The benefits of fish oil for menopause symptoms

Why is omega-3 and fish oil perfect for perimenopause?

Essential for menopause health omega-3 essential fatty acids are contained in fish oil.

Mum of three Melanie Lawson started her love affair with marine based supplements in 2008 when she suffered from postnatal depression and discovered that Omega 3 helped her symptoms. She struggled to find an Omega 3 in the UK that ticked all the boxes for purity, strength and freshness. Like many entrepreneurs she saw a gap in the market and decided to create her own brand, launching Bare Biology in 2013.

Melanie outlines the benefits that fish oil offers for menopause symptoms.

Fish oil, it’s a fishy business!

The end of a woman’s reproductive years may be called the menopause, but for many of us, it feels more like a big, fat full stop. A full stop to life without aches and pains. A full stop to restful sleep. A full stop to youth. A full stop to health.

But does it really have to be that way?

Lifestyle differences are known to affect both the timing of the menopause and how severely you’ll be affected by it. Both moderate and heavy drinkers are known to have a greater chance of experiencing debilitating symptoms, while obese women are more likely to go through the menopause earlier, putting them at greater risk of osteoporosis and heart disease in later life.

And then there’s diet. Pre-menopausal symptoms that we’re familiar with here in the West are just not seen in other cultures. The Japanese way of eating seems to be particularly adept in warding off menopausal symptoms. Only 7 percent of Japanese women suffer from hot flushes (a rise in temperature caused by falling oestrogen levels), compared to approximately eight in ten women in the UK.

A huge staple in the Japanese diet is oily fish. Japanese women eat about 100g of oily fish daily, while here in the UK many of us struggle to eat the recommended portion of oily fish twice a week. Oily fish is thought to be beneficial to the body primarily because it contains such large amounts of the essential fatty acid Omega 3. In fact, nutritional studies show that Japanese women get 1,300mg of Omega 3 fatty acids per day from their diet, compared to just 200g here in the UK.

This is backed up by another recent study carried out by the University of Leeds, a diet rich in fish has a big impact on our hormones.

The comprehensive study carried out over four years on more than 14,000 women in the UK, found that those eating a daily portion of sardines or salmon experienced menopause up to three years later than the average age - something which has serious implications when you realise that going through the menopause earlier puts you at a much greater risk for osteoporosis and heart disease.

But what should you look for when choosing the best Omega 3 fish oil for the menopause? You’ll want a supplement made of wild, oily small fish that are screened for contaminants such as dioxins and PCBs and publishes its results. You’ll also need a product with adequate amounts of Omega 3. That’s because some fish oils on the market don’t contain enough EPA and DHA.

But while taking natural supplements for the menopause is a great start, Omega 3 should only be part of your lifestyle overhaul. With a few tweaks you’ll be well-placed to greet the menopause as an exciting new chapter in your life.

Melanie Lawson

October 2019

Looking for inspirational ideas to add oily fish into your diet? Search our Diet & Recipe page.