Today's topic
Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I'm going to be taking a look back at my five top videos in the last five years.
I honestly cannot believe it but I've been doing these videos at least once a week, for the last five years. And time has certainly sped by!
When I first started, I thought, "Oh, I probably have enough subjects for a few months maybe at the most." But here we are, five years down the line, and there are over 280 videos on my blog and you can find most of them in our YouTube playlist.
And the great thing is that I have taken inspiration from all of you. So many of you email me and message me with your queries and with your comments, and that in itself gives me so many ideas. And I know that if one woman has asked a question about something, there are many more women sitting out there thinking the same thing. So, thank you so much to all of you that have contacted me over the years.
My most popular menopause videos…so far!
To choose the top 5 most popular ones, I decided to pick the ones with the most views on our YouTube channel, so apologies if your favourite hasn't made the top 5.
So, let's take a look at my most popular ones. I will include links to them all just in case you have missed any of them, as well as tell you a bit about each.
1. How long menopause lasts & what happens afterwards
I wasn't really surprised to discover that this was my most popular video! It was published in October 2016 and has had nearly 350,000 views.
This is one of those questions that's difficult to answer because the menopause is different for every single woman. We will all have a completely unique menopause, so being precise about how long it's going to last and how are we going to feel afterwards can be really difficult.
On average, it's roughly about five years from start to finish. For some women, it's going to be shorter and for others, it's going to be longer.
After menopause, some women are going to feel great. They're going to have a new lease of life and a lot more focus. But for other women, they can struggle for quite a long time afterwards.
To read the full blog or watch the video, head over to my blog 'How long menopause lasts & what happens afterwards'.
2. The first signs and symptoms of menopause
This was created in August 2018 and has had just under 150,000 views so far.
Again, this wasn't a surprise to me as most women want to know what is the first sign of the menopause.
Again, this is one of those ones where it's going to be different for everybody. But in general, two things tend to happen.
The main two things are your periods will start to change in some way. They may get shorter, or longer, or heavier, or lighter, or they may start to miss, or you might get a few and then they come back, and then they miss again. For other women, their periods can just completely stop and that's it. They don't get any more.
For other women, their periods can stop, and then a year or two later, everything can start up again. So that's one of the first signs.
The other thing that can happen is that you can get completely normal periods right up until the end, but your mood, and emotions, and other physical symptoms can pop up such as hot flushes.
So, you can be getting completely normal periods but you also start to get menopause symptoms. That would be things like hot flushes, aches and pains, your mood may be much more pronounced each month, or you might get exaggerated PMS symptoms as well. But, again, remember this is different for every single one of you.
To read the full blog or watch the video, head over to my blog 'The first signs and symptoms of menopause'
3. Menopause belly fat and how to lose it
The next most popular video is all about weight gain around the middle or that spare tire.
This was one of my earliest videos from 2016 and is a topic which is always popular. So far the video has had about 124,000 views and it's still ongoing.
The majority of women do suffer from weight issues in menopause. For some, it can be a little. For others, weight can really start to increase quite quickly.
If it's weight around the middle, this is usually an indication that your nervous system is pulled in. And this is very often to do with flight-or-fight and your body is just basically trying to hold on to as much energy as it can in case there's another emergency coming around the corner.
Normal means of trying to get rid of the weight, such as cutting calories, cutting fats, and exercising like mad, will not help and can very often cause weight gain.
So, if this is you, there are some really simple things that you can do, such as managing stress and following a simple diet.
For my full tips and advice on this please head over to my blog 'Menopause belly fat and how to lose it'.
4. Five serious menopause symptoms you shouldn’t ignore
This is one of the most recent videos in my top 5 list. It was created in September 2019 and has had around 96,000 video views on YouTube so far.
Unfortunately, when we start going through the menopause and we get symptoms or we get ailments, they very often all get blamed on the menopause, and then they don't get looked into further.
So, these five ailments are one that you need to double-check with your doctor and they should not just be dismissed as being part of the menopause.
They really need checking out and treating if necessary. So, these can be things like prolonged bleeding. This is quite common on the run-up to the menopause. But if you are bleeding continually for weeks at a time, then you need to double-check for things like fibroids, polyps, a prolapse, or even something a little bit more serious.
If you are bleeding for more than a couple of weeks so it's not that much longer than what a normal period would be, especially if it keeps happening or you keep getting very short spaces between periods, please do get this one checked out.
To find out what other symptoms you should be looking out for and getting checked by your doctor, head over to my blog '5 serious menopause symptoms you shouldn't ignore'
5. Seven fatty foods you should eat during menopause
The final one from my top 5, which was a really surprising one, is all about fatty foods that you need in menopause. This was created in January 2019 and it has had about 75,000 views so far.
A lot of women now, even after all this time, think that fat is really bad, that it's the enemy. In menopause, you need enough fat to make hormones. So here you are at the stage in your life where you need all the hormones you can get and if you're going on a low-fat diet, then you're starving your body of the very building blocks that it needs.
We also need fats for brain function, to keep our memory sharp. We need fat to keep our joints well-oiled. And we need fat to keep our skin looking good.
But it's like everything else, it needs to be the right fats, in moderation, and daily.
So, if you want to know more which fats are the best ones for you and also what foods they're in, then head over to read my blog '7 fatty foods you should wat during menopause'.
So, I hope you found this helpful and interesting. I am just so grateful to still be here, talking about the menopause and helping you lovely ladies. And, again, please keep those questions and comments coming in because they are so helpful for me and also for all other women out there.
Also, don't forget you can visit my menopause blog or check out the A.Vogel Talks Menopause playlist on YouTube to see all the menopause topics I have covered before, there is lots of tips and advice to help support you through menopause.
So, until next week, take care.
