What Is Perimenopause — and Why It Can Feel So Disorienting
Have you started to notice a shift happening?
Maybe you wake up one day and don’t quite recognize yourself in the mirror. Your emotions feel unsteady. You feel more reactive, more tired, or more sensitive than you used to. You don’t feel like yourself. You just feel…different.
For some women, the changes are impossible to ignore:
Trouble sleeping, especially staying asleep—lying awake while your mind keeps going
Weight gain around the midsection that doesn’t respond to the things that once worked
Waves of heat that seem to come out of nowhere
For others, the signs are quieter:
Difficulty concentrating or remembering things (hello brain fog)
A general sense of unease, like you’re slightly out of sync with yourself
Low-level anxiety that hums in the background
And for many women, the hardest part isn’t the symptoms—it’s the way they affect your sense of self.
You may feel like the confidence you spent years building has suddenly vanished overnight.“It can feel like the version of you who once felt steady and capable has gone missing. You miss her and wonder where she went.
If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.
So What’s Actually Happening
Perimenopause happens to every woman. It can begin anytime from your mid-30s through your early 50s.
During this time, hormones don’t simply decline—they fluctuate. And because hormones influence everything from metabolism and digestion to mood, sleep, and stress response, these shifts can ripple through your entire system.
From an Ayurvedic perspective, this is a time when the body becomes more sensitive and needs more care and support. Ayurveda has supported women through this life stage for thousands of years by working with the body’s natural rhythms rather than overriding them. The nervous system is often more easily overstimulated. Digestion can become less efficient and your metabolism slows down. The rhythms that once kept you feeling balanced may no longer work in the same way.
This doesn’t mean your body is failing. It means it’s asking for something different.
Why So Many Women Feel Unprepared
Even though 100% of women go through it, most women were never taught what perimenopause is—or what it can look like.
Many medical providers receive little training on this phase, which leaves women being told they’re “too young,” that their labs look “normal,” or that what they’re experiencing is just stress or aging.
It’s deeply unsettling to feel something is changing in your body and be told—directly or indirectly—that you should just push through it.
Over time, this can lead women to doubt themselves, disconnect from their intuition, or feel like they have to manage everything alone.
A Few Important Things to Remember
It helps to come back to a few grounding truths:
Hormonal change is totally normal and natural
Struggling does not mean something is wrong with you
Support, sharing and understanding make a real difference
In Ayurveda, this stage of life is seen as a transition that requires more nourishment, more steadiness, and more care for the nervous system—not more discipline or restriction.
When women are supported through this phase—physically, emotionally, and energetically—the symptoms often soften. Sleep improves. Anxiety becomes more manageable. A sense of inner stability returns.
A Different Way to See This Chapter
In holistic health, this transition is often called the Second Spring—a time of renewal and reorientation.
Rather than an ending, it’s an invitation to relate to your body in a new way. To slow down. To listen more closely. To build a kind of resilience that’s rooted in self-trust rather than force.
Your 30s and 40s are a powerful window for prevention. When you support digestion, regulate stress, and nourish your system now, you create a much steadier foundation for the years ahead.
Hormonal change is normal.
Suffering doesn’t have to be.
And with the right kind of care and support, this phase can become one of a deeper understanding, a grounded confidence, and a beautiful connection to yourself.
