5 Ways a Women's Hormone Health Coach Can Help

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Many women will agree that no one ever discussed menopause with them. Their mothers didn’t explain it and it certainly wasn’t taught in school. Menopause was a private and undesirable stage of life that women went through when they were old. Consequently, few women knew what was happening to their bodies as they aged and as they suffered in silence.

Today, women are living longer and are spending more of their lives in menopause. In fact, women will spend 40% of their lives in this phase! In North America, the average age of menopause is 52 years. In 2025, upwards of 1.1 billion women world wide will be experiencing menopause.

Times have changed and today’s women want to talk about menopause, want to know what is going on with their bodies, want to take control of their health, and want to manage their symptoms. Menopause is no longer a dirty word.

Hiring a Women’s Hormone Health Coach is a significant way that a woman can take to help manage and control her menopausal symptoms, and because the transition begins in peri-menopause, the earlier they seek support, the better.

Read 5 ways a Women’s Hormone Health Coach can help women through their menopausal transition.

1. Educate

Because many women don’t know the changes that occur in their body from the reproductive years to post menopause, a Women’s Hormone Health Coach can help by educating. Knowledge is power.

Did you know that most symptoms of menopause occur in peri-menopause, up to a decade before menopause? Menopause is defined as a woman not menstruating for a 12-month period. So even if you go six months without a period, you are still in peri-menopause until you reach the 12-month mark. In North America, the average age is 52 years old.

Symptoms begin in peri-menopause (typically in the early 40s), because this is the stage when the sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone) are highly fluctuating. Sex hormones are involved in every physiological structure and process in the human body, so every body system is impacted.

But there are so many other hormones, besides estrogen, that are involved in the transition – progesterone, follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, cortisol, thyroxine and trilodothyronline (thyroid hormones), insulin, testosterone, and the list continues as these hormones impact other hormones.

Understanding how each hormone is impacted and how we can manage these hormones plays a big role in correcting metabolism, improving sleep, increasing energy, reducing brain fog, reducing appetite, and so much more.

A Women’s Hormone Health Coach can support you on your transition by educating you on all the changes in your body, such as reproductive health changes, hormones, consequent symptoms, and ways to support and mange these changes and symptoms.

2. Offer Preventative Health Care

A Women’s Hormone Health Coach can help with preventative health. When estrogen levels decline during menopause, many systems in the body are impacted. These impacts can lead to major health issues and even disease.

Some health issues and changes impacted by declining estrogen levels:

Osteoporosis and bone health
Cholesterol levels
Blood sugar regulation
Brain health
Cardiovascular health
Urinary and sexual health
Metabolism changes
Body composition changes

A Women’s Hormone Health Coach can help with preventative health by creating a customized nutrition plan, suggesting various supplements, and by recommending lifestyle changes.

For example, there are many techniques to control blood sugar regulation, which is important for avoiding metabolic syndrome. Some techniques to discuss with your Coach is intermittent fasting, eating foods from the Glycemic Index, following various diet programs (possibly Paleo, volume eating, or the Mediterranean Diet), taking specific supplements, modifying exercise, and ensuring enough protein is in the diet.

Metabolic Syndrome occurs when a person has health indicators that can increase their chances of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. These indicators include high tryglicerides, low HDL (good cholesterol), high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and abdominal obesity.

The waistline measurements can be a marker for the probability of developing obesity related conditions. A woman’s waist measurements should be 35 inches or under. and a man’s waist measurements should be 40 inches or lower. Measurements higher than these could put a person at risk.

Measurements should be done around the waist on top of the belly button to determine if one is at risk. Lifestyle changes like improving diet, increasing physical activity, and losing weight can help manage or even reverse metabolic syndrome.

3. Manage and Support Weight Loss

A Women’s Hormone Health Coach has knowledge in nutrition and is often a registered or certified nutritionist like myself. I am a Certified Holistic Nutritional Consultant and can create nutrition plans that support my client’s weight loss.

Weight gain is typical in peri-menopause because estrogen increases and progesterone drops and this can slow down thyroid function, which consequently slows down the metabolism.

In post-menopause, estrogen levels drop causing muscle mass reduction and a lower basal metabolic rate. Cortisol levels also increase during this time due to higher stress levels and because the adrenals are the back-up producer of sex hormones when levels decrease in the ovaries. High cortisol levels increase weight around the abdomen and lowers thyroid function, causing a slower metabolism.

