There are many chal­lenges that we go through as women as we age. Dur­ing menopause, women tend to ex­pe­ri­ence many dif­fer­ent symp­toms. Typ­i­cal­ly, women ex­pe­ri­ence menopause be­tween the ages of 45 and 55 years. Some women ex­pe­ri­ence this tran­si­tion ear­li­er or lat­er in life. Menopause can be de­fined as the end of men­stru­a­tion. Usu­al­ly, it is di­ag­nosed af­ter about one year with­out a pe­ri­od.

Hor­mone pro­duc­tion re­duces, specif­i­cal­ly oe­stro­gen and prog­es­terone. Be­sides hot flash­es and mood swings, con­sti­pa­tion is one out­come that many women ex­pe­ri­ence. Con­sti­pa­tion can be harm­ful long-term if not ad­dressed. This can be de­fined as less fre­quent bow­el move­ments. Usu­al­ly, stools are dif­fi­cult to pass and are hard or dry, which can cause gas and bloat­ing.

These are three habits I would rec­om­mend as your Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist to man­age symp­toms of menopausal con­sti­pa­tion.

1. It is im­por­tant to in­crease the con­sump­tion of high-di­etary fi­bre foods such as fruits, nuts and seeds, beans, veg­eta­bles and com­plex car­bo­hy­drates. My favourite method of in­clud­ing more di­etary fi­bre in my day is through a nu­tri­tious snack in the form of our lo­cal chow, for ex­am­ple, some pineap­ple and cu­cum­ber. One cup of pineap­ple is about two to three grams of di­etary fi­bre, and in ad­di­tion to one cup of cu­cum­ber, which has an av­er­age of one gram, can re­sult in about four grams of di­etary fi­bre over­all. The dai­ly rec­om­mend­ed in­take of di­etary fi­bre is 25-30 grams for healthy bow­el move­ment.

2. Wa­ter is an un­der­val­ued nu­tri­ent that sup­ports our en­tire gut health. Our body is made up of 60-70% wa­ter, and it is vi­tal for sur­vival. In­creas­ing wa­ter con­sump­tion can aid in bow­el move­ment. I love to add some fruits, such as sliced or­ange, to my wa­ter as it makes it flavour­ful with nat­ur­al in­gre­di­ents. This en­cour­ages me to drink more. The amount of wa­ter that should be con­sumed dai­ly is de­pen­dent on many fac­tors, in­clud­ing our weight. Some­thing to keep in mind is that if we are thirsty, we are prob­a­bly al­ready de­hy­drat­ed.

3. In­creas­ing the con­sump­tion of nat­ur­al gut health sup­port foods, such as pro­bi­otics and pre­bi­otics, can al­so aid in your gut health, for ex­am­ple yo­gurt. These are live, ben­e­fi­cial bac­te­ria that en­hance the good gut bac­te­ria that can help to re­duce con­sti­pa­tion.

Nu­tri­tion over­all is an ex­treme­ly pow­er­ful tool to im­prove the qual­i­ty of our lives dur­ing menopause. In­clud­ing a va­ri­ety of foods from all food groups can pro­vide the right nu­tri­ents dai­ly, which makes a dif­fer­ence in the health of our bod­ies. When we don’t bal­ance ef­fec­tive­ly, it can af­fect our hor­mone lev­els and so much more. High­ly processed foods, high-fat in­take, ex­ces­sive caf­feinat­ed bev­er­ages and or over-con­sump­tion of al­co­hol can be dam­ag­ing to our hor­mone health and body over­all.

Con­sti­pa­tion is a re­versible side ef­fect that can be as­so­ci­at­ed with menopause. Nu­tri­tion is the so­lu­tion when it comes to im­prov­ing gut health. Start think­ing of ways to im­prove your di­ges­tion and im­ple­ment them to­day!

Can­di­da Khan, MSc RD is

al­so known as Di­di

Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist

She is al­so the CEO of Di­di’s Nu­tri­tion Con­sul­tan­cy