I’ve taken some form of vitamins for years. As peri menopause hit, I changed it up and this is what I’ve been taking for the last year. I split my supplements into morning and evening, so that’s how I’ll talk about them. Disclaimer, I probably should get all of this from my diet, this is what is working for me, I’m not saying you should…

Mornings

I’m in my fifties and peri menopause and there seems to be a positive correlation between collagen and oestrogen and you lose about a third of your collagen in the first years of menopause (and my knees seem to back that up!) so I take collagen peptides in my coffee every morning, I use Hunter and Gather (I don’t take the marine version because it tasted fishy!).

When I eat my breakfast, I take a bunch of stuff, starting with a pro-biotic, which helps keep my gut in order, I have always taken Vitamin D in winter but over COVID lockdown I switched to taking it year round and last year I switched to using NothingFishy (thanks social media advertising) because there was a bundle deal, I started with the Vitamin D3, the Omega 3 and the Irish Sea Moss. I’ve noticed a really difference taking these after three months, so I continued. I’ve also always taken a multi vitamin but stopped last year when I used up my Wilko stash, this summer, I added the women’s multivitamin from Oxford Origins to the line up

Evenings

About 7 years ago, when I started to skip periods, my doctor suggested that if I wanted to avoid HRT there had been some evidence that agnus castus was helpful for peri menopause. As part of a study on whether it was helpful for PMT, women of a certain age had reported that it helped them too. I tried it and it did help even out my periods and mood, it was another 4 years until I started on HRT, I still take it and I notice that it still helps my mood (I’m naturally grumpy but it stops me from being irrationally grumpy!). I also take a magnesium supplement because there is evidence that migraine sufferers have low levels of magnesium, and that magnesium helps with sleep (and my sleep has been terrible for ages and peri is not helping!). I take both of these at dinner.

While I recognise that you can’t supplement your way out of an unhealthy diet and lifestyle, I do think they are helping. So that’s what I’m taking.