I always associated Spanish style fans with Menopause as I remember my grandmother and her sisters’ fanning themselves in an attempt to keep their cool. Some years later my mother found herself a battery-operated fan which she carried around in her handbag and vowed to never leave home without it. If my thoughts had pondered on the cost of menopause at that time I would have assumed it was the price of a fan, which we can find online these days for about £5.95.

Time has told me a different story but it wasn’t until yesterday that I began to understand the real cost of menopause.  The truth is menopause is costing us a fortune but the significant cost of it is going under the radar.   It seems we constantly shell out money to comfort ourselves during this often-traumatic life stage. If you find yourself guzzling the Chocolate you crave, using Coffee in an attempt to rekindle your energy levels, and are drowning your sorrows with wine, for sure you are not alone.

Cravings get the better of us…

So many women could kill for a bar of chocolate and admit they prefer chocolate to sex at midlife!  Cravings for chocolate occurs when our body is out of balance due to low levels of important nutrients.   Magnesium, the most common deficiency amongst women, B vitamins, often in short supply due to our stressed life styles and the trace mineral chromium, which we are born with only 1/16^th of an ounce of and it gets less as we age, are all needed by our body for normal blood glucose control. From a survey on 500 women undertaken by the Natural Health Advisory Service, we discovered that over 80 percent of them were craving sweet food before their period and consuming at least one bar of chocolate 5 times per week; some were having several bars a day.  Even junky chocolate is going to be costing at least £5 per week and those who prefer higher quality dark varieties could be spending at least double.

The truth that apart from caffeine, chocolate predominately contains refined sugar which is devoid of nutrients but does demand good nutrients in order to be metabolised. We can overcome the cravings for it by getting our nutrient levels into an optimum range and consuming chocolate-free sweet treats.

 Needing energy so badly…

When feeling desperately tired and in need of a pick-me-up so many of us turn to coffee for the caffeine hit.  Globally over 400 billion cups of coffee go down the little pink lane each year with the Brit’s alone spending over £730 million on coffee each year.  There are thought to be twice as many coffee shops in Britain compared to 10 years ago and Britons on average spend £1 for every £40 they earn on coffee, that’s approximately 70 million  cups per day, with a massive two-thirds being brought from coffee shops. Even one coffee shop coffee a day is likely to be costing around £2.50, a weekly spend of over £17, and some of us are knocking back far more.

 The truth is that caffeine can make you feel anxious and disturb your sleep as women metabolise caffeine more slowly at midlife and beyond.  You can rekindle your energy naturally if you know how to meet your needs.

 Drowning our sorrows…

It’s so easy to reach for a glass of wine as a comfort in the evening, or even during the day if things aren’t going too well. It’s calculated that 27% of British women consume between 4 – 6 units on their heaviest drinking days and 23% drink more than 6 units.  According to MacMillan Cancer Support women are spending an average of £678 per year on alcohol, that’s over £13 per week.

The truth is that alcohol can worsen levels of already depleted nutrient stores in our body and bring on the hot flushes big time. Overcoming your symptoms will reduce the need to use alcohol as a comfort.

So, without taking into account money we spend on over the counter remedies that don’t seem to have the desired effect, new clothes to hide our ever expanding waist line at midlife and the dent to our purses from lost productivity, I calculate that we are spending in the region of £35 each week, £147 per month, making an annual total of £1764.  Now as research shows that menopause symptoms can go on for as much as 7 years you could be looking at a whopping spend of £12,348, leaving you all the poorer and feeling so much worse that you would had you learned to meet your needs at midlife and reclaim your wellbeing.  And don’t forget to add the cost of the battery operated fan!

If you would like to find out how to overcome cravings for chocolate, reduce the need for alcohol or the coffee hit each day, as well as overcoming your menopause symptoms once and for all you are most welcome to join my six-week Boot Camp Cruising Through Menopause.  There is a free Master Class where I explain what’s going on in your body and how to overcome symptoms based on the programme I pioneered with my team at the Natural Health Advisory Service over 25 years ago, which has helped over 90 percent of women become free of their menopause symptoms within five months. You owe it to yourself now to find out more if you would like to feel cool, sexy well and far more prosperous.

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