Stop Calling It Perimenopause
Paige Elizabeth
Founder and Coach
What Most Women Are Experiencing Is HPA Dysfunction — Not Aging
I’m tired of women being told that everything they’re experiencing is “just aging” or “just perimenopause.”
Brain fog.
Anxiety.
Weight gain.
Poor sleep.
Low libido.
Burnout.
Inflammation.
Nutrient deficiencies.
And then being handed a shrug and a script that says, “Well… this is just what happens in your 40s.”
No.
It’s not.
What most women are calling “perimenopause” is HPA axis dysfunction caused by decades of neglect, self-betrayal, chronic stress, nutrient depletion, and nervous-system dysregulation.
Hormones are not the cause.
They are the symptom.
The Two Types of Women — Same Outcome
There are two broad camps of women who end up here, and they look very different on the surface:
1. The Woman Who Neglected Herself
She:
lives in survival mode
ignores hunger, exhaustion, intuition
people-pleases
over-gives
runs on cortisol and caffeine
doesn’t feel safe resting
Her nervous system is fried because she abandoned herself to survive.
2. The Woman Who “Did Everything Right”
She:
exercises constantly
eats “clean”
tracks macros
pushes through fatigue
moralizes discipline
ignores pain, signals, intuition
Her nervous system is fried because she bulldozed her body out of the gate and called it “strength.”
Different behaviors. Same underlying pattern.
Both women:
override their bodies
distrust their internal signals
live disconnected from sensation and regulation
demand performance from a system that has been quietly depleted
Two sides of the same coin.
Chronic Stress = Chronic Nutrient Depletion
Here’s the part nobody wants to talk about.
You cannot be chronically stressed without becoming nutrient depleted.
It doesn’t matter how “clean” you eat.
It doesn’t matter how disciplined you are.
Chronic stress:
burns through magnesium
depletes zinc
drains B vitamins
disrupts mineral balance
impairs digestion and absorption
A stressed nervous system cannot assimilate nutrients efficiently.
So the harder you push, the faster you burn through reserves.
This is why so many women say:
“I eat well and exercise, but my body isn’t responding anymore.”
Because your body isn’t broken.
It’s exhausted and under-resourced.
HPA Dysfunction Is Not Abstract — It’s Behavioral
This is not just about “stress hormones” on a lab.
HPA dysfunction shows up as:
rumination
over-explaining
constant justification
looping thoughts
anxiety with no clear cause
checking out
numbing
needing distraction
being unable to feel present in your body
These aren’t personality traits.
They’re signs of a dysregulated nervous system.
Your body is trying to regulate itself with the only tools left.
Hormones Are Not the Villain
Here’s the part that gets completely backwards in mainstream conversation:
Hormonal symptoms are not the problem.
They are the messenger.
Your hormones respond to:
nervous-system tone
nutrient availability
blood sugar stability
mitochondrial health
liver function
immune and inflammatory load
Blaming hormones while ignoring the terrain is like blaming the dashboard light for engine failure.
Perimenopause Is Not Designed to Be a Roller Coaster
Let’s get something straight.
When you entered puberty, your hormones were far more volatile than they will ever be leaving your reproductive years.
And yet:
most girls didn’t have hot flashes
didn’t have night sweats
didn’t have chronic anxiety
didn’t have debilitating brain fog
Why?
Because the system was not already burned out.
You were designed to transition into and out of reproductive years without chaos.
What changes is not your hormones — it’s the condition of the system they’re operating in.
Why HRT Is Being Overused (and Misused)
Hormone Replacement Therapy is not evil.
It’s not “bad.”
It’s not wrong.
But it is often being used too early and for the wrong reason.
If a woman is not truly in menopause — meaning:
ovarian hormone production is still active
cycles are still present
symptoms are driven by stress and depletion
Then HRT can exacerbate the very symptoms she’s trying to fix, because it adds fuel to a dysregulated system.
HRT works beautifully when:
the system is regulated
nutrients are replete
the nervous system is stable
the body is actually transitioning into menopause
Otherwise, it becomes a bandage on a wound that keeps reopening.
This Is About Relationship to the Self
At the root of all of this is not age.
It’s relationship.
Relationship to:
your body
your signals
your need for rest
your boundaries
your intuition
If you have spent decades:
ignoring yourself
overruling discomfort
abandoning your needs to perform
outsourcing regulation
Your body will eventually say, “I can’t do this anymore.”
Not because it’s failing.
But because it’s asking for a different way of relating.
The Reframe Women Actually Need
Stop asking:
“How do I fix my hormones?”
Start asking:
“How did my system get so dysregulated that my hormones are now signaling distress?”
Because when you regulate the nervous system, replete nutrients, restore safety, and rebuild trust with the body — the symptoms resolve.
Not because you’re fighting aging.
But because you’re finally supporting physiology.
.
Bottom Line
Perimenopause is not the villain. Aging is not the enemy. Your body is not betraying you. What most women are experiencing is the bill coming due for decades of survival-mode living. And the solution is not more force. It’s restoration, regulation, and re-relationship with the self. Ready to move beyond survival mode and start your journey of restoration and regulation? Book your discovery call today to learn how we can rebuild your system together.