Did you know that there is lots you can do to naturally alleviate the distressing symptoms involved in menopause without even touching hormone replacement therapy (HRT) treatments?

Let’s have a look at the top 10 drug-free ways to find relief.

Essential Oils

Essential oils could provide you with a “best of both worlds” options helping relieve some or all of the annoying symptoms of menopause while avoiding the side-effects of potentially harmful, conventional treatments.

With proper medical supervision, essential oils can become a powerful ally. However, it’s important to take into consideration that they are actually potent substances and should be used with some caution.

The essential oils that have been found to be helpful during menopause include:

• Clary Sage — Known to alleviate PMS pain, soothe stress, improve hormone balance even hot flashes, Clary Sage is wonderful essential oil to try.
• Lavender — Helpful for heart palpitations, hot flashes, headaches, stress, cramps, balancing hormones and for sleep problems. Lavender essential oil can be very beneficial during perimenopause and onwards.
• Geranium — This mood-boosting oil helps promote menstrual cycle regularity during perimenopause, as well as providing hormone, anxiety and depression support.
• Vitex agnus-castus — Suffering from mood swings? This oil, also known as chasteberry and Abraham’s balm, is thought to be very effective for combatting period irregularity.
• Pine — Surprisingly, pine oil is believed to help with preventing bone loss and osteoporosis.
• Rose — This feminine-scented oil is thought to strengthen the uterus, which could, in turn, improve mood and reduce hot flashes.

It’s useful to have a complete set of essential oils and buy the best quality oils you can find. Ideally, they should be organic.

When you’re armed with your essential oils, how do you use them?

The best place to start is in the bath. You can also add them to a carrier oil like coconut oil, and massage them into your skin. They also work well when diffused if you’re nervous about them being in contact with your skin.

1. Bath
To make a menstrual massage blend, take five drops of lavender, five drops of cypress, ten drops of peppermint and ten drops of nutmeg essential oils and mix them with 30ml of a carrier oil of your choice such as coconut oil, jojoba, or sweet almond oil. Massage the blend into your abdomen or lower back daily before and during your period, or drop them into a warm bath.

2. Control Stress
It may not be possible to change how stressful your job or home life is, but adding stress-management techniques can help you take back control of how much those things affect you.

Controlled breathing, meditation, prayer, and yoga are some great examples of ways to do this, but you can also incorporate any activities you like best. Also consider things such as massage, saunas and other therapies that stimulate the relaxation response.

3. Quit Smoking
Giving up smoking can be very challenging, but it is essential for a healthy body and hormone balance. Studies prove it.1 Getting support is critical to success so remember to ask for help.

4. Exercise
If you aren’t exercising regularly, you could feel the effects of hormone balance earlier than others. Exercise, such as core strengthening, cardio, high intensity interval training (HIIT), and strength training increases the production of certain beneficial hormones and helps you lower others, such as cortisol, the stress hormone. It also balances the brain, combatting mood fluctuations, and boosts well-being and self-esteem.

5. Tweak Your Diet
Tweaking your diet on a weekly basis is the key to long-term positive dietary change.

To support your body naturally and ensure the best hormone balance you can achieve at any one moment, you’ll need to eat right.

Avoid processed foods, which may contain substances that interfere with your body’s ability to regulate hormones. Eat a balanced diet with whole foods at its center. Think organic fruit and vegetables, grass-fed, organic meats and poultry, wild-caught fish and high-quality fats such as olive oil, ghee and coconut oil.

Omega-3 fats are vital to women’s health. One study stated that there is some evidence that low omega-3 intake could be related to postmenopausal osteoporosis, breast cancer, and menopausal problems.

So, make sure to consume anchovies, sardines and wild-caught Alaskan salmon at least three times per week. Also, consider supplementing with krill oil or high-quality fish oil.

6. Sleep According To Your Age
Adults between 26 and 64 years old are recommended to sleep between 7 and 9 hours per night. Seniors over 65 are recommended to sleep for between 7 and 8 hours per night.

Sleep is crucial for hormonal balance, and insomnia and sleep deprivation can lead to elevated cortisol levels, throwing off overall hormone balance.

Having trouble sleeping through the night? Exercise and essential oils may be able to help. Also be sure to follow a strong nighttime routine that prepares you for a relaxing night’s sleep, such as gentle stretching, no screens or devices, a warm foot bath or other positive, sleep-inducing activity you enjoy.

7. Maintain A Healthy Weight
Belly fat and stubborn weight have been associated with hormone difficulties. Eating well and doing enough exercise can help with this, but sometimes there’s an emotional element that needs to be dealt with, too. Try emotional freedom technique EFT or other psychological therapies to make sure your emotions aren’t getting in the way of your healthy hormone progress.

8. Slay Candida
Candida overgrowth can sabotage health, rob you of energy and increase the toxic load your body has to deal with on a daily basis. It can be caused by an unhealthy diet, immune system problems, and stress.

To reduce candida, lower the carbohydrates and empty calories in your diet and increase healthy fats and dietary fiber. You might also like to do a candida cleanse. Contact a professional to help you set up a program that’s specifically designed for you.

9. Address Reasons for Low Energy
A big part of hormonal balance involves getting all hormonal systems in balance and this includes the thyroid and adrenal gland. In addition, what is going on with the health of your mitochondria. These are the energy producing power houses of your cells and is the number one reason that women experience fatigue. These important organs and organelles are sensitive to toxins and stress, and as we get older, we lose much of our mitochondria if we don’t take care of them properly.

10. Get Support
Feeling supported by those around you is critical for your health and well-being. Do you need to ask for more support right now? Is there a woman in your community that you could team up with for mutual support on improving your lifestyle to support healthy hormones? Having an accountability buddy during the fight for natural hormone balance could make all the difference to your long-term health achievements.