Today's topic
Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I look at I take a look at why menopause cause itching all over and what can help ease your itching.
Can menopause cause itching all over?
Itchiness is a really common menopause symptom. You can feel itchy all over but there are five main areas of the body where it seems to occur most often, these include your skin in general, underarms, eyes, vagina and scalp. There are lots of different causes for this including falling oestrogen, an overproduction of histamine and dehydration.
Areas of the body that get itchy during menopause
I have women tell me that they're so itchy that they scratch themselves until their skin's bleeding. It can impact your sleep. At work, it can impact your confidence. And it can cause a whole load of other issues as well.
So let's take a look at the five main areas of the body which are most prone to itchiness during menopause.
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1. Itchy skin in general
Itchiness can happen just about anywhere on the body. It can be itchy a lot of the time or it can be something that just suddenly appears for an hour or two or maybe even less.
It can be a rash or it could be things like prickly heat. That's the kind of prickly rash that you get sometimes if you get too hot if you're on holiday.
This particular one tends to be caused by an overproduction of histamine. Going through menopause, a lot of women experience more stress and anxiety, which can trigger histamine.
Also, all the hormonal changes that are going on, can put much more pressure on your nervous system, which can make you produce a lot more histamine. When histamine hits the skin, you get the rash, you get the itching and the blotchiness.
It can also be caused by our skin getting thinner as we go through menopause. Less oestrogen can very often take away a little bit of padding on the skin.
So if your skin is thinner, it may end up being more reactive to things like your body creams, your shampoo, your shower gel, even the clothes that you're wearing, depending on what kind of washing powder you used. So these can all irritate the skin that little bit more and cause these rashes and itchiness.
What can help?
So, what to do in this case? I recommend drinking plenty of water because dehydration can play a big factor here. If you can dilute the histamine in the body, then that can go a long way in reducing the impact that the histamine can cause. So loads of water regularly.
Try and go for a natural antihistamine such as nettle. You can go for nettle tea or a nettle tincture as well. Maybe a couple of cups of nettle tea a day and take the tincture two to three times a day.
Also, it is worth checking all the body products that you are using. So many of them, especially if you use a lot, contain a lot of chemicals and all these chemicals combined can start to irritate the skin. So maybe try some natural body products instead, very often that can make a big difference.
2. Itchy underarms
If you think about it, if you're having hot flushes or sweats, you're going to perspire an awful lot more under the arms. What a lot of women then do is they use more and more antiperspirant, which is full of chemicals.
The body is trying so hard to perspire under the arms, but the pores and the underarms are blocked by the antiperspirants so no wonder things can start to go wrong and you can start to get a lot of itching.
What can help?
In this situation, the best thing to do is to go for natural deodorants. If you don't allow the body to sweat properly, then that can make things like hot flushes and night sweats worse because your body can't regulate its temperature.
So using a natural deodorant such as the Salt of the Earth range that doesn't block the pores and allows the body to sweat naturally, but is strong enough to stop you from smelling, very often can stop the itching as well.
3. Itchy eyes
What can happen here is that falling oestrogen can dry the mucous membranes around the eye and you can then produce fewer tears. When this happens, your eyes can start to get dry. They can start to get irritated and they can start to get itchy.
Very often, a lot of women going through menopause find that they get a lot more irritation from their contact lenses because of this.
If this is something you are experiencing, it's a good idea just to double-check with your optician. Falling oestrogen can also affect the eyesight because it can put different pressures on the eyes. So again, it's really important through menopause and post-menopause to get your eyes checked regularly.
What can help?
For itchy eyes, remember the water because dehydration is a factor. You can look at a sea buckthorn oil supplement, which is known to be helpful for dryness during menopause, including dry eyes.
We also have our Moisturising Eye Drops that can be very helpful, too.
4. Itchy vagina
This is another really common one and, of course, it can be very uncomfortable.
Vaginal dryness and itching is mainly triggered due to low oestrogen, which can reduce the production of mucus in the vagina that is needed to keeps everything running smoothly.
If you reduce the mucus in the vagina, that can also affect our friendly bacteria. And it can let other bacteria in that may cause a little bit more irritation.
What can help?
So for this one, again, drinking plenty of water can help, but also, the sea buckthorn oil supplement can be really helpful. I would also recommend a course of a vaginal probiotic. For more tips and advice you can check out my blog 'What can help vaginal dryness?'
5. Itchy scalp
Dry skin during menopause can also affect your scalp causing it to become itchy. If you are using lots of different shampoos, conditioners, hair spray, hair products and you're drying your hair with a hairdryer or you're using curling tongs, then these are all going to dry the scalp further and make it much itchier.
What can help?
Again, plenty of water can help. Sea buckthorn oil should also be helpful. Some people find using just a little bit of oil, not so much if you've got long hair, but if you've got shorter hair, you can maybe do an oil massage once a week, just to keep the skin that little bit softer.
We also have our Neem shampoo, which we recommend for an itchy scalp.
Other things to consider if you experience itchiness during menopause
So, as you can see, with all these itchy areas, water is really important so just remember that daily.
The other thing that can happen too as I mentioned before is that your skin can get a lot thinner. You can get allergies to all sorts of things, so check all your creams and beauty product, even things like washing powder on your sheets.
If you think about it, you're lying on your sheets all night, and the chemicals that you used in your washing powder may be irritating the skin every single night.
It could also be food. We know a lot of women find the foods that they could tolerate before menopause suddenly start to cause issues.
Caffeine is a big one, alcohol is another one, and high sugar and salt foods. So if you're getting itching at certain times of the day or certain days of the week, maybe you're getting it on the weekend rather than during the week, then maybe do a little food diary because it may be that certain foods that you're eating at certain times are causing a natural histamine reaction in the body and that's then triggering the itchy skin.
So I hope you found this one helpful. If any of you out there have any tips that you've used to help your itchy skin, then please do share them because we would love to hear all about them.
Key things to take away from this blog:
- Itchiness is a common but often distressing and uncomfortable menopause symptoms
- The key areas of the body which are most affected include your skin (all over), your underarms, your eyes, your vagina and your scalp
- Falling oestrogen, an overproduction of histamine due to stress and anxiety, dehydration and your skin become more sensitive to things you are putting onto your skin are some of the causes of itchiness during menopause
- Drinking plenty of water is one of the key ways to reduce all of these itches!
Until next week, take care.
