September is National Awareness Menopause Month

Celebrate women and life's changes during the month of September. Learn more about menopause on the North American Menopause Society website. This is an easy to use website to find answers to common and not-so common questions about menopause.

Search the Web site of The North American Menopause Society NAMS for accurate, unbiased information about menopause. NAMS is the leading nonprofit scientific organization dedicated to improving understanding of this natural biologic event.

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Win A Free Month of Menopause Relief Products

MenopauseRx is hosting a giveaway this month where you can win a month’s worth of menopause relief products. How great is that? Win them, try them and find relief! How great is that?

The survival basket will contain: Remifemin, Remifemin Goodnight, Chill Towels, Striking Skin Care System, SalonPas, The Virtues of Soy Book, The Journey Ahead DVD, a MenopauseRx Coffee Mug and more offers for free samples and many money saving coupons and educational resources.

Enter for a chance to win (1 basket is being given away). Here is the MenopauseRx Facebook fan page where you can enter to win: http://apps.facebook.com/fanappz/promotions/detail?id=157&ref=mf.

Contest ends June 30th and the winner(1) will be drawn by MenopauseRx on July 1st, 2010.

If you are interested in learning more about MenopauseRx or products listed in the giveaway visit their website or their online store.

Striking Skin Care is a partner of MenopauseRx.

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Top 10 Steps to a Healthy Menopause

It could be just around the corner or already here, but here are some tips on the Top 10 Steps to a Healthy Menopause excerpted from MenopauseRx.com.

#10: This is not your grandmother's menopause

#9: Know what's happening physically

#8: Menopause can affect sexual function

#7: Talk with your clinician about menopause

#6: Focus on what's important to you

#5: Menopause treatments are safe and effective

#4: Don't accept a "one size fits all" treatment plan

#3: Know how hormone therapy works

#2: What to expect from your hormone therapy

#1: Stay fit and healthy

To read more on each tip visit their website and the post on Top Ten Steps to a Healthy Menopause: http://www.menopauserx.com/topten.htm


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Hormone Therapy - Fact vs Fiction

The North American Menopause Society has launched a new newsletter for menopause called Menopause Flashes that can serve as a resource for answering questions and finding resources on menopause. There are so many questions regarding hormone therapy; what is fact and what is fiction? You may have read about hormone therapy in advertisements, online or talked to friends about it. But what is really true and what is not?

There is a great link on this month's Menopause Flashes that answers questions on hormone therapy by listing the facts and fiction about the topic. To find out what is fact vs fiction go to: http://www.menopause.org/MF200912two.aspx. It might answer some questions for you that you have been wondering about.

For more information on NAMS (North American Menopause Society) visit their website at www.menopause.org.


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Menopausal Skin - What is it?

I’ve been throwing around the term “menopausal skin” for a few weeks now and somebody asked me to explain what exactly that means. I’m glad she asked, because it encompasses so much more than “aging”.

Menopause brings about all kinds of changes in woman’s body. The physical changes that we most commonly associate with menopause are the end of the menstrual cycle and the beginning of hot flashes. But, menopause has a significant impact on the skin as well. The loss of estrogen causes diminished collagen and elastin production which results in loss of firmness and elasticity of the skin and the appearance of more lines and wrinkles. In fact, there are some studies that show that skin can lose up to 30% of collagen after the first five years of menopause. Women can also experience changes in texture and tone of the skin, dryness, pigmentation problems, acne and even facial hair. Aren’t you glad you asked???

One of the ways to manage menopausal aging is to use skin care products that contain ingredients known to enhance collagen production. Retinoids (Vitamin A such as retinol, retinol palmitate, retinoic acid or tretinoin) are always a good choice. Your doctor can prescribe Retin-A® or Renova® for its proven exfoliation and rejuvenation qualities. It’s a good treatment if you are suffering from menopausal acne as well.

Collagen-enhancing peptides such as the SmartPeptides found in Striking Skin Care are also excellent for restoring menopausal skin. For instance Striking Multi-Peptide Serum contains Palmitoyl Hexapeptide-14 and Heptapeptide-7. These peptides encourage keratinocyte proliferation and migration as well as collagen production. In plain English that means it makes the skin look and feel firmer while diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. In fact, in an independent clinical study of Striking Multi-Peptide Serum, 94% said they had firmer skin in 14 days and 84% said the appearance of fines lines and wrinkles were reduced in 14 days.

