Menopause

Menopause is the natural hormonal transition where the ovaries gradually produce less oestrogen and progesterone, typically between 45-55. It can bring hot flushes, night sweats, sleep trouble, mood swings and dryness of the mucous membranes.

Plants and herbs that help

Red clover, Danish researchers have shown fewer hot flushes and less bone loss with daily red-clover extract.
Sage, Helps regulate excessive sweating.
Flaxseed, Contains plant hormones (lignans) that can smooth hormonal swings.
Motherwort, Traditionally used for palpitations and inner restlessness during hot flushes.

Recipes

Tea

Sage tea for hot flushes

Sage is Salvia in Latin, from salvare, to save. The Romans thought it could do most things, and they were not far wrong about hot flushes. This is one of the most convincing herbs for hot flushes and night sweats, and the effect can be felt relatively quickly, often within a couple of weeks. It dampens sweat production directly. It tastes strong and a little bitter. You get used to it, and you are not meant to drink litres of it.

12 minutesEasy

Tea

Red clover tea

Red clover stands in every verge and meadow, and the pink flower heads taste faintly sweet, like a very distant honey. It is used for hot flushes, and the research is mixed: some trials show a clear effect, others find none. There is a good explanation for that, and it is worth knowing, because it decides whether the tea works for you. Red clover''s active compounds must be converted by bacteria in the gut before the body can use them. Without the right bacteria, the flowers pass through you leaving almost nothing behind. So drink the tea alongside something living. Lactic acid bacteria, a bowl of yoghurt, kefir, or a spoonful of your own sauerkraut. Pick the heads when newly opened and still living pink. Once they brown at the edge, they are past.

15 minutesEasy

Tincture

Motherwort tincture

Motherwort''s Latin name is Leonurus cardiaca, lion''s tail at the heart, and the English name says the rest: it has been used for women for a thousand years, in childbirth, in palpitations, and in the restlessness that has no named cause. It grows on waste ground and old farmyards, tall and square-stemmed, with small pink flowers in whorls. It is bitter. Very bitter. There is an old saying that motherwort tastes like the patience it gives you. It suits particularly the kind of menopause where the heart races for no reason, and where the unease settles in the chest rather than the head.

30 minutesEasy

Other

Flaxseed for hormone balance

Flaxseed is the least dramatic thing on this whole list. There is no ritual, no tincture, no four-week steep. There is a tablespoon of seeds and a glass of water. In return it is one of the best studied. Flaxseed contains lignans, plant compounds so similar to oestrogen that the body can use them when its own begins to swing. It does not work overnight. It works because you do it every day. Grind them. Whole seeds pass straight through without leaving anything behind.

5 minutesEasy

The content here is general knowledge and folk herbal lore, not medical treatment. In illness, pregnancy, breastfeeding or alongside medication: always talk to your doctor first.