Your Perimenopause Can Make Depression Worse

Your mental health is more connected to your hormones than you might think.

Stable and consistent hormones lead to stable and consistent mental health, but what happens when you transition into perimenopause, and your hormones fluctuate dramatically?

This is what leads to mood swings, irritability, and depression. It’s totally normal, and you’re not alone.

If you understand how your hormones influence depression, and what to do to combat it, you can achieve better mental health even when you’re in perimenopause.

 

Why Perimenopause Worsens Depression

During perimenopause, progesterone drops sharply, estrogen swings up and down dramatically, and your body has to try adapting to these changes constantly.

Perimenopause begins when progesterone starts declining. You’ll experience fewer ovulation cycles (even if you’re still bleeding), which creates less progesterone. This is a crucial hormone in regulating depression because it activates the brakes for an overactive nervous system.

These brakes are called GABA, the neurotransmitter that calms your nervous system, and they cannot work well without progesterone. Without brakes, your brain will spiral into racing thoughts, anxiety, irritability, poor sleep – leading to depression.

Shortly after progesterone drops, estrogen begins to fluctuate more than normal. This leads to a lot of the symptoms that make you feel miserable, and the effect it has on your mental health is significant.

Estrogen has a lot of jobs in your nervous system. It boosts serotonin, protects it from breaking down, enhances dopamine, and increases norepinephrine. These are all neurotransmitters that stabilize your mood, motivate you, provide pleasure, sharpen your mind, and supports energy levels.

When estrogen spikes, you’ll feel overstimulated – you’ll feel irritable, agitated, and even manic. This is because it’s creating too many neurotransmitters, leaving your nervous system out of whack. When it crashes, you’ll feel hopeless and depressed. Now you’re not creating enough neurotransmitters, and your imbalance has swung in the other direction.

 

Using Functional Medicine to Support Perimenopausal Depression

Your neurotransmitters need stability to support a healthy nervous system and your mental health. Unfortunately, perimenopause brings nothing but instability.

So, what do you do to balance your neurotransmitters and support your mental health to battle depression and mood swings?

What if I told you that you could correct your perimenopause naturally?

Functional medicine is the best way to balance your neurotransmitters when your body cannot do it for you. This is a holistic health approach that fine tunes your diet, supplements, and lifestyle choices to support your body’s new needs.

You’ll want to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D and B to balance neurotransmitter creation. Vitamin D can be created and activated by getting enough sunshine, supporting your liver and kidney health, and consuming magnesium. Vitamin B can be created and activated through good gut health, a nutrient-dense diet, and certain supplements.

Looking for simple ways to sneak these into your routine? Take a walk in the sun after breakfast to stimulate natural vitamin D and encourage digestion to help battle depression.

You’ll also want to get enough protein during breakfast. It provides the raw materials for neurotransmitters that support mood, sleep, motivation, and overall mental health.

Not sure if you’re getting enough vitamin D? Check your levels with your doctors to you know what you need to change to support your mental health.

Using Acupuncture to Support Perimenopausal Depression

I love acupuncture because it stimulates endorphins in the body to boost your mood and help navigate your hormonal transition. Acupuncture can treat anything – high blood pressure, hip pain, low back pain, frozen shoulder, hot flashes, and more while improving your mental health.

I can help you with both a functional medicine protocol and acupuncture in my clinic located in Lakewood, CO. Regardless of your needs, I have the tools you need to rebuild your mental health during perimenopause. Schedule now to get started.

If you cannot get in to see me in person here in Colorado, I also see patients 1:1 via Zoom by working with herbal formulas, supplements, and functional medicine protocols. My unique and comprehensive system of reviewing your health struggles is founded in the basics. My background in psychology provides me with a lens to help with the difficult transition you go through during perimenopause.