Menopause in Dog Grooming: Let’s Talk About It!

The Hidden Struggles Behind the Salon Smiles

There was a second, someplace between juggling purchasers, operating two companies, elevating a household, and making an attempt to be the whole lot for everybody, once I appeared within the mirror and didn’t recognise the lady staring again. She appeared drained. Not simply the sort of drained a very good sleep may repair, however a soul-deep, bone-heavy sort of exhaustion, and she or he felt confused, foggy, off-balance like somebody had quietly turned the quantity down on her spark.

And if you happen to’ve ever felt that too, this weblog is for you.

For thus many people within the grooming trade, an trade the place girls make up the overwhelming majority, perimenopause and menopause creeps in like an uninvited visitor. It doesn’t kick the door down unexpectedly. It slowly blurs your mind, messes along with your sleep, saps your power, provides new aches in locations you didn’t know may ache, steals your libido, makes your confidence really feel slippery, after which…  only for enjoyable… cranks up the inner thermostat with out warning, all whereas sneaking in a brief fuse and a sudden urge to teleport somebody to a different galaxy for respiration too loudly, chewing close to you, or just present in your common route.

This weblog is predicated on private expertise and shared analysis, it’s not medical recommendation, and I’m not a health care provider, only a fellow groomer sharing what I’ve discovered (and am nonetheless studying), within the hope it helps others really feel much less alone. What actually shocked me, although, was how little I really knew about what was occurring.

So this weblog is a love letter to each girl who’s felt like she was falling aside whereas making an attempt to carry the whole lot else collectively. I need you to know you’re not damaged. You’re not alone. You’re not lazy or dropping your thoughts — your physique is shifting gears in methods the world hardly ever explains.

Understanding Menopause within the Canine Grooming Trade

What’s Menopause —The Fundamentals 

For one thing that occurs to half the inhabitants, menopause stays one of the misunderstood and under-discussed life transitions. Menopause is outlined because the cut-off date when a lady has gone 12 consecutive months with no menstrual interval. However the extra turbulent time typically begins years earlier than that, in a stage known as perimenopause.

Perimenopause can start as early as your late 30s to early 40s and might final wherever from 4 to 10 years. Throughout this time, ranges of key hormones — estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone start to fluctuate unpredictably. These hormonal modifications can have an effect on virtually each system within the physique, typically in methods we don’t count on or instantly hook up with hormones.

A few of the signs girls could expertise embody:

• 🔹 Cognitive & Emotional Adjustments

  • Mind fog, forgetfulness, or bother focusing

  • Temper swings, elevated irritability, or anxiousness

  • Panic assaults (even if you happen to’ve by no means had them earlier than)

  • Sleep disturbances or insomnia

  • Fatigue that feels disproportionate to your workload

  • Lack of motivation or sense of id

  🔹 Bodily Shifts

  • Sizzling flushes (and chilly ones too!)

  • Evening sweats

  • Irregular intervals — heavier, lighter, or nearer collectively

  • Coronary heart palpitations

  • Joint and muscle aches or stiffness

  • Tingling in palms or toes

  • Complications or migraines

  • Adjustments in metabolism or unexplained weight acquire

  • Hair thinning or loss (particularly on the crown)

  • Pores and skin modifications — dryness, sensitivity, or grownup zits

  • Digestive modifications or bloating

  • Elevated physique odour or sensitivity to smells

  • Breast tenderness

  • Vaginal dryness or discomfort

  • Decrease tolerence to Alcohol

  🔹 Pelvic Well being

  • Bladder urgency or leaking (particularly when sneezing/laughing)

  • Weakened pelvic flooring muscle tissue

  • Adjustments in libido — from lack of need to a shift in how your physique responds

  🔹 Sensory Adjustments

  • Dry eyes or visible modifications

  • Burning mouth or altered style sensations

  • Sensitivity to temperature

  • Heightened emotional response to emphasize or overwhelm

This listing may appear lengthy — and that’s a part of the issue. Most girls aren’t instructed that perimenopause can feel and appear this layered. You would possibly solely expertise a handful of those signs, otherwise you would possibly really feel like your complete system is glitching.

