I Started Mouth Taping During My Menopause Gap Year and It's One of the Best Things I've Ever Done for My Health
The unknown sleep hack that every perimenopausal and menopausal woman needs to know!
Two years ago, during the summer of 2021, I was rounding the corner into my menopause gap year.
The menopause gap year is the 12-month timeframe between your last menstrual period and official menopause.
My last period came on November 30, 2021, although at the time I didn’t know that would be my last period. But, I didn’t have another period for the following 12 months, so that meant on December 1, 2022 (366 days later), I was officially in menopause. I was right on track for the predicted average menopause age — 51-52 years old. I turned 52 twenty-eight days later on December 29, 2022.
I’ll write more about the menopause gap year in another post. It’s important. Most women (and doctors) aren’t educated on it and therefore have no idea how to prepare for, let alone navigate, this very important time period in every woman’s life.
I thought I was pretty dialed in for my menopause gap year because during my menstruating years, I was well aware of and tracked the monthly seasons within my cycle. I never took anything to interfere with ovulation or stop my period. I haven’t had my ovaries or uterus removed. I never struggled with severe cramps or heavy bleeding. I used some bio-identical progesterone cream and tablets over the years to counter estrogen dominance with good results. I stopped drinking alcohol 8 1/2 years ago, thank goodness. I was one of those strange anomalies that actually liked the wisdom, rest, and innate cleanse (physical, emotional and energetic) that naturally happened from a monthly menstrual cycle.
And then, six months into my menopause gap year, I was brought to my knees.
Menopause is a portal. You’ll go through a rebirth. It’s a massive initiation all rolled into one. It’s going to do what it’s going do in your body and life, regardless of what you do or don’t do leading up to that pivotal year.
I gained weight that I still haven’t lost. My whole body ached in a way I’d never experienced before, especially the bottom of my feet! Deep, bone-gripping, all-consuming aches, with no relief, in my legs, neck, feet. Before menopause I had no idea what it was like to live with chronic pain. Now I know.
My Epstein Barr Titers reactivated, which can happen in peri/menopause. When hormone levels drop, immune function also drops. If you’re absolutely exhausted, stop brushing it off, and rule out Epstein Barr with a blood test. The dormant Epstein Barr virus (mono) that I've had in my system since high school flared during my menopause gap year. Then I tested positive for “COVID” and basically stayed in bed the whole month of July 2022.
I was bone tired.
I went down the rabbit holes, as you do when you know just enough functional medicine to be dangerous and you have time to kill because you stay in bed all day. My anxiety spiraled, and I was sure mold, or Lyme, was at the root of my fatigue and achey symptoms. I was ready to do hyperbaric oxygen chambers, ozone IV’s, and all the stuff that’s off the traditional medicine path.
But then my women’s health doctor stepped in and said.
“Let’s check your hormones first! If your hormones have tanked that could be the root of everything you’re experiencing.
She was right.
It turns out my estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone levels were flatlined. They were all below the low—not the normal but the actual low—ranges on traditional lab tests. No wonder I felt so bad.
It took four months of tweaking, but we found the bio-identical combo (estradiol patch plus oral progesterone from a compounding pharmacy) that pulled me out from the depths. My short-lived hot flashes, extreme fatigue, and debilitating body aches disappeared within days of getting on estradiol (bio identical, not synthetic form). I’ll write about my hormone replacement story in another post. But I cannot sing enough praises for bio-identical hormone replacement and competent, skilled women’s health practitioners. They are few and far between, so when you find one, hang on tightly!
And yet, estradiol just put the plug in one leak within the menopause dam. There was another leak to be dealt with as well.
My sleep
During my menopause gap year, I started waking up with my mouth wide open.
(photo credit to Jess Aldredge, Instagram post)
The other thing that happened: I’d sit upright in bed, awakened from a deep sleep in the middle of the night. I’d think, "I’m choking!" until I fully woke up and realized that I wasn't. This happened randomly but frequently, starting a couple years prior to my menopause gap year. I went to an ear, nose, and throat doctor. He checked to see if I had a deviated septum. I didn’t.
One day I was scrolling Instagram. Jess Aldredge1 had an Instagram story about mouth breathing and upper airway resistance. She was describing me to a T. Jess has great research on the total havoc that mouth breathing has on the body and brain during sleep. Basically, if you or your kids have any type of physical or emotional symptom or complaint, you need to rule out mouth breathing asap!
Nose breathing versus mouth breathing
When we’re nose breathing at night it increases nitric oxide.
Nitric oxide lowers blood pressure and blood sugar, it enhances physical performance and recovery, and decreases erectile dysfunction and increases healing. Nose breathing filters, warms, and humidifies the air we breathe, which improves immunity, oral health, and all around feeling good. Nose breathing is important for nervous system regulation and helps us stay more hydrated.
Mouth breathing puts the body in a constant state of fight-or-flight mode all night long. The body never has time to recover, rest, and get deep sleep when we breathe through our mouth. It puts an incredible burden on all the systems and organs. We are more at risk for ADHD, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease, hormone problems, poor sleep, dry mouth, dental oral problems, focus attention issues (ADHD), headaches, thyroid conditions, weight gain—the list goes on and on.
So, I started researching menopause, low hormones, and month breathing.
Here’s where it all comes together:
Sleep-disordered breathing and hormones - “Female hormones are thought to protect women from sleep disordered breathing until menopause. Episodes of sleep apnea seem to be grossly underestimated in females, since partial upper airway obstruction is far more common. Postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may prevent sleep disordered breathing.”
Menopause, upper airway resistance, and sleep apnea relation and progression - “By the time women reach the post-menopause phase, the odds are good that they will have experienced some form of sleep-breathing disorder.”
Why doesn't anyone talk about this?
For years I’ve been teaching about the neurotransmitter-hormone connection. If your hormones and/or neurotransmitters are depleted, you’re more likely to binge eat and over drink. Hormones and neurotransmitters are replenished during deep REM sleep. If you’re not getting good, regenerative sleep, you’re not making adequate relaxation neurotransmitters (like GABA and serotonin) or vital sex hormones (like estradiol and progesterone).
So, I started making phone calls. I needed help.
I’m not one to throw up my hands and say, “Well, what can you do? Nothing, I guess?” Nor, do I try to manage everything myself. I don’t do either. I hire expert support when I need it, and so I hired a myofunctional therapist.
Myofunctional treatments address the root cause of mouth breathing, encouraging optimal oral posture with your teeth and lips closed and the tongue resting against the roof of your mouth. The optimal posture encourages nasal breathing, which over time reshapes your face. Mouth breathing often begins because of orthodontics and extracting teeth (both of which I’ve had and most people have had), which creates a narrow airway. Tongue ties, lip ties, or nasal obstructions can also cause people to breathe through their mouth as well.
My myofunctional therapist gives me various tongue and mouth physical therapy exercises to do each week. The exercises definitely help, but there two things she shared with me that really moved the needle and gave me notable, immediate results.
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