Perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause

What is menopause? Simply put, menopause marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years. During this time, the body undergoes significant changes. Let’s look at every stage of this process.

Perimenopause

Throughout your reproductive years, an egg is released monthly from your ovaries along with hormones: estrogens, progestogens, and androgens. At the same time, your brain makes follicle-stimulating and luteinizing hormones, which help the communication between the brain and the ovaries. Hormones relay messages from the brain to the ovaries and back again to keep everything running like clockwork.

During perimenopause, you start to run out of eggs, and your ovaries produce less estrogen. Your brains make more follicle-stimulating hormones to try to balance things out when estrogen levels are low. 

These changes in levels of hormones from the ovaries cause symptoms, such as hot flashes, mood swings, excessive sweating, vaginal dryness, joint pains, and increased body odor. Periods can often become irregular, less frequent, heavier or lighter, and generally unpredictable. We will talk more about the symptoms later.

Menopause

The actual menopause lasts one day – the very first day after you haven’t had a period for one full year. And after that, you’re postmenopausal. However, we often name all three stages with one single word – menopause.

Menopause happens when your ovaries permanently stop producing eggs. Your estrogen levels are now always low, and your follicle-stimulating hormone levels are always high.

Postmenopause

As soon as you have been through menopause, you immediately become postmenopausal. In this third phase of the menopause transition, you may still experience symptoms you had during perimenopause for some years. 

Body odor during peri- postmenopause

One of the most noticeable and challenging changes during menopause is the increase in body odor. Where does it come from?

First of all, you sweat more. Sweat glands regulate temperature and cool you down. During perimenopause, the thermoneutral zone (the zone when you’re neither too hot nor too cool, in other words, when you feel comfortable in terms of temperature) is reduced. Thus, your body starts sweating at lower temperatures and shivering at higher temperatures than before. That’s why you sweat more during perimenopause and onwards. 

These sudden and intense sweating episodes create an environment that promotes the growth of odor-causing bacteria, which thrive in warm, moist conditions. 

Second, during menopause, there is a decrease in the production of estrogen, which contributes to changes in the composition of sweat and makes it more prone to bacterial growth. The reduction of estrogen also affects the pH balance of the skin, promoting bacterial growth on the skin. These bacteria consume the nutritious compounds in sweat, and more body odor is produced. 

The next factor contributing to your BO is the sebum smell. Although the impact of estrogen levels on sebum production is still unclear, estrogen has been demonstrated to suppress levels of sebum production and sebaceous glands activation. Thus, when estrogen levels drop during menopause, sebum production, supposedly, increases and contributes to changes in body odor.

If you experience an onion-like body odor, it can be due to an increase in a compound called 2-nonenal. This compound is produced by the oxidation of fatty acids in the skin, and it has a distinct onion-like smell. As you age, your skin becomes thinner and drier, which can lead to an increase in the production of 2-nonenal. 

Fighting body odor during peri- postmenopause

Clothes

If you start sweating more, you need to give a thought to what you’re wearing. Opt for natural fabrics and more loose-fit clothes. The same applies to your underwear, as you have sweat glands all over your body, including the groin area. Also, consider changing your clothes more often, as now, when there are more odor-producing bacteria on your body, they can create biofilm in your clothes more quickly.

If you think it’s your case you should try this enzyme-based product. Apply a small amount of the enzyme solution to the seams of the clothing that come in touch with armpits and neck. Rub it in, let it sit for at least 30 min prior to washing.

Body washes

An increased amount of bacteria on the skin, caused by estrogen decrease, leads to a disturbed skin microbiome, and, consequently, to more body odor. There are microbiome-friendly products that help to support healthy flora, like this WASH with prebiotics. It has a perfect, slightly acidifying pH and prebiotics that will feed beneficial bacteria and prevents the growth of opportunistic ones.

Moreover, as changes in hormone levels also affect the skin’s ability to retain moisture, it becomes drier, more sensitive, and prone to irritations. After using WASH you will notice more smooth and moisturized skin. Harsh surfactants in most washes dry out the skin and disturb the skin microbiome. In WASH we use novel amino-acid-based surfactants and citric acid that are great for removing dead skin cells and keeping the skin moisturized.

Diet

Foods that you consume also impact the way you smell. Limit red meat, spicy and sugary food, which contributes to body odor, and alcohol and coffee, which may contribute to your sweating. Add vegetables, greens, and whole grains to your diet. The green pigment in plants, like spinach, can even provide deodorizing properties.

Vaginal dryness during peri- postmenopause

Another common symptom of menopause is vaginal atrophy (aka vaginal dryness). Estrogen helps to maintain the vagina’s lubrication, elasticity, and thickness, and now when estrogen levels are low, vaginal walls get thinner and dryer.

Vaginal atrophy can also increase the risk of vaginal infections by reducing the amount of glycogen in the vaginal lining, decreasing the number of lactobacilli, and creating an environment that is more conducive to the growth of harmful bacteria. 

Glycogen is a substance that is broken down into glucose by lactobacilli, which are beneficial bacteria that normally live in the vagina. This glucose provides a food source for lactobacilli, which produces lactic acid as a byproduct, maintaining a mildly acidic pH level in the vagina that helps to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria.

You may also have less vaginal discharge as the balance of bacteria that are naturally found in the vagina changes.

Vaginal odor during peri- postmenopause

The hormonal changes in your body can also lead to a change in the odor of vaginal discharge. The decrease in estrogen levels causes increased vaginal pH, which can result in a stronger odor, vaginal itching, burning, and common discomfort. 

These changes in vaginal pH plus vaginal dryness put you at higher risk for certain infections. The most common are bacterial vaginosis, yeast infection, and UTI. BV and yeast infections impact vaginal odor, due to the overgrowth of certain bacteria. Read more about BV and yeast infections in this post. And UTIs are caused by opportunistic bacteria, which get access to your urethra because imbalanced vaginal flora cannot stop them.

Just like your underarms, your groin has sweat glands in the crease between the pubic area and legs. Odor-causing bacteria consume this sweat, plus it mixes with other odors present on your genitals (the smells of discharge, feces, and urine). Altogether they accumulate on your skin and clothes. 

What is more, during menopause, urinary incontinence (small urine leaks) can occur without your awareness, due to weakening or damaging of the pelvic floor muscles and the urethral sphincter. It adds to the common smell from below the belt; some also describe it as an ammonia smell. This is because urine contains urea, which can break down into ammonia when it comes into contact with bacteria on the skin.

The weakening of pelvic floor muscles during menopause happens due to the decline in estrogen levels. This hormone plays an important role in maintaining the strength and elasticity of the pelvic floor muscles, and as levels decline, these muscles may weaken. Additionally, the loss of estrogen can lead to changes in the tissues of the urethra, which can also contribute to urinary incontinence.

By the way, your urine may smell stronger during menopause, too, due to asymptomatic bacteriuria, which is common during estrogen decrease. These bacteria are not harmful and can be present in your body, not causing any symptoms, well, besides the odor.

What to do about vaginal odor and dryness during peri- postmenopause?

Intimate washes

It is possible that rinsing yourself with just water used to be enough. But now that bacterial balance shifted due to hormonal changes, you can start using microbiome-friendly products. Your perfect intimate wash should be fragrance-free and include only mild surfactants, natural preservatives, and, if possible, prebiotics.

WASH has a perfect formula for this aim. It is slightly acidic (pH is 6-6.5), so it will normalize your pH. WASH has prebiotics that will support beneficial bacteria on your skin and suppress odor-producing bacteria. Our customers note that they have no infections and significantly less odor after regular use of  WASH. 

Bathroom hygiene

Due to changes in your body odor, including vaginal odor, you might want to add a step to your bathroom routine. You don’t always have a chance to take a shower or use a bidet. And wet wipes can harm your imbalanced microbiome and pH even more, as they contain harsh preservatives to prevent bacterial contamination of the product. 

It would be safer for your microbiome to make homemade, wet wipes with witch hazel or try a ready-made WipeGel with 30% witch hazel. 

Witch hazel is a powerful astringent, and it provides an anti-inflammatory effect. It helps lower the pH, so it makes it harder for odor-causing and opportunistic bacteria to survive. When applied topically, it also helps with itching, redness, pain, and swelling. 

In WipeGel, we use alcohol-free witch hazel preserved with benzoic acid. It also contains prebiotics and postbiotics, which promote healthy flora. Add a drop of WipeGel to your toilet paper and wipe clean your genitals; you will feel refreshed immediately.

Topical estrogens or their non-hormonal alternatives

There is a range of topical vaginal estrogens that can help you with vaginal atrophy. They can be in the form of pessaries, creams, and gels, and are usually prescribed by your doctor. However, women often wonder about the safety of using topical estrogen and often look for a natural alternative. 

If you are not a fan of hormonal treatment, too, try SALVE. It has 20% of natural Vitamin E and 5% of gorgonian extract and is designed specifically for moisturizing and soothing the genital area. It neutralizes enzymes responsible for irritation and helps to calm and hydrate the skin.

Vitamin E oil is often used as an alternative to topical estrogen, you can read more about it in study shows, that pseudopterosins possess anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. In fact, the potency of these compounds in inhibiting inflammation and relieving pain surpassed that of existing drugs like indomethacin.

Probiotics

Probiotics will help promote a healthy balance of bacteria both in the gut and vagina, help to keep vaginal pH balanced, and prevent infections and vaginal odor. Moreover, according to a study, probiotics can help to restore a healthy estrogen balance and reduce post-menopausal bone loss. Check out these supplements.

Consult your doctor

Estrogen decrease impacts your health on many levels. If you have menopause symptoms, which are more serious than just body odor, your doctor may prescribe hormone therapy.

Overall, whichever symptoms of peri- and postmenopause your experience, you need to check in with your doctor. Female health gets more vulnerable in this period and requires specific attention. Always tell your doctor about even small changes in body odor and/or vaginal odor and discharge. They will run tests and provide necessary treatment.

Summary:

1. During perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause, women go through hormonal changes which can lead to:

• Stronger body odor
• Vaginal atrophy
• Vaginal odor
• Vaginal and bladder infections
• Urinary incontinence

2. To cope with these symptoms women can:

• Use microbiome-friendly hygiene products
• Rethink clothing choices
• Take probiotics
• Keep healthies diet
• Use topical Vitamin E or topical estrogen
• Consider hormone therapy