Dr. Mary Claire Haver, a board-certified OB-GYN and menopause specialist, typically refers to this as a “neuroendocrine transition” — a hormonal shift that deeply impacts the mind as a lot because the physique.[Source: Dr. Mary Claire Haver, The New Menopause, 2024]

One of the crucial highly effective tales Dr. Mary Claire Haver shares is from her time working in a hospital earlier in her profession, the place she started noticing a sample: girls of their 40s and 50s exhibiting up with imprecise however distressing signs  anxiousness, weight acquire, joint ache, insomnia, low libido — and leaving with out solutions. On a lot of their charts, she noticed the identical two letters: “WW.” It stood for “Whining Lady.”

These weren’t tough sufferers,  they had been girls within the throes of perimenopause and menopause, misdiagnosed or fully dismissed. Even Dr. Haver, realised she hadn’t been taught sufficient to really assist them. That second lit a hearth, and she or he’s spent her profession since working to vary how we perceive and discuss menopause.

[Paraphrased from: The New Menopause, Dr. Mary Claire Haver, 2024]

The Silence Round Ladies’s Well being

What Menopause Means for Canine Groomers

Traditionally, girls’s well being has been vastly understudied and underfunded. The truth is, till 1993, girls had been routinely excluded from medical trials within the U.S. as a result of their hormonal fluctuations had been seen as too variable. This exclusion left critical gaps in how we perceive girls’s responses to medicines, illnesses, and even fundamental well being markers. For many years, the medical world was primarily working with solely half the image.

[Source: National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act, 1993; The Lancet, “Sex and gender in health research,” 2020]

Menopause, specifically, was handled as a footnote — one thing “pure” that didn’t require a lot dialogue or help. Ladies had been anticipated to endure it quietly, to push by means of, to “toughen up.”

When girls don’t know what’s occurring to their our bodies, they typically blame themselves.“Why can’t I focus?”“Why am I gaining weight once I haven’t modified something?”“Why do I really feel so offended, or unhappy, or numb?”

Worse, many ladies are instructed “it’s simply stress” or “it’s all in your head,” when in actuality, their estrogen is plummeting, their serotonin is dropping, and their cortisol is rising , the proper storm for burnout, despair, and bodily discomfort.

Dr. Haver’s work focuses on validating girls’s experiences and providing actionable, evidence-based options. She speaks typically about:

• The function of irritation in menopause signs

• The significance of energy coaching and muscle preservation

• How eating regimen, sleep, and stress administration can drastically enhance high quality of life

[Source: Dr. Mary Claire Haver, The Galveston Diet and The New Menopause]

Why This Should Change — Particularly in Our Trade

As groomers, we work in high-demand, we’re typically on our toes all day, lifting canines, navigating shopper expectations, and pushing by means of bodily ache with out criticism. However menopause modifications that. We can’t simply push by means of.And we shouldn’t need to with out help or understanding. I’ve additionally listened to the quiet struggles of my associates, unimaginable girls operating grooming companies whereas coping with perimenopause or menopause behind the scenes. Their exhaustion, frustration, and emotional load is actual. And too typically, it’s invisible.

Because of this training actual, science-backed training issues. It’s not about complaining. It’s about reclaiming management. The extra we perceive what’s occurring in our our bodies, the higher we are able to adapt our lives, our salons, and our expectations.

And most significantly: the higher we are able to help one another.

Throughout perimenopause and menopause, ranges of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone fluctuate dramatically. These hormones don’t simply affect your cycle — they drive your motivation, temper, reminiscence, power, and even how your physique makes use of meals and shops fats.

Fluctuating estrogen ranges can impression muscle and joint well being, typically triggering aches, stiffness, and irritation particularly within the neck, again, hips, and palms.

[Source: The North American Menopause Society, 2023]

Lowering estrogen additionally means much less collagen manufacturing, which contributes to joint discomfort, dry pores and skin, and a sense of total bodily fragility. And let’s not overlook the lack of muscle mass — one thing that impacts each power ranges and damage restoration. Even stability will be impacted because of hormonal results on the interior ear and nervous system.

Then for many people, comes the weight acquire particularly across the midsection. It’s not about consuming extra. It’s about cortisol, the stress hormone. Throughout menopause, cortisol ranges can keep elevated because of poor sleep, hormone imbalance, and ongoing stress particularly in high-pressure jobs like grooming. Elevated cortisol promotes stomach fats storage and leaves you feeling exhausted, anxious, and infected.

