Menopause: One of The ‘Three Golden Opportunities’When Women Can Improve their Health
If you're entering perimenopause or navigating this life stage right now, you may feel like your body is changing in ways you never expected and not always for the better. But what if, instead of bracing for the worst, you saw this time as an opportunity?
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), three powerful transition points in a woman’s life hold the key to long-term health and vitality: menstruation, postpartum, and menopause. These are called the Three Golden Opportunities, critical windows where the right care can rejuvenate your body, or, if ignored, set the stage for deeper imbalances later on.
Let’s explore how to make the most of this time and how ancient wisdom still holds powerful relevance for the modern woman.
Why Menopause Is a Turning Point for Health
In Chinese medicine, we talk about a life force called jing, often translated as “essence.” Think of it as your body’s deep reserves: your genetic strength, reproductive potential, and vitality. Jing is stored in the Kidneys and plays a central role in how you age.
Jing declines over time, and by the time menopause approaches, how well you’ve supported this essence over the years becomes vitally important. Menopause is a revealing moment where any past imbalances in your cycle, postpartum recovery, or overall self-care tend to surface… loudly.
If a woman has children after age 35, as is the trend today, postpartum recovery should be practiced for a full five weeks. Women who undergo in vitro fertilisation or other medical interventions to fall pregnant should receive regular treatment and herbal medicine to recover their vitality. This will delay the decline of Jing and make for an easier transition through menopause.
I often see women who have “pushed through” life, neglecting rest during their periods, skipping postpartum recovery, working long hours, and ignoring their body’s quiet cues.
At perimenopause, their jing is no longer sufficient to carry them through. The problem then becomes not only the decline in jing but the opportunity that this creates for other imbalances to manifest. Much of the turmoil experienced by perimenopausal women is due to other imbalances that surface at this time. These imbalances likely showed themselves as a whisper during the menses, and perhaps a stern voice during postpartum, but then become a howling scream during perimenopause and the years just post menopause.
Supporting Your Body: Practical Advice from Chinese Medicine
Here’s how to work with your body during this transition instead of against it. Jing deficiency can include symptoms of both yin and yang deficiency, although in most women during perimenopause protecting the yin and body fluids takes precedence.
Preparing early for perimenpause is vital. Just as nature has cycles, so do we! In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) women have seven-year cycles, whilst men have eight-year cycles. Each stage represents and marks a new phase, both emotionally and physically.
The first four cycles are associated with growth- Yang energy dominates. But by the fifth cycle (35-41 years), Yang energy begins to decline. The fifth cycle is a time for self-reflection; a need to re-evaluate how life is going, what has gone well, and what needs to be changed.
Biologically, our hormones are beginning to decline by our mid-thirties, and so we should begin supporting our vitality around this time. We should avoid overstimulation, particularly at night, and overworking must be avoided whenever possible. We need to increase our boundaries. Remember NO is a complete sentence. And begin to delegate, delete, or delay activities that make us feel depleted.
Additonally it is advisable to avoid draining activities like hot yoga, intense cardio, and long saunas. And prioritize sleep, introduce alongside strength training gentle movement (like tai chi, qigong or yoga), and a deliberate wind down routine in the evenings to support better sleep.
Protect Your Yin
During perimenopause, symptoms of yin deficiency are common: night sweats, dryness, irritability, and overheating.
Leading up to, and during the first years after menopause, most women experience heat symptoms and should therefore restrict or omit heating foods such as alcohol (especially red wine), coffee (and sometimes black and oolong tea), garlic, lamb, and spicy foods. We can adjust this restriction based on the severity of our heat symptoms.
Weight gain often becomes an issue during this stage, although great care must be taken when removing dampness from the body so as not to aggravate yin deficiency. Our diet should proactively be about nourishing blood and yin. Perimenopausal and menopausal women should increase the percentage of vegetables in their diet to clear heat and Liver excess, and help regulate body weight.
We should also focus on yin-nourishing food like tofu, seaweed, black sesame, yams, dairy (if tolerated), and Tremella (a white fungus with moisturizing properties that makes a great dessert).
I also advise women to get regular acupuncture treatments help balance hormones, calm the nervous system, and support jing. And to seek out a herbalist who can prescribe yin and jing tonics that strengthen tendons, ligaments, and bones to guard against osteoporosis.
Perimenopause: The Wake-Up Call
For many women, perimenopause is the first time they stop and ask: What does my body need now?
And that’s the gift of this stage. While the Western medical model often waits for disease to show up, Chinese medicine teaches us how to work proactively. It’s not just about treating symptoms but about preserving vitality, preventing future issues, and laying a strong foundation for healthy aging.
Reclaiming the Rhythm
Modern life rewards hustle. Modern life tends to produce people who are frazzled, overworked, and overstimulated. This behaviour tends to be idealised in our society. There is a widespread belief that if we are not producing something, then we have lost our relevance. Periods of quiet restoration are becoming increasingly limited.
Women in particular seem to have lost connection with their menstrual cycles and life transitions. The lack of knowledge of proper self-care during postpartum, menstruation, and menopause is responsible for much unnecessary suffering and ill health. If women are educated properly, beginning with menstruation when they are young, then this can be averted.
We’re not machines. We need seasons of rest, especially during our hormonal transitions. When women reconnect with the wisdom of their cycles and rhythms, we move from burnout to balance, and from depletion to empowerment.
This isn’t just ancient philosophy; it is practical, deeply human medicine.
If you’re moving through perimenopause, it’s never too late to start caring for your Jing. Small changes in food, rest, and support can make a huge difference. Let this be your opportunity to reset, reclaim your health, and step into the next phase of life with strength and ease.
Until next week, go well
Want more Wisdom for women’s health?
So excited I will be collaborating with
an Ayurvedic practitioner specializing in women’s health for a weekly series of Substack live chats.Join The Art and Heart of Menopause: Ayurvedic & Chinese Medicine Women's Health Wisdom Salon Thursday, May 22nd at 11 am EST, 8 am PST.
If you click on the link below it should enable you to save the date as well as take you directly to the live.
Art & Heart of Menopause Salon
If you cannot attend live, we’ll send out a recording.
So excited to start these chats to expose more women to alternatives and complementary practices to HRT.