# Q&A: Why do some women struggle intensely with perimenopause and menopause, whilst others can take it in their stride? ##### Menstrual Cycle Awareness for Perimenopause --- ![[Pasted image 20261024192434.png]] --- ## TL;DR - Every woman is different, and every woman’s menstrual cycle is unique. - Strong symptoms can be a combination of genetics, general health and what your periods were like before perimenopause. - We can also be differently sensitive to oestrogen and progesterone, just as we can be differently sensitive to caffeine. - Symptoms are multifactorial, so we need to look at everything else going on in our lives too. --- ## Transcript The first question I was asked was: “I’d be interested to know why some women struggle intensely with perimenopause and menopause whilst others can take it in their stride.” The main point of this is that everyone is different. So every woman is unique. Every woman’s menstrual cycle is unique. But strong symptoms are usually a combination of, number one, genetics. It’s worth knowing how it was for your mum, gran, auntie or sister. You know, this can give you an idea of how it may be for you. This isn’t always the case, but it’s worth getting an idea. So again, it’s genetics. Number two, it’s also the state of your general health. So are you stressed already? Is your sleep poor? Are you eating poorly? Are you drinking too much? So again, if you remember back to that hormone hierarchy, you know, cortisol and insulin can have an impact on our sex hormones, our oestrogen and progesterone. So again, it’s the state of your general health. Number three, it’s also about the state of your periods before perimenopause. So if you’ve had difficult periods before perimenopause, unfortunately, it could mean that you’re going to have more issues now. It isn’t set in stone, but it’s something we tend to see have an impact. Number four, it is also about individual differences in sensitivity to oestrogen and progesterone. It’s not necessarily that there are abnormal levels of these hormones, but instead, we all respond to them differently and have different sensitivities. So if you think of, say, caffeine, some people are really sensitive to it, including myself. Other women feel nothing and it doesn’t affect them. They can drink 10 cups of coffee and feel nothing. The same can be said for our hormones. You know, it’s our individual sensitivity which determines whether we experience symptoms or not. And it’s important to remember that symptoms are multifactorial, which means it’s not just one thing that leads to them, which again is why we need to look at everything else that is going on in our life as well.