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Hormonal Imbalance
Q: How many (peri)menopausal women does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Oh, change it yourself — and stop bugging me with your stupid questions!

When the ovaries stop producing eggs and estrogen you may suffer from a hormone imbalance.  As estrogen drops it can trigger a drop in the level of serotonin and other neurotransmitters and additional hormones, such as progesterone and testosterone.  Additionally, other brain chemicals linked to mood, such as dopamine and noradrenaline, are also involved.  This unstable hormonal situation may cause many symptoms such as  depression and anxiety, irritability and rage.

Warning Signs of Perimenopausal Rage 

1. History of PMS: If you previously experienced severe premenstrual symptoms, the more extreme hormone fluctuations of perimenopause can exaggerate your symptoms significantly, which can cause perimenopausal rage. PMS is typically worse in women who don’t take good care of themselves to the degree that they should through healthy nutrition, exercise and lifestyle measures.

2. Over Reactive Anger: Complete over reactions to miniscule things is part of this anger. The anger responses are extreme in regard to what is usually considered “small things.” Anger and irritability is the typical response to minor events.

3. Rapid Mood Swings: Is everything hunky dory one minute, and then sad, overwhelmed or crying the next, does this ring a bell? Your moods change like the flip of a switch with no warning at all. The instant flip-flop of emotions is often a sign of a possible hormonal imbalance.

4. Postpartum Depression: Women with postpartum depression may be more susceptible to developing perimenopausal rage. 

Coping with Perimenopausal Rage.

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For starters we'll review what we have all been told repeatedly... Reduce or eliminate your consumption of caffeine, alcohol, and processed foods that contain far more salt, sugar and saturated fat than anyone needs, and replace these with healthy foods. Combine some form of cardiovascular and weight-training exercise, at least 30 minutes a day, three times a week, to help drain off some jittery energy and allow for better sleep. If you can manage to toss in some form of stress busting yoga or even meditation, even better. And of course Quit smoking.

Every woman is different and what helps one may not help another.  With that said more women are finding that low doses of the newer forms of antidepressant medication (SSRIs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and SNRI or serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors) can be effective when it comes to improving perimenopause and menopause related mood disorders. They may even help reduce hot flashes and night sweats, which is a bonus for any women with these symptoms who doesn’t want to, or can’t (such as breast cancer patients), use hormone replacement therapy. Therapy or counselling may also help a woman discover what may be a long standing anger problem, apart from hormones and brain chemicals.