Welcome in Fascinating sagers,
Thank you for subscribing. If you have not subscribed yet please do, I would love to help you shine your fascinating light and tame those symptoms beyond menopause. Hit the button, and I will see you on the other side.
Thank you for catching us live I appreciate you so very much:
Betty Boldbrew, Idol Thoughts, Patricia Grenelle, PsyD, Eric Anthony, Jo-Ann Petrarca, Corie Feiner @<a,aCarle, jill shaw
Have a product you would like us to decode?
And to you all, seriously, if you have a question you would like answered, please leave me a message on my dedicated podcast line (656) 222-0848 or message me. If I do not have the answer, I will find the expert who can.
The Art of Menopausing with
Chitra 🦋 Eder
When the body starts behaving unpredictably, we rush to manage it. But what if the body already knows exactly what it’s doing, and the real problem is that we keep trying to take the wheel? In Part 1, we heard how Chitra found Ayurveda and why she believes menopause is inevitable and suffering is optional.
Now in Part 2, we jump straight into a listener question from one of my fascinating subscribers, Corie Feiner : is perimenopause real, and can you naturally prolong your cycle? And the answer is quite fascinating.
Menopause and Ayurveda: is perimenopause real
Yes, perimenopause is real. But what caught my attention was how Chitra framed what we tend to call “symptoms”. She sees them more as signals and messages that the body is changing. That one shift alone hopefully helps other sagers changes how she listens to herself. Instead of treating every new sensation like a problem to squash, there’s an invitation to translate what the body is saying.
The monthly cycle is not the body’s cleanse
Chitra gently challenged a belief that gets repeated so often and it starts to sound like fact: that menstruation is the body’s cleanse. In her view, cleansing happens through the skin, the liver, and the kidneys. What happens during menses, she explained, is more accurately a removal, the body releasing tissue and an egg that are no longer necessary to the system. She made an important distinction that any waste product that isn’t functional can create the possibility of inflammation, infection, or changes in tissue function. So for her, it isn’t romanticized as a cleansing ritual. It’s the body doing what it does best, clearing what’s no longer needed.
Can you prolong your cycle naturally
The next part of Cori’s question had Chitra zooming out to something bigger than cycle length. She described a common mindset in modern wellness culture that the idea that the mind knows more than the body, that the mind can control the body, and the body has no intelligence of its own. Yes, she said, there are supplements and practices that can lengthen or shorten the menstrual cycle. But then she widened the lens again, because when we say “cycle”, we’re talking about the monthly cycle and the life cycle. And both, she explained, are influenced by the three doshas.
Understanding doshas in perimenopause
Chitra described the three doshas as bioenergetic archetypal energies, constitutions built from the five elements of Ayurveda: ether, air, fire, water, and earth. Vata is ether and air. Pitta is fire with a little water, because in a biological system pure fire would burn everything up. Kapha is earth and water. What I appreciated here is how practical she made it. These are not abstract personality labels. They show up in real patterns, including the menstrual cycle.
She explained that a vata dominant woman, the air and ether type, tends to have irregular periods. Not the classic 28 day rhythm, more like long, short, unpredictable, sometimes absent if there is too much vata.
The pitta dominant woman, the fire type, tends toward a regular period that can feel like it runs on a clock, assuming there are no underlying conditions.
The kapha dominant woman tends toward heavier periods and longer cycles, and she noted that kapha women may move into menopause later than pitta women, while vata can be irregular in timing.
Then she brought it back to the real question. To even consider extending the menstrual cycle (life cycle), she said, you would first want to identify constitution. And if you were trying to extend the life cycle, you would be looking at adding more kapha qualities, more earth, more oil, more slowing down. But she also asked the question that actually protects women from chasing the wrong goal: is it appropriate? Kapha can show up as additional fat, congestion, and ama, which she described as undigested food stuff. So the answer was not a promise. It was an it depends, personalized, grounded in what your body is doing and what you are trying to accomplish.
My own experience with prolonging my cycle
This conversation hit me in a personal place, because I remember the moment my own cycle started slowing down. I was somewhere around 49 or 50, and my reaction was fear based. I remember thinking, I’m not ready for this. I made changes and I was able to continue cycling until I was 53. I did not do the dosha work the way Chitra does it, and I’m never going to pretend I have her depth. But I did make major changes, and I also recognize that my relationship with readiness changed. When I reached 53, I felt ready in a way I didn’t at 49. That difference alone made me curious about how much the mind body conflict influences the experience.
Chitra leaned into that idea too. She said the ready or not ready piece plays a huge role in how we treat ourselves and how we treat our bodies, and that conflict between mind and body can ripple through the whole system. When she asked “what not being ready” actually means, my answer came fast. Not being old. I had felt like menopause was an off a cliff moment. And I can say this now on the other side, with a little grin and a little relief, there was no cliff. It was more like stepping over a curb.
Ayurveda gut health and digestion during menopause
From there, I asked how nutrition plays a role in balancing the doshas during perimenopause and menopause, and whether there are foods or spices to calm hot flashes, improve sleep, or boost energy. Chitra brought it straight to what Ayurveda is famous for, gut health. She said the first thing they look at is what is happening with agni, the digestive fire, and the digestive tract itself.