Here is a "before" photo:

Here is the "after" photo at 14 days:


The formulation also contains trehalose and glycerin which are excellent at protecting the skin from dehydration while helping to restore its natural moisture balance. The result is smoother, firmer, well-hydrated skin.

The use of a good broad-spectrum sunscreen is also highly recommended to protect the skin from the sun’s aging rays as well as discourage any hyperpigmentation that may occur. Look for a sunscreen that protects from both UVA and UVB rays. There are many sunscreen options available for use over or under your moisturizer or there are several foundations on the market that contain SPF that are a good option.

I’d personally also invest in a Clarisonic Sonic Face Brush (see my post on 10/8/09). This brush cleans your skin more efficiently than manual cleansing which allows your treatment products to penetrate better and do what they’re supposed to do. The initial investment is big ($195), but the payoff is worth it.

What tips do you have for managing menopausal skin?

Posted by Brigette, contributor

Calling all menopausal women...Are you prepared?

I’m reading “The Wisdom of Menopause” by Dr. Christiane Northrup, not because I’m going through menopause but because I need to learn more about what happens to our bodies (and more specifically, our skin) during that stage so I can write about it more accurately on the Striking blog and newsletter.

I was sharing with some of my friends that I was simultaneously reading books about raising teenagers and going through menopause. Then the questions came up:

“Why are you reading about menopause?”

“Are you perimenopausal?”

“Which book are you reading? Maybe I should get a copy too.”

Then the realization hit me: as a generation of women, we are unprepared for menopause. We get to see the movies about menstruation in grade school, but there’s no mandatory movie about menopause to watch in our late 30’s/early 40’s to prepare us for that next stage of life. Some of us may get some information from our mothers if we ask, but there’s no “birds and bees” type conversation like the ones we get when we’re learning about the facts of life, so it’s up to us figure out this next phase of womanhood.

We throw around words like “perimenopause” and “menopause” like we know what they mean, but really, most of us are grossly uneducated on the subject until the doctor tells us we’re right in the middle of it. Do we really know what happens? Do we care enough to research it before it happens to us or does all the book reading and information gathering start once the doctor has given us the official diagnosis?

I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. I’ve started to ask questions of my mother and my aunt. So far, I’m not following in my mother’s footsteps: she gave birth to me at 18 and started menopause at 40. I, on the other hand, gave birth for the first time at 29 and had my third (and I think, my last) child 18 months ago at age 42. I’ve started reading about menopause and asking other women who have been through “the change” what they would recommend to read, or if they read anything at all.

What will do you to prepare?

Posted by Brigette, contributor

6 Pieces of Advice from Women Who’ve Been There

Here are some pearls of wisdom gathered from the wise women in my life who have hit menopause and emerged fabulous on the other side:

1. If you’re not a water-drinker, get into the habit now. Staying hydrated is one of the best things you can do for your body as well as your skin.

2. Stay out of the sun, but if you just can’t help yourself, wear sunscreen. Choose an SPF 30 with a combination of chemical and physical sunscreens (titanium dioxide or zinc oxide). Cover your entire body with at least an ounce and reapply every hour. If you start getting red, get out of the sun, pronto! Remember that overexposure to the sun is the skin’s enemy.

3. If you smoke, you may want to consider quitting. You already know what it can do your skin, so I won’t preach to you.

4. Don’t forget to use your anti-aging products past your chin. Pay attention to your neck, decollete and even your hands.

5. If you feel like you need a little “extra work”, go for it! But remember, you need to take care of your skin to maintain the results whether it’s Botox, fillers or surgery.

6. Since collagen starts to diminish by 1% every year once you hit 40, choose products with ingredients that are known to boost collagen production. Striking Skin Care with SmartPeptides is a good place to start.

All pretty common sense notions, but sometimes, it’s common sense that we lack!!

Posted by Brigette, contributor

September is National Menopause Month

Celebrate women and life's changes during the month of September. Learn more about menopause on the North American Menopause Society website. This is an easy to use website to find answers to common and not-so common questions about menopause.

Search the Web site of The North American Menopause Society NAMS for accurate, unbiased information about menopause. NAMS is the leading nonprofit scientific organization dedicated to improving understanding of this natural biologic event.