menopause

Ehlers Danlos and reproductive health issues…the unsung song

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

The very strong association between EDS or HSD and reproductive health issues is seldom talked about, even more rarely studied. Exploring the territory of how apparently more than half of women with EDS or HSD have vulvodynia, am alarming 77% report dyspareunia, so many have enhanced menopause issues that this is often the first thing that really flags up that they are hypermobile in the first place and that's not even touching on all the other issues they may have put up with along the way, such as dysmenorrhea (particularly painful periods), cysts, pregnancy issues and postpartum injury. Shedding a little bit of light on these topics and exploring anything, at all, that helps.

No sleep (a middle aged female angle)

~ Helen White ~ 3 Comments

Middle of the night thinking-aloud about the links between insomnia, autism, oxalates, vulvodynia and interstitial cystitis, chronic pain, environmental sensitivities, low to borderline thiamine B1 levels and feeling like you want to jump out of your skin!

Menopause…the time when “my autism broke”

~ Helen White ~ 4 Comments

Many women report that menopause was the time when their autism became much more pronounced or even a problem in so far as they were attempting to continue the status quo of their largely "adaptive" life as before yet that ability to mask and appear typical suddenly flew out of the window. It may even be the time when they first realised they were autistic, such were their adaptive skills up to that point.

Hypermobility and the moon (and other natural cycles)

~ Helen White ~ 4 Comments

When we notice how our bodies work so closely (as does eveything in nature) with the cycles of waxing and waning, we gain the tremendous power that comes from accepting what is and ceasing to resist the natural rhythms that can also be our best source of strength when we harness them for our recovery.

If you are a woman who even vaguely suspects you have ADHD…

~ Helen White ~ 5 Comments

Women with ADHD tend not look like men with ADHD; we often hide it, we work around it, we express it differently and we harness it in ways that allow us to excel and do our suffering in private, we even seem to feel about it a different way to most men, so its absolutely essential to find other women and hear what they have to say if you are going to work out if this is really you!

Under pressure: the EDS anxiety link

~ Helen White ~ 3 Comments

Hard science has uncovered a mechanism whereby the same collagen abnormalities in EDS that make joints especially flexible seem to affect blood vessels, making those with it prone to accumulation of blood in the veins of the legs, an effect that may lead to exaggerated cardiovascular responses to maintain the output of blood from the heart. This and other foibles, which I feel are versions of the same response, put those of us with this issue under immense pressure and strain, all the time, as our version of "normal" so just imagine how much we then react to any additional triggers, to which we tend to be hypersensitive (I share my about theory about that too...), setting off our nervous system at regular intervals in a way that has nothing inherently to do with mental health...although, no surprise, it can start to manifest as anxiety over time. Joining some dots and celebrating just how much people with hypermobility type EDS deal with as their daily benchmark...plus some practical ways of making it better.

CBD for IBS, menopause and pain

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

A number of articles are springing up to discuss the interest in CBD from an irritable bowel syndrome point of view and I was curious about this due to my own experiences in this regard, which I will relate below. The reason why cannabis is theorised to be a new and appropriate means for tackling … Continue reading CBD for IBS, menopause and pain

The vagus nerve: leading us back to our health

~ Helen White ~ 9 Comments

There's literally nothing to lose and everything to gain from a healthier vagus nerve. Like all the best paths, it starts out a little mysterious but that's where its adventure lies. I've certainly had cause to explore it lately as its been found to have just so many links with the most chronic, mysterious, health conditions....and here's what I found out (to my benefit, maybe yours). So, having found it and become so much more aware of it, I like to think the vagus nerve is a path worth following as, so it turns out, it may very well lead us back to ourselves in more ways than one!

Itching to get there

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

The many and varying, often uncomfortable, symptoms of a woman's mid-life transition are all versions of this metaphorical (you could even say, metaphysical) "itch". Really, its transformation underway...a metamophosis...and in making it mundane, by denying it or even making it seem like a problem, a curse, we fight back against what is really like a spreading of wings from the chrysalis; bewilderingly, disorientingly beautiful. Our culture has done terrible things to downplay the stage of her life that is all about female empowerment and there is a minefield of superstitious beliefs and misinformation around it; no wonder we hurt and struggle our way through it. When we welcome and encourage that transition, we allow for it to be smoother...and there a number of reasons why we might want to be doing that. These are, you could say, the times we have always been waiting for...

Migraine as the primal scream of the suppressed feminine

~ Helen White ~ 1 Comment

The heat that comes up in the mature woman reaching her power-phase can feel like a primal scream trying to gain our attention...for that is what it is. It reminds us of a time before child rearing, before strict gender roles, before many of the constructs we have turned into the hardest expectations, rules and limitations of our man-made culture....Exploring the portal that can present as pain and which is really our biggest oportunity yet; individually and as a whole.