Because of these factors, women often gain weight and this weight distribution shifts to more fat in the abdominal area. This excess fat is especially concerning as it is situated around the organs and is linked to fat-related illnesses like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

A Hormone Health Coach and Nutritionist can discuss various diet options, provide weight loss tips, recommend nutritional solutions, and teach healthy food choices. For some helpful weight loss resources, look to these posts on the blog.

Strategies on How to Stop Eating Out of Boredom

How to Read Food Labels

Fat Loss Mistakes

Some women may opt for weight loss drugs to lose the excess weight that has piled on. However, it is important to note that learning how to eat nutritionally is still very important while on the drugs. Your coach can teach women how to eat nutritiously for other health reasons besides weight loss. Some areas include eating for energy, vitality, to improve digestive issues, and to cleanse the liver of toxins, medications, and circulating hormones.

4. Help Improve Quality of Life

Symptoms of menopause can significantly impact a women’s quality of life. Statistics show that 85% of women in peri to post menopause will have symptoms that impact their quality of life and can last on average 10 years. Currently only 20-30% of women will be treated or supported.

Some common complaints during menopause:

My fitness regime no longer works.
I have no energy.
My body hurts, and my joints and muscles are sore.
I’m depressed, unmotivated, and irritated.
I am having incontinence and bladder leakage.
I gain weight no matter what I do.
What I used to do for diet and exercise no longer works.
My sleep is terrible.
I’m always getting hot flushes day and night.

A Women’s Hormone Health Coach knows that the changing body requires a changing fitness regime. Women in menopause may require a modified fitness regime due to lack of energy, pelvic floor issues, incontenence, sore joints and muscles, fatigue, and low motivation. A Women’s Hormone Health Coach recognizes these issues and has a list of ways to improve and work around these conditions. A coach knows that over training is not the answer and that a menopausal woman will get more results with recovery days and ensuring sleep is a priority.

Some symptoms can be alleviated with nutritional modifications. For example, getting enough protein during menopause is crucial. Our ability to digest and absorb protein declines with age. Also, our declining estrogen levels cause our muscle mass to start declining. Extra high-quality protein is required for basic function and to help sustain our muscle mass. This helps with weight maintenance and fitness results. Protein is also satiating and can keep us full longer, which helps manage weight gain and balance blood sugar levels.

Enjoy this FREE guide on ways to get more protein in your diet.

Another example a Women’s Hormone Health Coach can help is activating endorphins and other hormones and neurotransmitters that are associated with feelings of well-being and happiness, such as serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. All these chemicals work together to promote positive emotions and overall well-being.

Serotonin is created by the amino acid Tryptophan, which is found in turkey, chicken, nuts and seeds, so a diet with these foods may be helpful on a nutritional plan along with B6, which is a cofactor for the conversion.

5. Help Reach Goals

Nutritionists or health care workers without specific training in peri to post menopause may have difficulty helping their clients reach their goals. They may not understand certain obstacles or road blocks that occur during this phase of life.

For example, our circadian rhythm shows that most fat loss occurs during 2:00 am to 4:00 am every night when we are supposed to be in our deepest sleep. However, many menopausal women are awake during that time, due to sleep disturbances, and may not be seeing the weight loss they expect.

A Women’s Hormone Health Coach is aware of this obstacle and will work with clients to improve their sleep cycle and introduce ways that may alleviate hot flushes or other reasons sleep is impacted.

Diagram by Dr. Wendy Sweet (PhD) of My MT

A Women’s Hormone Health Coach may also have a team they can recommend for various physical and health issues. For example, they may recommend a physical therapist that specializes in pelvic floor strength. They may recommend doctors that perform vaginal rejuvenation to prevent atrophy and bladder leakage, and they may have a naturopathic doctor on hand for blood analysis.

A Women’s Hormone Health Coach is more aware of the sore joints, lowered motivation, and lack of energy that can affect their fitness and movement plan and can offer insight and support for these issues.

Conclusion

The current climate of care for menopausal women is minimal. It is estimated that 20-30% of women with menopause related symptoms or conditions are not being treated, because of lack of knowledge by practitioners, incorrect belief that clients are exaggerating symptoms, and clients being uncomfortable discussing symptoms.

A bandaid approach is currently being used by health care to treat symptoms, such as the following.

Antidepressants for mood changes
ADHD medications for focus and brain fog
Cholesterol medications
Pain medications
Sleeping pills for sleep disturbances

A Women’s Hormone Health Coach can provide a more holistic regime to menopausal symptoms, using nutrition, fitness, lifestyle, counselling, and supplemental approaches. Neither a Women’s Hormone Health Coach nor a CHNC can treat or diagnose symptoms, but they can support and educate clients to find natural ways and make significant changes that can improve women’s lives during this special stage of life.