From Invisible to Invincible

This month, as I celebrate 12 years of Menopause Natural Solutions, I’ve been reflecting on where it all began, what I’ve learnt along the way and what has stayed surprisingly consistent.

One important part of that journey was publishing my book, From Invisible to Invincible, The Natural Menopause Revolution, in 2020.

The philosophy behind the book was simple:

Menopause is about so much more than hormones.

Of course our hormones change. But if changing hormones were the whole story, every woman would experience menopause in much the same way.

We don't.

Some women sail through the transition with relatively few symptoms. Others struggle with sleep, mood, energy, weight, cognition, joints, digestion, urinary or vaginal health, sometimes all at once.

One of the questions I was asking in 2020 was:

What makes the difference?

Six years later, I'm still asking that question.

The INVINCIBLE approach

When I wrote From Invisible to Invincible, I developed ten areas that I believed were important when looking at a woman's health as a whole.

I — Individual treatment plan
N — Nutritious foods
V — Vitamins and minerals
I — Investigate
N — Non-toxic environment
C — Contribution
I — Intuition
B — Breathe
L — Love your liver and detox
E — Exercise and other lifestyle factors

Looking at that list today, do I still believe in it?

Absolutely.

The first principle in the book was individualised treatment:

"You are a unique woman! There is no one else on the planet like you."

That hasn't changed.

There is no single menopause diet, supplement, test or protocol that is right for every woman.

After more than 23 years in clinical practice, individualised care is still at the heart of the way I work.

Investigate, don't guess

This is still one of my favourite parts of INVINCIBLE.

It's very easy to match a symptom with a supplement.

Fatigue? Take this.

Poor sleep? Take that.

Hot flushes? Here's a menopause formula.

Sometimes simple solutions are appropriate. But sometimes symptoms are clues that we need to look deeper.

Depending on the woman, I may be thinking about nutritional status, thyroid function, glucose regulation, iron, digestion, sleep, stress, medications, environmental exposures or something else entirely.

It doesn't mean everyone needs extensive testing.

It means being curious.

Rather than only asking:

"What can we use for this symptom?"

I also want to know:

"Why might this be happening?"

Looking beyond hormones, right down to the cell

Cellular health isn't a new addition to the way I practise.

Looking back through From Invisible to Invincible, I was already talking about the nutrients needed to build and repair cells, phospholipid cell membranes, mitochondrial nutrients, oxidative stress, inflammation, detoxification and energy.

Today I probably describe this more clearly as my cell-first approach.

Our hormones are messengers.

But for a hormonal message to have an effect, our cells need to be able to receive that message and respond appropriately.

That means I'm not only interested in how much oestrogen, progesterone or testosterone a woman has.

I'm interested in the health of the body receiving those signals.

Does she have the nutrients she needs?

Can her cells produce energy efficiently?

Are her cell membranes healthy?

What is affecting inflammation and oxidative stress?

What is happening in her gut?

How well is she sleeping and recovering?

What environmental factors may be affecting her?

This is one of the reasons I've never believed menopause care should be solely about replacing or balancing hormones.

We need to look at the woman those hormones are communicating with.

What would I add more emphasis to today?

The foundations of INVINCIBLE haven't changed, but there are areas I would talk about more strongly today.

One is circadian health.

Our bodies operate according to approximately 24-hour rhythms influenced by light and darkness, sleep and waking, food, movement and activity.

Yet modern life can confuse many of those signals.

We spend our days indoors under artificial light and our evenings looking at brightly lit screens. We eat late, sleep at irregular times and often get very little natural daylight.

Today I place much more emphasis on morning light, daylight exposure, regular sleep and waking patterns, meal timing and allowing the evening to become dark again.

They're simple things, but our biology relies on these environmental signals.

I would also talk more about nature

This has become another important part of how I think about health.

We weren't designed to spend our entire lives indoors.

Walking outside, gardening, swimming, spending time around trees or the ocean, watching the sunrise, getting natural daylight and simply stepping away from a screen all reconnect us with an environment our biology recognises.

In many ways, this isn't separate from INVINCIBLE at all.

I've simply come to appreciate its importance more.

Some of my favourite parts of INVINCIBLE aren't about supplements at all

When people think about naturopathy, they often think about herbs, vitamins and food.

But I deliberately included Contribution, Intuition and Breathe in INVINCIBLE too.

Because health isn't purely biochemical.

Meaning and purpose matter.

Connection matters.

Learning to listen to your body matters.

And finding ways to move out of constant stress and into rest and recovery matters.

In the book, I described the menopausal transition as moving from "we to me".

It's a time when many women begin asking different questions.

Who am I now?

What do I want the next stage of my life to look like?

What matters to me?

What do I want to contribute?

Menopause isn't simply the end of our reproductive years.

It can also be the beginning of a very different relationship with ourselves.

Beyond Hormones, then and now

Something made me smile when I went back through the book.

The very first chapter is called:

"It's not about your hormones."

And here I am six years later, still talking about Beyond Hormones.

Perhaps my philosophy hasn't changed as much as I thought.

What has changed is the depth of my understanding and the number of connections I can now see.

I still believe in individualised care.

I still believe in good food and nutritional foundations.

I still want to investigate rather than guess.

I still think our environment matters.

I still believe we need to move, breathe, listen to our bodies and have meaning in our lives.

And I still believe menopause is about far more than a hormone level on a pathology report.

What I would add more strongly today is an appreciation of our cells, our circadian rhythms, light and our connection with nature.

Not instead of the original INVINCIBLE foundations.

As part of them.

Six years on

From Invisible to Invincible was never intended to make women invincible in the literal sense.

It was about helping women understand their bodies, become active participants in their health and approach this stage of life differently.

Six years later, I still believe in that message.

I'm still learning too.

After more than 23 years as a naturopath, I don't think I'll ever stop researching, questioning and adding to what I know.

But sometimes growth isn't about throwing out what came before.

Sometimes it's about looking at the same foundations with more experience and seeing connections you couldn't see before.

That's how I feel about INVINCIBLE today.

The foundations remain.

And I think they're just as relevant now as they were when I wrote them.

Understand your transition. Feel like yourself again.

Ready to take the next step? 

If you'd like to explore the INVINCIBLE approach in more detail, From Invisible to Invincible, The Natural Menopause Revolution takes you through the 10 foundations I use to help women better understand and support their health through the menopause transition.

From Invisible to Invincible

And if you're looking for personalised support, my consultations take this philosophy one step further, looking at YOUR health history, symptoms, nutrition, lifestyle, test results and individual needs to understand what may be contributing to the way you're feeling.

Work with Jennifer