[Source: Dr. Mary Claire Haver, The New Menopause, 2024][Source: Cleveland Clinic Menopause Resources, 2023]

🍷 After which there’s wine…

For a few of us, a glass of wine can really feel just like the go-to repair after a protracted day within the salon — just a little “liquid exhale” to take the sting off. However in perimenopause and menopause, alcohol can really flip up the warmth (actually).It’s been linked to worse scorching flushes, night time sweats, disrupted sleep, temper swings, and elevated anxiousness. Why? As a result of alcohol impacts your already-sensitive hormone ranges, spikes cortisol, and messes along with your blood sugar — all issues your physique is making an attempt to stability like a tightrope walker in a windstorm.

So if you happen to discover that cheeky glass leaves you feeling much less chill than you hoped, you’re not imagining it. And no sadly, it’s not the wine that modified. It’s us.

🔹 The Triple Menace: Hormones, Stress & Sleep Deprivation

It’s not simply estrogen that’s shifting. Based on research, Perimenopause and menopause disrupt the fragile stability of hormones concerned in stress response, metabolism, and sleep — a recipe for burnout.

• Estrogen and progesterone each affect serotonin and GABA, which assist regulate temper and calm the nervous system. Their decline can set off anxiousness, despair, and irritability.

• Cortisol, as talked about, turns into tougher to control — resulting in wired-but-tired power crashes.

• Melatonin manufacturing additionally drops, making it tougher to go to sleep and keep asleep.

Now layer that on prime of grooming’s irregular hours, fixed bodily calls for, and emotional labour — and also you’ve received girls operating on fumes.

🔹 You’re Not Alone 💛

Research present that over 80% of ladies expertise menopausal signs that intrude with each day life, but many obtain little help, particularly in hands-on, small business-driven industries like grooming.

[Source: British Menopause Society, 2022]

And since our career calls for a lot — pace, persistence, bodily energy, emotional presence — it’s straightforward to misread these pure, hormone-driven modifications as private failure.

However they’re not. They’re organic. They’re legitimate and so they deserve recognition and help not silence.

You’re Not Shedding It — Your Physique’s Simply Altering

One of many hardest issues about menopause isn’t the recent flushes or the mind fog  it’s the guilt. The quiet, creeping guilt that whispers, “Why can’t I sustain anymore?” or “The place did my drive go?”

However right here’s the reality: You’re not unmotivated — you’re navigating a serious organic transition.

The grooming trade thrives on “go, go, go.” However midlife isn’t a breakdown, it’s a sign to regulate, not abandon. It’s a name to relaxation, to recuperate, to rethink how we work not a purpose to really feel ashamed its a time to really feel reborn!

So if you happen to’re feeling slower, softer, extra drained than normal that’s not failure. It’s suggestions, and it deserves compassion, not criticism.

Science-Primarily based Options: Dr. Haver’s Core Concepts

By the point most girls realise they’re in perimenopause or menopause, they’re already exhausted, annoyed, and making an attempt to Google their technique to sanity. What makes Dr. Mary Claire Haver’s work stand out is that she not solely names the issue — she additionally gives sensible, science-backed methods to take again management.

Her strategy focuses on addressing the root causes of signs, not simply masking them — and it begins with understanding that menopause is a whole-body transition, not only a hormonal one.

Listed here are three core pillars she recommends:

🔹 1. Anti-Inflammatory Consuming

Hormonal shifts throughout menopause set off irritation, which contributes to the whole lot from joint ache to mind fog. Dr. Haver advocates for an anti-inflammatory eating regimen that helps hormone stability, intestine well being, and long-term illness prevention.

• Prioritising complete, unprocessed meals

• Consuming lean protein (particularly plant-based and fish) at each meal

• Emphasising omega-3s (like chia seeds, flaxseed, salmon)

• Including a number of vibrant veg and leafy greens

• Decreasing refined carbs, sugars, and alcohol

• Incorporating high-fibre meals to help estrogen detox and intestine well being

📚 This strategy is printed in Dr. Haver’s ebook The Galveston Eating regimen, in addition to her newest launch, The New Menopause (2024).

