Thyroid and Menopause: Is There a Connection?

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How does your thyroid function impact your situation and your symptoms in perimenopause and menopause?

Did you know that hypothyroidism can increase or worsen symptoms of menopause? So hypothyroidism is a condition where your thyroid is under active. The thyroid gland is found in your neck, and hypothyroidism is when the thyroid gland doesn’t make enough thyroid hormone to meet your body’s needs.

How does this affect the transition? Well, there was a study in 2007 that showed that women with thyroid disorders and severe menopause experienced improved symptoms after getting treated for their thyroid disorder. This suggests that treating your thyroid disorder can help you manage your menopause symptoms.

Researchers examine the role that estrogen levels have on thyroid receptors. Thyroid receptors are the molecules that allow thyroid hormones to enter the cells. Researchers found that estrogen levels might affect thyroid function and lead to thyroid disorders. So you are gonna have this estrogen decline as you are going through perimenopause and menopause and that is going to also impact your symptoms.

So what can you do? You can get your thyroid checked. Make sure that if it’s under active, you’re doing a lot of things that can help benefit the under active thyroid. I personally had an under active thyroid and some of the things that I implemented were doing a detox, get rid of all the chemicals in your body.

There could be a build if of stuff that you don’t even know you have from things you’ve ingested from exposure in your environment that you need to clear out. And it’s super important. You wanna make sure that you have the best, cleanest diet that you’re eating organic foods, because again, toxins, pesticides and hormones are found in non-organic foods and chemicals leaching into foods from packaging is another way of exposure.

You really have to become vigilant and make sure that you are not exposed to chemicals. And I want talk about this because your shampoos, cleansers, makeup and stuff also contribute because you’re actually absorbing this through your skin.

And your skin is like an organ. It’s your largest organ, and this is actually taxing on your thyroid and other glands in your body. You will get this cascading effect if one gland is not producing like your thyroid, is not, is under active and not producing properly/enough, then it’s going to affect other systems and other glands in your body.

Another note is that this detox that I talked about – you liver is so important in conversion of T4 to t3, which you need the T3 as the active form of your thyroid hormone. Therefore if your liver is congested, from these toxins you are exposed to from your environment, your diet, your skincare, etc., this is all taxing on the liver. You want to make sure you detox and get your liver functioning properly.

I will cover w few other things I did for my thyroid because it was actually debilitating to have the hypothyroidism as I had no energy. I was sleeping many hours and climbing a set of stairs was laborous for me and I was out of breath.

So you want to make sure you are exercising, but maybe gently what you start out and then as you begin to heal your thyroid, increase your exercise intensity. Breathing is super important because detox is happening on a cellular level. When you’re breathing with each breath, there’s an exchange of oxygen and the CO2 and this affects every cell in your body. Again with your diet, make sure the diet is clean. I actually eliminated all foods that were sensitivities for me because sensitivities and things that you ingest, create inflammation in the body. So I went gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, caffeine free and alcohol free.

And that’s how much, how important, my thyroid health was for me to make all those changes. It really impacted my life. I did struggle going through perimenopause and menopause, and that was also because of my thyroid. And so if you have the thyroid issue, your symptoms are exasperated.

If you wanna learn more, do your research. There’s some great books out there on hypothyroidism. Check some of my other videos out because I struggled with the issue and I’m gonna talk more about it. And yeah, if you like this video, please hit the like button, share with your friends. If you know someone who’s going through the same issues and subscribe to our channel. I’m going to have a lot of informative videos out there that will help you go through this journey. You’re not alone.