What If Peri-menopause Wasn’t the Problem?


In This Issue (< 5 min):

Usually, I share three entries in my weekly newsletter, but this week it's just one.
Because this message deserves space.
Because I want you to linger with it. Keep it open on your phone or computer, and see what bubbles to the surface.

What If Perimenopause Wasn’t The Problem?

We’ve been taught to reduce this season of a woman’s life to one word: hormones.

We’re told our estrogen is dipping, our progesterone is crashing, and that this explains our brain fog, fatigue, rage, joint pain, low libido, anxiety, and weight gain.

We call it “perimenopause” and we reach for hormone therapy, antidepressants, and now Ozempic, treatments for symptoms we assume are purely biological. That s not to say that there isn't a time and place for HRT, antidepressants or GLP-1 agonists.

What I am saying is that we mustn't take symptoms that arise in perimenopause at face value.

What if your symptoms aren’t hormonal? What if they’re biographical? A culmination of:

  • Years of overgiving and underresting
  • Living in a constant state of hypervigilance, spinning a thousand plates like a badge of honour
  • Skipping meals, joy, movement, and play
  • Saying yes when you meant no
  • Sacrificing sleep for someone else's needs
  • Being productive at the cost of being present
  • Living for approval instead of alignment

This isn’t just perimenopause. It’s the period in your life when your body is sounding the alarm bell, signalling decades of living out of sync with yourself, your rhythm, your values, and your deepest desires.

Your body is not a separate entity you “fix.” It is the subconscious expression of every belief you’ve held, every boundary you’ve breached, every truth you’ve silenced, and every choice you’ve made, conscious or unconscious. Your body is the autobiography of your inner world, and you get to edit the next chapter.

Perimenopause is not a hormonal crisis, it's a calendar invite to a performance audit of your life.

  • A sacred, long-overdue invitation to ask:
  • What am I no longer willing to tolerate in my body, mind, or relationships?
  • What would it look like to feel good again, on my terms, not society’s?
  • Have I become the woman I dreamed of being, or just a collection of coping mechanisms?
  • Where am I still outsourcing my self-worth?
  • What do I need to reclaim? What do I need to release?

Perimenopause doesn’t just mark the end of fertility. It’s an inflection point - a transitional stage where we stop living for others at the expense of ourselves and begin living for ourselves, on purpose, in a way that allows everyone in our lifescape to benefit.

The truth is: your symptoms are valid, but they’re not random and you most certainly don't need fixing. Before you label this season as “perimenopause” and treat it away, pause.

Turn inward.
Get curious.
Ask the harder questions.
And listen.
This isn’t your downfall.
This is your turning point.
And you? You’re just getting started.

Dr. Dominika Zarzeczny

Naturopathic Doctor


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hello@drdominika.com
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www.drdominika.com


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Hi! I'm Dr. Dominika Zarzeczny, ND

First inspired by the work of Dr. Gabor Mate, Dr. Dominika has focused much of her career on helping her patients connect the dots between early adversity and trauma and their impact on lifelong health and well-being. She knows that the reversal of chronic illness involves the nervous system, and so she has dedicated her practice to helping patients master their own nervous system to positively influence their mind and body, behaviours and ultimately health outcomes. Her explanation of disease doesn't pathologize or blame, but is nuanced, humanized and filled with hope. She trained with various psychologists and experts in the field of psychological trauma. She incorporates the principles of neuroscience, attachment theory, mindfulness, Polyvagal Theory and compassionate inquiry in her approach with patients. Combining these with her naturopathic training, she likes to say that she works at the intersection of science and human experience.

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