She explained how digestion patterns can reflect dosha tendencies. Vata digestion can be irregular, hunger comes and goes, and women can forget to eat because life gets airy and schedule slips. Pitta digestion carries more fire, and if a pitta woman does not eat on time, she can get hangry fast. Kapha digestion can be slow and heavy, where food sits and satiety lasts a long time. She also reminded me, and all of us, that we are not one dosha. We have all three. Imbalances can show up in different ways even within a dominant constitution.
One detail she shared was the tongue. She described a white film as a sign of slowness in the system, and she talked about how the body can coat the digestive tract and even other cavities or vessels with that same kind of buildup. Her point was simple and powerful that digestion has to work. Food that is broken down properly becomes the building blocks for tissues, including blood, bones, and nervous tissue, and it also feeds the reproductive system whether or not a woman is menstruating. That framework shifts the conversation from trying to force the body into a specific timeline to supporting the body’s capacity to function.
Abhyanga oil massage and the meaning of sneha
Then I asked about something many women feel on the outside of the change and that is d-r-y-n-e-s-s. I brought up Chitra’s article title that I loved, cars aren’t your only possession in need of oil,
and asked her to talk about conventional moisturizers versus body oils. She explained that abhyanga is an oil massage you can do on yourself, or have someone else do for you, and she said it with a smile that made the idea sound like a spa day and a sacred ritual at the same time.
She also explained sneha, the Sanskrit word for love, and how the word for oil is connected with love. When you put oil on your skin, you are practicing self care. Not as a luxury, but as nourishment. She described how oiling supports movement in the body, including the lymphatic system, and how oil nourishes in a way water cannot. Water hydrates, but oil helps fill you up. She used an image that stuck with me from her desert life. When the earth is dry and it rains hard, the ground cannot absorb it, and the water floods away. The body can do something similar. If the system is dry and cannot absorb water, it flushes through. Oils help create a barrier so water can stay and hydrate.
She reminded us the skin is our largest organ and our first barrier. Oiling supports that barrier and, in her view, supports the immune system, and can go deeper into tissues over time. She also emphasized the internal side too, taking good oils internally, supporting the body from both directions.
Best oils for each dosha
I asked her to keep it simple and tell us what oils match each dosha. She explained that kapha tends to have more oily skin, so kapha often does better with lighter oils that absorb well. She said almond oil is good for everyone, which is helpful for women who do not want complicated rules. Warming oils like sesame oil, and castor oil are warming but often too thick. Chitra recommended warming oil to at least body temperature so it absorbs better.
For pitta, sunflower oil used to be a go to, but she now leans more toward almond oil for most of the year, and coconut oil as a cooling option, especially in summer, while noting that cooling oils do not penetrate as deeply. Heat expands and helps pores open, while cold contracts.
For vata, oil is needed the most, and sesame oil is often used because it is warming and penetrates deeply. Chitra also named a powerful trio: sesame for vata, ghee for pitta. And then we talked about ghee.Chitra once received a ghee massage in India during an Ayurvedic retreat, and she said the jet lag disappeared. Gone. I wonder how that works for sleep?
How to do abhyanga without turning your bathroom into a slip and slide
I shared a real life problem with oiling my body before showering. It sounds wonderful, but it can turn the shower into an oil slick. I told her what I used to do instead, oiling after the shower with a cloth and starting at my feet, skipping the towel entirely. She said yes, any effect is better than no effect. But she also explained the ideal rhythm if you want the deeper benefit. You apply oil, then do warming exercise so the body warms and absorbs. If you have the time, a steam bath comes next, opening pores again, then the shower. Her practical solution was one I can see sagers actually using. If you exercise in the morning, do abhyanga before you move, do a few sun salutations, then shower. Less mess, more absorption.
I told her I oil my hair before shampoo and that it saves money on conditioner, and she reassured me with something women need to hear more often and that is there is no wrong. There is moving in the right direction. I love that affirmation.
Menopause self care without perfection
We ended Part 2 in a place I did not expect but absolutely needed. Chitra described her approach to Ayurveda as meeting women where they are. What is your lifestyle, what are your inherent practices, and how do we move you toward support without turning wellness into another source of stress. She named what so many women are living inside of. Stressing out over food, water, and practices drains the system. We do not live in a perfect world. Food can be contaminated. Air and water can be contaminated. Many of us do not have a village to help us cook, clean, raise kids, or hold the weight of life. So,
the goal is not perfection. The goal is progress, support, and less self blame.
Thank you for coming with me through Part 2. In Part 3, we go straight into the tension so many women feel: natural support versus hormones, tradition versus modern medicine, and what Chitra calls the real sweet spot. And she makes one point that will change the way you hear every “this is the only option” conversation again.
If you have a health or menopause question you and answer to, leave a voicemail on my dedicated podcast line, no one answers, promise, at (656) 222-0848, or message me in the show notes. If I don’t have the answer I will find that expert that does.
Thank you for watching, reading or listening in. I’m Karen Langston, your holistic nutritionist and hypnotist…. Remember, taking proactive steps toward physical and mental well-being is a journey, and seeking support is a sign of strength.
Stay well, and until next time, question the norm, trust your wisdom, elegantly and unapologetically roar. And most of all… Lady, keep being fascinating and sage with sass and grace in every day life. I’ll see you then .
