menopause differently.

If menopause occurs when ovulation ceases, what causes a woman to stop ovulating?

Recall that in a 28-day cycle, during the first 14 days, estrogen increases gradually day by day until it reaches its peak, which causes her to ovulate.

When estrogen doesn't hit its ovulation mark, she doesn't ovulate, and she is now in her first month of menopause. Perimenopause is when ovulation sputters. She ovulates one month and misses the next month. Her periods become irregular.

When women stop ovulating, even if it's for only one month, their ovaries don't produce two hormones: progesterone and testosterone. This lack of production causes some significant sleep disturbances. But let's back up for a moment.

ESTROGEN AND SLEEP

If you are menopausal, not ovulating, you have low estrogen. Low estrogen occurs before your ovaries stop producing progesterone and testosterone. Having low estrogen levels affects sleep adversely in several ways, including:

• Sleep efficiency: Low estrogen levels decrease the time you sleep while in bed. A standard sleep efficiency is 85% or higher. Sleep efficiency in young women is 93.4%, 84.3% in perimenopausal women, and 80.2% in postmenopausal women. (1)​
• Sleep arousals: Low estrogen levels cause women to shift from deep to light sleep more often, causing them to wake throughout the night. (2)​
• Body temperature: Low estrogen causes hot flashes and night sweats, causing more sleep arousals. (3)​
• Sleep latency: Science has discovered that the lower your estrogen, the longer it takes to fall asleep. (4)​
• Total sleep time: Women with low estrogen levels have lower total sleep times than women with higher estrogen levels. (5)​

ESTROGEN DOMINANCE AND SLEEP

Most menopausal women I talk to sleep less than they would like. These women also have gained weight due to menopause. Nearly all of these women test positive for estrogen dominance. Estrogen dominance is diagnosed with a progesterone-to-estradiol ratio of 100 moles of progesterone to 1 mole of estradiol or less.

The symptoms of estrogen dominance are:

• Weight Gain
• Weight Loss Resistance
• Sleeping Disorders
• Hormonal Induced Anxiety
• Hormonal Induced Depression
• Loss of Interest in Being Intimate
• Loss of Motivation to be Social

Suppose a woman is estrogen dominant and she begins estrogen therapy. In that case, she will become more estrogen-dominant, she would gain more weight, and possibly develop more of the symptoms associated with estrogen dominance.

PROGESTERONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY

There are two primary steps my clients take to tame estrogen dominance.

1. They lose their belly fat
2. They take small doses of natural progesterone

Belly fat makes estrogen, and estrogen makes belly fat, and so on. Belly fat produces an enzyme that converts progesterone and testosterone into estrogen. The chasm that not ovulating causes becomes larger and larger.

It is my opinion that sleeping problems caused by menopause are caused more by estrogen dominance than low estrogen levels. This might be confusing because low estrogen occurs first. But when estrogen levels lower and ovulation ceases, progesterone is not produced. When estrogen levels are reduced by 40%, ovulation ceases. However,

Progesterone Replacement Therapy is the second best way to tame estrogen dominance.

ESTROGEN REPLACEMENT THERAPY

Once a menopausal woman achieves her ideal, happy, healthy, or bottom weight, and she is still having trouble sleeping or continues to have the other symptoms associated with low estrogen:

• Dry skin.
• Spotting.
• Headaches.
• Tender breasts.
• Low Bone Density.
• Trouble concentrating.
• Moodiness and irritability.
• Vaginal dryness or atrophy.
• Hot flashes and night sweats.
• Decreased sex drive and painful intercourse (dyspareunia).
• Feeling fatigued and having trouble sleeping (insomnia).

Then, she should consider supplementing with estrogen. Most doctors prescribe an estrogen dose that is too large.

I'd have my wife begin with a minimal dose.

Suppose my wife complained of sleeping disorders, and she was at a healthy weight. In that case, the first step I would have her take is to have her test her estrogen and progesterone levels. I would have her purchase a Salivary Assay Kit online to do so.

If her estrogen dominance was tamed but her estrogen levels were lower than they should be, which they will be if she is not ovulating, I'd have her start with a low dose (1/4 teaspoon) of phytoestrogen cream.

Phytoestrogen creams come from plants, they will attach to the estrogen receptors, and act like human estrogen. I prefer natural phytoestrogens to estrogen from a horse.

​Estrogen Dominance Test Kit

​Phyto-Estrogen Cream​

Never use any supplemental hormone without first consulting with your healthcare practitioner.

I WANT TO THANK LINDA AND KAYRN FOR THEIR REFERRALS

IT'S GREATLY APPRECIATED

LET'S MAKE THEIR FRIENDS THIRD ACTS AWESOME

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We were home this weekend, but not without visiting our favorite local speakeasy,

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© 2024 | Doc Mac Coaching

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