Awake at 3am, and not feeling like yourself?
It could be perimenopause, which can start years before anyone mentions it. Valentia helps women through it, naturally.
Five minutes. Find out whether your symptoms are likely to be perimenopause, which one is affecting you most right now, and what to do about it first.
For the woman who knows something is off, and has been told she’s fine.
You’ve been waking at three in the morning, wide awake, for no reason you can name. Last month you lost an ordinary word in the middle of a meeting. You told your doctor. The labs came back normal, and somewhere in that appointment an antidepressant was offered.
You’ve read all the books. In the cupboard there’s magnesium, ashwagandha, a sleep, calm or hormone formula, an omega-3 and some vitamin D, all half used. So now what? The symptoms are still there, and it’s hard to know which parts of all that reading apply to you, or where to start. Sometimes knowing too much can be just as paralysing as not enough.
Medicine looks at a person in parts. Sleep goes to one specialist, mood to another, skin to a third, and each part is checked on its own. But you’re one interconnected system, and anxiety, low mood or a short fuse can be symptoms of something moving through the whole of it. In your forties, that something is usually your hormones.
Your doctor doesn’t see it because the tests come back within the normal range, and within the normal range there’s nothing to see.
There are three things that point to hormones before anxiety: your age, a symptom that’s unusual for you, and other signs arriving alongside it, like your skin changing.
Getting it named can take years. Usually someone else points it out, or menopause arrives and does it for you. Even then it’s hard to believe, because nobody feels old enough for this, so the symptoms get treated as the problem instead of anyone looking deeper at what’s causing them.
You’re not alone, and it won’t be forever.
I’m Davina Hearne, the naturopath behind Valentia, and I’m going through it too. I had my first panic attack at 42. It was late, I was organising a shipment of our things from the UK to New Zealand, and the moment I paid, the panic hit. I felt sick, my heart was racing, and I was sure something terrible was about to happen. I spent the night emailing the UK, trying to cancel. I’d never reacted to anything like that in my life, and I didn’t think “hormones” until I started building Valentia.
I qualified as a naturopath, nutritionist and medical herbalist in 2012, at Wellpark College of Natural Therapies in New Zealand. I’m also a busy mum homeschooling four kids, aged 2 to 9. I’ve moved more times than I dare to count, and travelled way too much considering how many children I have. Since perimenopause found me, I’ve studied it again alongside my own experience, looking for what actually works for each symptom and for the whole picture.
My advice is practical, for real, busy women and mums: small changes that make big differences. I see body, mind and soul as one, so I won’t treat your symptoms one at a time, pile a stack of pills on you, or ask for changes that won’t stick. I don’t prescribe. I’ll tell you when it’s worth talking to your doctor.
Davina Hearne is a New Zealand qualified naturopath, herbalist and nutritionist. She is not a medical doctor. This is health education from a qualified non-physician practitioner. It is not medical advice and does not establish a practitioner relationship.
Start with the one that’s affecting you most.
The five-minute check tells you which symptom to work on first, and which of these fits.
Start here, free
Is It Perimenopause?A five-minute self-audit.
Twelve questions. Find out whether your symptoms are likely to be perimenopause, which one is affecting you most right now, and what to do about it first. No email needed to see your result.
The 3am Wake
Five short emails, one a day: why you wake at 3am, and what to do when you do.
What to Ask Your Doctor For
The blood tests worth asking for in perimenopause, and how to ask for them.
Waiting list only. Nothing takes payment until Davina has opened it.
When you’re ready to go further
The First 30 Days
A$49.Thirty days by email: what to start first, and in what order, paced so you actually do it.
Waiting list only. Nothing takes payment until Davina has opened it.
The Symptom Protocols
A$89 each.Fourteen days on the one thing that’s loudest for you: the 3am wake, anxiety and mood, brain fog and energy, your body (weight, hot flushes, joints), or your periods.
Waiting list only. Nothing takes payment until Davina has opened it.
The Perimenopause Reset
A$797.Four weeks, fifteen women and Davina, with a live call every week.
Waiting list only. Nothing takes payment until Davina has opened it.
The Notebook
A$39 a month.For after your first thirty days: one long piece a month, and your questions answered in writing.
Waiting list only. Nothing takes payment until Davina has opened it.
Every paid product is a waiting list until Davina has reviewed its content. Nothing takes payment yet.
