When Your Body Is Telling a Story You Don’t Understand
You walk into a room and forget why you’re there. You’re exhausted by 2 PM despite sleeping eight hours. Your period shows up early—or late—or not at all. You feel like a stranger in your own body.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. And more importantly, you’re not broken.
What you’re experiencing may be perimenopause. Your body isn’t malfunctioning—it’s transitioning. And every symptom, every frustration, every unexpected change is actually your body trying to communicate something important.
When the psalmist wrote that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” he was observing something profound about the human body—it’s intricate, purposeful, and designed with remarkable precision. Perimenopause is one of the most revealing chapters in that story.
The Symphony Adjusting to a New Arrangement
Perimenopause is often reduced to “hormonal changes,” but that phrase doesn’t capture what’s actually happening. Think of your body as a finely tuned orchestra. For decades, estrogen has been conducting the performance, coordinating not just your reproductive system, but also your immune response, your energy production at the cellular level, and even your body’s internal clock.
When estrogen levels begin their unpredictable fluctuations, it’s not just one instrument going out of tune—it’s the entire symphony adjusting to a new arrangement. Sometimes that adjustment creates dissonance before finding its new rhythm.
This is why perimenopause doesn’t look the same for any two women. One might experience crushing fatigue and brain fog. Another might struggle with sleep and anxiety. Still another might have irregular bleeding and joint pain. The common thread is that the body is recalibrating multiple interconnected systems at once.
What’s Really Happening
Brain fog and memory issues aren’t “just aging”—they’re directly connected to declining estrogen levels affecting your brain’s mitochondria and neurotransmitter function. Estrogen supports the tiny power plants inside nearly every cell in your body. When estrogen fluctuates, your cells literally have less energy to work with.
Sleep disruption affects up to 47% of perimenopausal women and is linked to disrupted circadian rhythms and fluctuating hormones. Your body’s internal clock is intimately connected to both your hormones and your mitochondria. When one system gets disrupted, the others feel it too.
Mood changes—irritability, anxiety, or depression that seem to come from nowhere—make perfect sense when you understand that estrogen and progesterone directly affect neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and GABA. When their hormonal support becomes erratic, emotional stability can follow suit.
Physical symptoms like irregular bleeding, cramping, or inflammation are manifestations of the body’s shifting hormonal landscape. Recent research reveals that perimenopause is actually a pro-inflammatory state. This isn’t a malfunction—it’s your body responding to significant change. But when inflammation becomes chronic, it amplifies every symptom.
Where Do You Even Begin?
You might be thinking, “This all sounds complicated. How do I make sense of what’s happening?”
The answer is simpler than you might expect: we start by listening to what your body is actually saying, not what we assume it’s saying. Comprehensive blood work isn’t just a collection of numbers—it’s a detailed map of your body’s current terrain. It allows us to see your hormonal landscape, inflammatory status, metabolic health, thyroid function, and nutritional foundation.
When we analyze these markers together, patterns emerge that would be missed with a limited panel. This is the difference between treating symptoms in isolation and addressing the underlying imbalances creating those symptoms. Your adrenal glands, for example, are designed to take over some hormone production as your ovaries wind down—another example of the body’s built-in redundancy. But if your adrenals are already depleted from chronic stress, this transition becomes much harder. We need to see the whole picture.
Working With Your Body’s Design
While you pursue comprehensive testing, you can begin implementing foundational strategies that work with how your body is designed to function.
Nourish the foundation. I’m a strong advocate for an anti-inflammatory, whole food approach. Omega-3 rich foods like wild-caught salmon support your brain and cellular membranes. Phytonutrient-rich vegetables like leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables help your liver process hormones. Anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric and ginger support your body’s healing processes.
This is where my Good, Better, Best framework comes in. Maybe “best” is shopping your local farmer’s market for organic, seasonal produce. Maybe “better” is prioritizing organic for key items. Maybe “good” is simply adding more vegetables and reducing processed foods. We do the best we can in the season we’re in, and all of these are valid steps.
Consider targeted supplementation. Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions including sleep regulation and mood stability. Curcumin is one of nature’s most potent anti-inflammatory agents. If you don’t eat fish regularly, a balanced essential fatty acid supplement that provides both omega-3s and omega-6s in the right ratios can be invaluable—these fats are essential building blocks for your cellular membranes and hormone production.
Respect your body’s natural rhythms. Our bodies are designed to operate on rhythms—circadian rhythms that respond to light and dark, metabolic rhythms that respond to feeding and fasting, hormonal rhythms that respond to stress and rest. Prioritize quality sleep, spend time in morning sunlight, move regularly in ways you enjoy, and incorporate practices that calm your nervous system.
Understanding Before Action
Perimenopause can feel chaotic, but it’s not random. Your body is transitioning to a new season, and that transition follows predictable patterns when you know what to look for. With comprehensive testing and a clear understanding of your unique biochemistry, we can work with your body’s design rather than fighting against it. This also provides the opportunity to support your body proactively rather than reacting to unexpected symptoms.
Every symptom is information. Your body is designed to communicate, and when we learn to listen carefully, we can respond with precision. This isn’t about managing symptoms with a hammer; it’s about understanding that God has designed your body to work in a particular order and creating the conditions for your body to function as it was designed to.
The design is remarkable, and when we work with it rather than against it, strength and confidence replace weariness and confusion. You don’t have to just “push through” this season—you can navigate it with clarity, energy, and resilience.
Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
References:
[1] Lejri, I., et al. (2018). Mitochondria, Estrogen and Female Brain Aging. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 10, 134.
[2] McCarthy, M., & Raval, A. P. (2020). The peri-menopause in a woman’s life: a systemic inflammatory phase that enables later neurodegenerative disease. Journal of Neuroinflammation, 17(1), 317.
[3] Cleveland Clinic. (2024). Ovarian Cysts: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis & Treatment.
[4] Duffy, D. M., et al. (2019). Ovulation: Parallels With Inflammatory Processes. Endocrine Reviews, 40(2), 369–416.
