Menopause can make controlling blood sugar level a challenge to say the least. Keep reading to find out how to manage menopause with diabetes
When diabetes and menopause go hand in hand, it’s a challenge to deal with, to say the least. Even the years before your periods come to a complete halt are quite difficult for women with hormonal imbalance, mood swings, and weight gain. Combine that with pre-diabetes or diabetes, and you experience double the symptoms. In this article, we will talk about how to manage diabetes with menopause.
About Menopause
To put it simply, menopause is the time when your periods stop, and you can no longer get pregnant. While it may take a few years for your menstrual cycle to stop completely, some symptoms show up during the transition phase and remain for quite a while after as well.
Symptoms of Menopause
The main problem with menopause is the shortage of estrogen. After your body stops going through the normal menstrual cycle, it drastically reduces the production of estrogen and progesterone that are essential hormones in the body. Its shortage results in the aggravation of numerous symptoms.
Hot/cold flashes – these are the most commonly reported symptoms. Women experience sudden bursts of heat that extend to their upper body and neck. Some even notice red blotches in the affected areas and heavy sweating.
Some women experience cold chills rather than hot flashes. Their body breaks out in a cold sweat with a chill setting in the body.
Inability to sleep – Menopause results in low levels of progesterone, which results in the inability to sleep for many women. Numerous women also experience disrupted sleep patterns due to the need to urinate in the middle of the night during menopause. A lack of sleep also aggravates various symptoms.
Depression and anxiety – Many women experience heightened anxiety and depression fuelled by the hormonal imbalances. They may also feel particularly saddened by the loss of fertility.
Vaginal infections – Vaginal dryness starts out during the transition phase and can get worse during the time of menopause. You may even need to visit a doctor for medication to help alleviate the discomfort.
Mood swings – Hormonal imbalance is the leading cause of mood swings. Getting hysterical, sadness, and feeling uncontrollably angry are just a few signs that you may be going through menopause.
Urinary problems – Urinary and bladder problems while common during menopause are not normal after it. Loss of bladder control, also known as urinary stress incontinence, is quite common during menopause. However, if the problem persists even after your periods end, you should visit a doctor and get it treated.
Diabetes and Menopause
Menopause is as natural a process as growing old is. However, diabetes and menopause side by side is quite challenging as the hormonal imbalance may make it harder to control some symptoms. Changes in your estrogen and progesterone levels directly affect how the cells react to insulin.
Sleep Deprivation
Consistent hot flashes and low levels of progesterone in the body can result in a disturbed sleep cycle, which is counter-effective for those with diabetes. It is essential for those at risk of diabetes or those with the disease to get a good night’s rest to control blood sugar levels.
Depression and Anxiety
Depression, anxiety, and mood swing are all stress aggravators. When the body is stressed, the brain perceives it as a threatening situation and focuses all energy on producing adrenaline. This results in the activation of the body’s flight or fight reflex. During this time, it may not be able to process glucose in the body, which leads to a rise in blood sugar levels.
Doctors advise people with diabetes to take active stress control measures. However, during menopause, it comes about as a result of hormonal imbalance, which is harder to control without medication. If you are at risk of diabetes or have the disease already, then make sure you visit your doctor at the first sign of menopause.
Sexual Dysfunction
Consistently high blood sugar can damage the vaginal nerves. Over time, it leads to the thinning of the vaginal walls and, subsequently, inflammation. Many women even experience drying out of the organ, which makes arousal and achieving orgasms substantially more difficult.
If sex is becoming increasingly painful, then you should consult a doctor. They can prescribe anti-inflammatory medication to make the experience less painful. If you are experiencing vaginal dryness, then you should consult a doctor about that as well as it is bound to get worse as you progress with menopause.
Weight Gain
We all know that weight gain is an absolute no-no for people with diabetes. However, it is very common for women to put on a few extra pounds during menopause as a result of hormonal imbalance and stress combined.
Excess fat in the body can increase insulin resistance, which makes menopause and pre-diabetes a pretty dangerous combination. You will need to take extra measures and adopt a lifestyle that does not promote excess weight gain.
You need to get rid of belly fat, in particular, as that can significantly increase insulin resistance in the body. It also disturbs the body’s natural metabolism cycle, which is harmful to both people with diabetes and those undergoing menopause.
Infections
Higher blood sugar in the body can substantially increase the risk of urinary and vaginal infections, as does menopause. Low levels of estrogen can provide ideal living conditions for yeast in the urinary tract, leading to a rise in the risk of infections.
How to Manage Diabetes with Menopause
While you may need to visit the doctor for a few problems like sexual dysfunction and infections, you can successfully manage most of the symptoms with a few lifestyle changes. Besides eating a healthy, balanced diet to control blood sugar, you adopt specific habits to help counter a few of the problems.
How to Get Better Sleep
There are a few practices you can adopt to ensure you get a good night’s rest.
Hot/cold flashes are the most common cause of disturbed sleep. The simplest way to deal with them is to dress in layers. As soon as you start to sweat, take off a layer. In this situation, drinking a glass of cold water before bed can also help.
If you get cold chills, you should try the opposite. Drink a glass of warm water before bed, and make sure to layer up so that you don’t get uncomfortable cold in the middle of the night.
Losing weight can also significantly reduce hot/cold flashes in the body. Excess body fat often aggravates a lot of the symptoms of menopause and diabetes.
You can also exercise for thirty minutes before going to sleep. Doing so tires out the body, which eliminates the risk of restless sleep.
Taking Active Stress Control Measures
As mentioned earlier in our article, menopause is a stress trigger in the body, which is pretty harmful to people with diabetes. It can result in consistently high blood sugar, which can eventually lead to other diseases and harm the body’s nervous system.
It can also lead to aggravated memory deterioration, anxiety, sleep, and eating disorders. In short, controlling stress is critical for those with diabetes. Here’s how you can do that.
The first step is to understand and accept that you are stressed, depressed, and going through mood swings. You cannot effectively deal with it unless you know that your hormones are the reason why you want to fling that book across the wall one minute and want to break down and cry the next.
The second step is to take active measures to stay organized, so you never feel overwhelmed.
Lastly, you need to take up muscle-relaxing exercises or start meditating at least twice a day. Stretching and relaxing each part of the body at a time can help relieve built-up tension in the body. Doing this before going to bed can also help you get better sleep. Ideally, we recommend that you meditate in the morning and exercise at night.
Test Your Blood Sugar Regularly
We cannot stress enough on the importance of keeping a check on your sugar levels. You may be doing everything right, eating a healthy diet, exercising, meditating, and yet your sugar levels can be skyrocketing due to hormonal imbalances in the body.
Either visit a doctor and start taking medication to regulate the estrogen and progesterone levels in the body or you can keep tabs on your blood sugar and try and actively adjust your diet to keep them under control.
There isn’t a straightforward answer to how to manage diabetes with menopause. It is all about being aware of the symptoms and dealing with them accordingly. We suggest that you seek medical help for menopause as, besides diabetes, it also increases the risk of other diseases and problems within the body.