🔹 2. Power Coaching for Longevity

It’s not about getting ripped — it’s about defending muscle, bones, and metabolism.

Out of your 40s onward, muscle mass naturally declines, and this accelerates throughout menopause. That impacts the whole lot: power ranges, stability, joint stability, and the way your physique handles blood sugar and fats. Common resistance coaching, even just some occasions per week, is a robust antidote to:

• Fatigue

• Insulin resistance

• Osteoporosis

• Temper fluctuations

And for groomers? It’s a vital type of damage prevention and postural help.

🔹 3. Advocating for HRT (If It’s Proper for You)

Hormone Substitute Remedy (HRT) used to hold a cloud of worry round it  however trendy analysis exhibits it’s a protected and efficient choice for a lot of girls, particularly these beneath 60 or inside 10 years of menopause onset.

Dr. Haver encourages girls to talk to a menopause-informed physician, and to advocate for themselves if their signs are affecting their high quality of life.

It’s not for everybody , however it is a sound, evidence-based instrument that many ladies are being denied because of outdated considering. In case your physician dismisses your signs or issues, its okay to then get a second opinion. You deserve knowledgeable care.

The Emotional Toll (and Triumph)

If there’s one factor menopause has taught me, it’s this: you don’t get by means of it by pretending it’s not occurring.

You get by means of it by speaking, by asking for assist, and by realising you aren’t alone.

At Groomer Nation, we imagine these conversations matter and one of the highly effective shifts for me was studying to be sincere with my associates, household, work colleagues, and purchasers. Not a dramatic announcement — simply actual conversations, when wanted, about needing a break, or explaining a pause in my normal tempo. And you recognize what? The response was human. Supportive. Sort. As a result of while you present vulnerability, it offers others permission to reply with care.

We’d like extra of that in our trade.

For those who’re exhibiting as much as work every single day whereas your physique is throwing hormonal chaos at you, let me inform you — that is not weak point. That’s resilience and you need to be celebrated !

Sources & What’s Subsequent

If this weblog has struck a chord with you — if you happen to’ve learn it nodding, tearing up, or simply feeling seen please know: you’re not alone.

There’s nonetheless a lot we’re studying about menopause, and each girl’s expertise is exclusive. However what’s common is the necessity for extra data, extra compassion, and extra neighborhood — particularly in industries like ours, the place we give a lot of ourselves to others.

For those who’re struggling, begin by speaking. Together with your physician. A Skilled. Your crew. Your accomplice. Your Household. Your pals. 

And if you happen to ever want an area to really feel heard or understood, Groomer Nation is right here. We’re not docs — simply fellow groomers who care deeply, hear totally, and imagine in lifting one another up.

Perimenopause and Menopause isn’t a closing door. It’s a shift in rhythm. An opportunity to pause, mirror, and meet a brand new model of your self — one with extra depth, extra readability, and a stronger sense of what actually issues.

It’s not one thing to worry or struggle. It’s one thing to step into, with softness and delight. As a result of caring for your self isn’t a luxurious, it’s knowledge. Setting boundaries isn’t impolite, it’s obligatory. And who you’re changing into now? She’s nonetheless you… simply extra rooted, extra radiant, and extra complete than ever earlier than!

And if this weblog touched you, please share it — and unfold the love.

At Groomer Nation, we care deeply concerning the individuals behind the grooming tables. We would like extra sincere conversations, extra help, and extra space to only be human on this trade.

Begin a dialog in your salon, your pal circle, your on-line neighborhood or with us!  You by no means know who’s been quietly carrying the identical weight and the way a lot it’d assist them to really feel seen.

We’re on this collectively 💛 

With Love and Heat Hugs from me to you,

Vanessa Parsons ( Fellow Groomer and Co -Founder Groomer Nation ) 💛

🔹 Some Beneficial Studying

The #1 Menopause Physician: Methods to Lose Stomach Fats, Sleep Higher, & Cease Struggling Now with Dr. Mary Claire Haver, MD

           💡 Australasian Menopause Society (AMS)

Discover a menopause-informed physician close to you in Australia

           💡 Mary Claire Wellness (Dr. Mary Claire Haver’s official web site)

Programs, packages, and detailed help on vitamin, hormones, and menopause well being: