Why Should You Keep a Journal?
Perimenopause marks the beginning of another important phase of your life. And keeping a record of your evolution and the milestones you pass along the way can have important benefits for both your body and mind.
Your Journal as a Medical Record
A menopause journal serves a more serious purpose, but in much the same way. You keep a menopause journal to record the physical and emotional symptoms you experience each day as you move toward and through menopause. Part of your journal will be a medical record, where you list physical observations, such as migraine headaches, irregular periods, sleepless nights, changes in your weight, and so on. This same calendar should include your menstrual periods, so that if an association exists, you or your doctor will be able to notice. You aren’t just keeping a record of your symptoms, but their severity, frequency, and recurrence—so you can spot any patterns that occur.
Your doctors will benefit greatly from the information you’ve recorded in your menopause journal. They can use the information to gain a fuller picture of the way your symptoms are evolving and to gauge your response to medications and other treatment options you’re exploring. If certain symptoms occur in tandem or in a specific sequence each month, especially in conjunction with your periods, or with a lack of menstrual bleeding, that information may help your doctors better understand the specific triggering mechanism that prompts them.
Though your menopause journal is much more than just this list of physical and emotional symptoms, those records are an important source of information for both you and your doctor, so choose them carefully. Here are some ideas:
Track all cyclical symptoms: Many women experience cyclical symptoms as they move through perimenopause. For example, hot flashes, migraine headaches, or insomnia may occur at specific points in the menstrual cycles. Your symptom calendar will help you track these recurring symptoms. But you should also be certain to note days in which you have extraordinary feelings of calm, optimism, or energy. Don’t just be on high alert for negative days, track those positive feelings as well. Your “up” days may occur on a regular basis, and could provide you and your doctor with important information about hormone cycles, diet, or other factors that contribute to them.
Keep a diet journal: List the foods you eat, serving sizes, and calorie counts if you’re concerned about tracking the source of weight gain you may be experiencing or improving your nutrition. Many women have no idea how much they eat during the day, or how well their diet conforms to the recommendations set forward by most health experts. You may keep this as a separate journal, and you may keep it for a period of a few months only, depending upon your goals for the record. If you’re trying to lose weight, you may want to list your weekly weigh-in results with your diet record.
Keep an exercise journal: When you note the type of exercise you do each day, the length of time you exercise, number of repetitions, and related information, you’ll be able to track your progress and note any associations between your exercise, your symptoms, weight changes, and overall feelings of well-being. This record can help encourage you to upgrade your exercise plan to keep it challenging and effective as your body’s strength and endurance improve. The record also can give you— over time—an idea of which types of exercise seem to work best for you.
Try to write at least once a day: If you can’t bring yourself to note all of the items you think you should, at least write something. Like most worthwhile endeavors, journaling takes practice.
If time is a problem, “automate” as much as possible: Find ways to create spreadsheets, checklists, or other time-saving formats so you can note items quickly that don’t need a great deal of description. (You can preprint daily diet lists, or—if your doctor doesn’t have a preprinted symptom list or diary—devise your own shorthand system for noting symptoms.) If one form of journaling seems to be too time-consuming, and you’re tempted to stop, just try a different form. You’re new at this, so you may not find your best method with your first attempt.
Begin by writing at the same time and in the same place every day: Over time, you may choose to be freer in your approach to journaling, but when you’re just getting started, setting a regular schedule may help you develop the journaling habit.
Try timed practice: If you have a hard time writing about your feelings in your journal, try some timed exercises. Write whatever comes into your head for ten to twenty minutes for three days in a row; you can describe the smell of a cup of coffee, your memories of your first kiss, a particularly nasty encounter you had at work that day, or reflections on your drive home. This kind of free writing can teach you to record your thoughts and open up to the writing process.
