When Working Out Makes Perimenopause Worse

Since starting perimenopause, have you noticed that you have more problems with itchy skin, hives, and rashes – especially after working out?

Perimenopause occurs when your hormones start to decline leading up to your period stopping. Some women start early perimenopause in their 30’s, many women have some symptoms in their late 40’s, and many women are still cycling in their 50’s. Not all women experience high histamine levels.

Estrogen and histamine, the biological messenger responsible for activating your immune response, have a direct relationship with each other. When estrogen starts fluctuating dramatically, you might feel like your allergies are out of control.

This is completely normal and easy to avoid when you understand what triggers these allergy-like symptoms. If you find that exercise aggravates your body and leads to itchiness and redness, this is what you need to know.

The Perimenopause and Histamine Connection

When your body enters perimenopause, your estrogen and progesterone levels decrease dramatically. This leads to increased histamine release.

Why? Because estrogen and histamine are involved in feedback loops, where estrogen makes the cells that release histamine more reactive. When you experience large fluctuations in your estrogen levels, this triggers your immune cells to release more histamine than your body needs.

After being released, histamine will also stick around in your tissues longer than normal in response to fluctuating estrogen. This also impacts DAO, the enzyme responsible for breaking down histamine, causing the histamine to linger.

Progesterone decreases dramatically during perimenopause, which impacts how your body process histamine as well. This hormone helps balance estrogen, but with lower levels in your system, it cannot keep estrogen in check.

How Exercise Plays a Role

Exercise is really important. Where I live in Colorado, the whole state is active and fit.

In fact, I have a hard time finding a gentle yoga class here. It feels like a go hard or go home culture, which makes it hard to find classes that agree with my body’s needs with perimenopause.

When you exercise, your body naturally releases histamine. This is a normal and healthy process – it helps increase blood flow and circulation. However, when your estrogen levels fluctuate more than normal, you will release too much histamine. This tips your body past a healthy amount of histamine, leading to itching, hives, and rashes.

What You Should Do Differently in Perimenopause

If you suspect you have high histamine, then you can work out more gently. Walk, do a little yoga, and keep things low key. It's okay to slow things down during this phase in your life, it's what your body needs.

Add an allergy formula to your bedtime routine for a period of time until the symptoms ease up.

A detox cleanse can make a huge difference in the way your hormones behave, helping balance your histamine levels as well. Cleanses are one of the things I specialize in, and we can develop a plan to detox your body at your next appointment.

Acupuncture and herbal medicine are my favorite ways to bring balance back to your body. Not only will it help you regulate your estrogen levels to prevent a dramatic rise in histamine, but it will help calm your immune system as well. Schedule an appointment at my acupuncture clinic in Lakewood, CO to bring calm back to your body.

In general, this is a stage you pass through that improves with treatment, so don’t give up on exercise! Just listen to your body and respond to what is happening in your body right now.