Decoding menopause: “What in the world is happening to my body?”

When Dr. Alie Kriofske Mainella, Grad '06, entered her late 40's, she thought to herself, "What in the world is happening to my body?"

She concluded that perimenopause was the culprit causing an array of disruptive symptoms. Kriofske Mainella, assistant professor of counselor education and counseling psychology in the College of Education, was motivated to find ways she could help other women navigate the rollercoaster of symptoms that coincide with this mid-life transition.

"I was asking friends and talking to people about it," Kriofske Mainella says. "Everybody was so hungry for information."

It's estimated that 75 million women in the U.S. are in perimenopause, menopause or postmenopause. With funding from the Institute of Women's Leadership faculty fellowship award and an Explorer Challenge grant, Kriofske Mainella started gathering research with the hopes of developing a menopause transition tracking app to provide a tool for women in those life stages. The ongoing study now has data from over 300 women.

Needed research

"Menopause is technically one day, one moment in time when you are one year past your last period. That's all menopause is," Kriofske Mainella explains. "Most of what women experience is perimenopause, which is the moment your body and your cycle start changing, which can occur up to 10 years before menopause, leading up to that one day of menopause."

Postmenopause is everything after that.

"I turned 50 this year. I'm like, 'God, I have half my life left,'" says Kriofske Mainella, author of "Sex and Sexuality Handbook for the Helping Professional." "Half of it's going to be through this menopause transition. And people don't really know that much about it. It was staggering to me."

Kriofske Mainella's research is a mixed method of study - a combination of qualitative and quantitative data.

"My research team and I interviewed 20 women between the ages of 45 and 60 about their experience with perimenopause," Kriofske Mainella says of the qualitative portion.

The menopause transition includes common symptoms such as new and unexplained anxiety and depression, mood swings, brain fog and irritability as well as a host of physical symptoms such as hot flashes, joint and muscle pain, headaches and heart palpitations.

The second part of her study was quantitative.

"I'm really interested in self-compassion. So, I looked at self-compassion and coping as a mechanism to make menopause better," Kriofske Mainella says. "What my study found, which just got accepted to be submitted for a special menopause issue in the Journal of Women & Aging, was that even with severe symptoms of menopause, women who have positive coping and strong self-compassion had a better sense of well-being."

Power of community

Through two female focus groups, Kriofske Mainella gathered information about what would be useful for perimenopausal women to track their symptoms and periods, and find helpful resources and ways to connect with others going through similar experiences.

Being on the precipice of perimenopause, Dr. Marieke Gilmartin, associate professor of biomedical sciences, was interested in being part of the focus group.

"Personally, I appreciate open dialogue about this period of life which historically has received little attention," Gilmartin says. "Professionally, I am a neuroscientist who studies the impact of ovarian hormones on emotional learning and cognition in preclinical rodent models. We have found that ovarian hormones help to reduce the impact of fearful experiences on memory. So, what then happens when we lose those hormones in middle age? How does the brain adapt? Why is this time of women's lives associated with increased risk for certain mood disorders or cognitive decline?"

Gilmartin says she attended one of the two sessions, and much of the conversation focused on figuring out if a particular symptom was perimenopause or something else.

"Another key discussion focused on how a perimenopausal support system is lacking," Gilmartin says. "The stigma associated with menopause and aging means that even our mothers aren't terribly reliable sources of good information and support. Groups like this are very helpful for that discussion that many women won't or can't get from their families."

She's hopeful that Kriofske Mainella's app will give women an easy way to track symptoms and gain some insight into the myriad of changes that come with perimenopause.

Kelly Birmingham, a Marquette Central adviser, was also a focus group participant. Like Gilmartin, she's looking for a place to commiserate with others and find resources to help her through this transition.

"I'm in that part of my life and have been hearing a lot about hormone replacement therapy," Birmingham says. "I was interested to see how other women are dealing with menopause and perimenopause."

Birmingham was grateful to be able to talk to other women in person who are dealing with the brain fog, hot flashes, mood swings and many other symptoms.

"Don't be embarrassed. Talk about it, because it is real," Birmingham says. "Every woman's experience is different, but menopause is inevitable for all women no matter what your lifestyle is. That was one thing I never really thought about. You could choose to have children, not have children -but all women go through it, one way or another."

Kriofske Mainella hopes her menopause transition tracking app will "make women in the perimenopause age group and beyond feel seen through the ability to track symptoms and build community and resources to support their journey." She will be seeking funding and applying for the next round of telehealth grants with plans to work on the app in late summer or fall of this year.

For up-to-date information on perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause, Kriofske Mainella recommends two books: "The New Menopause" by Dr. Mary Claire Haver and "What Fresh Hell is This?" by Heather Corrina.