P.E.I. menopause events prompt conversations about women's health

Symptoms of menopause — like brain fog, hot flashes and night sweats — can have a significant impact on the day-to-day lives of those who experience them. But it's not just the physical symptoms that cause discomfort. 

For some women, just talking about menopause can be uncomfortable.

Gineen Nicholls and Tara Costello-Ledwell are trying to change that. 

Through in-person events and retreats, Nicholls and Costello-Ledwell are working to create safe spaces on Prince Edward Island for more women to open up about their experiences with menopause. 

"I just saw so many women who were struggling with symptoms," said Nicholls, a women's holistic hormone health coach and presenter at this weekend's Hormone, Body & Mind event in New Glasgow, P.E.I. 

"What we need to do as women is come together and help as many women as possible," she said.

For Costello-Ledwell, a certified mental performance consultant, the Journey Audaciously Through Menopause retreat in Grand Tracadie, P.E.I., at the end of the month is an opportunity to do just that.  

"We have to get comfortable talking about [menopause] because it's absolutely normal and every woman is going to go through it," she said. 

"Why wouldn't we talk about it?" 

'The more we talk about it, the more we can reduce that shame'

Costello-Ledwell said she likes to compare the changes women go through in menopause to the bodily and hormonal changes adolescents go through during puberty. 

"We got really comfortable talking about adolescence, and this is just another change.… A lot of changes," she said. 

In adolescence, there tend to be opportunities for conversations about what's changing with your body and why, said Nicholls. 

But at the phase of life when menopause happens, those big discussions about bodily and hormonal changes aren't as common, she said, adding that she thinks embarrassment sometimes keeps women suffering in silence. 

"There are a lot of women out there who really, really struggle with it," Nicholls said. "The more we talk about it, the more we can reduce that shame." 

Nicholls said there are days when she doesn't have a lot of energy, causing her to question what's wrong with her. 

"But I'm going through this process too, and I have to give myself a little bit of compassion," she said. 

"It's not always that we are losing our minds. It's that when we combine those hormonal shifts with being chronically stressed — which I think a lot of women are today — then we see that perfect scenario where we're getting all kinds of symptoms pop up."

The stress of experiencing those symptoms can be made worse when women aren't informed about what it is they're going through, said Costello-Ledwell. 

"We need to be able to … identify what we're experiencing, and then have a language to say, 'So much of this is normal,'" she said. 

When it comes to menopause, Nicholls said there are positive aspects of the experience that can help shift perspectives,

"It's just this amazing time where you get to know your body in a completely different way, and you get to learn about you as a woman all over again," she said.  "You get to kind of take back some of your power in that."