(Guest post)

Menopause is not something that women look forward to. In fact, it's particularly dreading to most women thanks to the fact that there are so many symptoms and side effects involved with this life altering experience. Anything from weight gain, to thinning hair, to breaking nails can all be results of menopause. Many menopausal women will even experience breast pain as an added factor to this frustrating time in their lives.

Breast pain is not uncommon among menopausal women, as well as those approaching menopause who are in the perimenopause state, in which tenderness in the breasts can be most predominant. This pain typically gives no warnings to an unsuspecting woman, so that just makes it all the worse.

So why does pain this occur? Just like with all of the other well known symptoms, breast pain is related to menopause in credit to the hormones that are basically going crazy. The primary female hormones in particular, progesterone and estrogen, are out of whack, if you will. It's during this time that they will become imbalanced, and eventually during menopause, they will significantly drop.

During perimenopause, as these hormones fluctuate, progesterone and estrogen both begin to lose their timing and their control over what goes on in a woman's cycle. Before they decline, they will become greatly imbalanced, so during the perimenopause stage, some women may have spiked levels of these hormones, while others will automatically have incredibly low levels. As a result of both of these hormones not being in syn with one another, several symptoms, such as breast pain, may occur.

Unfortunately, the feelings of pain and tenderness in the breasts can be severe. The pain will of course, differ from each woman, but many cases are reported in which tenderness is almost unbearable at times. Some women may not even be able to put their bras on without extreme discomfort, while some report having to sleep on their backs during this time as the pain is just too much for them to take.

Luckily, here are a couple great ways of trying to combat this issue:

Yoga: Some women will start yoga classes as a way to relieve stress. This can potentially help you to stay clear of breast tenderness in the future, if you begin this particularly before you enter menopause. But don't worry, it's also a great stress reliever to menopausal women as well.

Diet: Menopause relief seems to come down to a healthy diet. Your physical state and mental state can both be improved by eating nutritious foods. That being said, one great thing to add to your diet are foods high in estrogen, such as soy, rice, yams, alfalfa, cherries, wheat, and many many others.

Exercise: Yet another popular way of relieving menopausal symptoms is to workout everyday. So, the great thing about keeping to a workout schedule, is that it will not only help in the long run with tender breasts, but it can also help to soothe other symptoms related to menopause.

Breast pain is all too common in women who are experiencing perimenpause and menopause. Fortunately, taking these steps will take you on the right path to reducing breast tenderness in the future.