Cake over Keto: Episode 8 - Menopause and Eating Disorders
Eating disorders don’t just affect young folk. Treatment centres are reporting huge rises in women over 35 seeking help and a perfect storm may be building for women in midlife. Life transitions (kids leaving home, changing jobs, moving house, supporting elderly parents, relationship difficulties health concerns) combined with menopausal hormonal changes can make dealing with ‘everyday’ life very challenging. To cope, some will turn to coping strategies that don’t help in the long term. This episode, Mel talks about why midlife is a vulnerable window for developing disordered eating or an eating disorder, or for an eating disorder developed earlier in life to re-emerge; what’s going on hormonally and how society and stress can be strong driving factors.
Be gentle with yourself – remember you are human and it’s OK to ask for help.
Resources
Eating Disorder Symptoms and Weight and Shape Concerns in a Large Web-Based Convenience Sample of Women Ages 50 and Above: Results of the Gender and Body Image Study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3459309
Ovarian hormones influence eating disorder symptom variability during the menopause transition: A pilot study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31726420
From the Pick n Mix:
You can get further information and support about all things eating disorders form the charity BEAT https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk They have a national helpline.
The UK National Centre for Eating disorders https://eating-disorders.org.uk provides a huge library of information and offers treatment and counselling options.
Healing Minds, founded by therapist Bernie Wright who trained at the National Centre for Eating disorders and is a registered supervisor. She offers counselling, training and supervision https://www.healingminds.co
For menopause information, advice and app: https://www.balance-menopause.com founded by Louise Newson who also leads the menopause and wellbeing centre in Stratford upon Avon in the UK https://www.newsonhealth.co.uk
Last but not least, just as I’m writing these show notes (having recorded the episode already), I’ve just received a book called ‘The Longest Match, rallying to defeat an eating disorder in Midlife’ by Betsy Brenner – I’m off to make a start on it!
