According to Medical Medium® Information, viral-induced menopause and natural menopause are two different things. Many women in their 30s and 40s are told they are in perimenopause when the cause may be viral and adrenal, not their age.
Key Takeaways
- Viral-induced menopause is a cycle disruption that, according to Medical Medium® Information, comes from a virus (most often Epstein-Barr) along with worn-down adrenals.
- Natural menopause is a gradual winding down of the cycle, usually around age fifty, and its only true sign is changing periods.
- Early and premature menopause labels describe when a cycle stopped. They do not explain why it stopped.
- Within this framework, hot flashes, fatigue, brain fog, hair loss, and low libido each have their own cause, and menopause itself has no symptoms.
- Hormone therapy is a personal decision to discuss with a licensed healthcare provider. Bioidentical progesterone is the one option the author considers reasonably safe, and it is not for everyone.
- The Medical Medium® approach to symptoms starts with the liver, the adrenals, and viral load, using foods, herbs, and celery juice.
Not long ago, I was working with a woman in her late forties who believed she had been in menopause for five or six years. That is what she had been told, and she had rearranged her whole picture of herself around it.
When I looked at what was actually happening in her body, I had to tell her something she did not expect. In my view, she was not in menopause at all. She was still fertile. A virus had disrupted her cycle, and everyone around her had reached for the explanation that matched her age.
I hear some version of her story almost every week. A woman in her thirties whose periods have gone missing. A woman in her early forties with night sweats and anxiety. Each one is handed the same word, perimenopause, and each one quietly grieves a season of life she believes arrived too soon.
If this sounds familiar, please know you are not alone. I have had this conversation with more women than I can count.
Over the years, I have come to see that there are really two very different stories women are being told about menopause. Once you begin to see the difference, so many things that never made sense suddenly start to make sense.
What menopause is supposed to be
Menopause was never meant to be an illness. For most of history, women moved through it gently and often felt better on the other side, with more energy, clearer thinking, and relief from the monthly cycle. Hot flashes and heart palpitations were virtually unheard of until women born around 1900 reached midlife.
And here is something I love telling women, because it is the opposite of what we have all absorbed: the change is actually working in your favor. Anthony William, the originator of Medical Medium® Information, says our reproductive hormones are steroid based, and that they speed up aging. A woman ages fastest between puberty and menopause. So when those hormones wind down, aging slows, and the monthly dip in immunity that comes with every cycle finally ends. Your body is not failing you. It is protecting you for the decades ahead.
“Menopause is not meant to be a painful, uncomfortable process, and in fact marks the beginning of slowed-down aging.”
That is natural menopause. A slow, gentle winding down of the cycle, usually somewhere around fifty. Its one legitimate sign is that your periods gradually become irregular over the years, lighter or heavier, closer together or further apart. The hot flashes, the exhaustion, and the anxiety are not menopause itself. The cycle is what changes.
The other story: viral-induced menopause
Something else comes up far more often when I work with women. A woman whose cycle has gone missing or chaotic years, sometimes decades, before fifty, with a long list of symptoms attached and a label that simply does not fit her.
In these women, it is not natural menopause at all. This is what I mean when I talk about viral-induced menopause: a virus, most often Epstein-Barr, sitting in the reproductive system, the thyroid, and the liver, with worn-down adrenals underneath it all. According to Medical Medium® Information, the virus disrupts the cycle and creates the symptoms we have been taught to blame on hormones.
And because the medical world sorts women by age, a thirty-five-year-old whose period has disappeared is told her fertility is ending, when what she is actually carrying is something that can be supported and healed.
“These days, with more aggressive, faster-developing strains of EBV showcasing themselves, women are coming down with hypothyroidism earlier in life, and now it’s not uncommon for 25-year-olds or even college students to receive diagnoses of perimenopause. This is a mistake that leaves so many young women in an identity crisis, feeling like they’re growing old before their time, when in reality, the problem is viral, and manageable.”
Natural menopause is not something I have ever felt needed fixing. Within the Medical Medium® framework, viral-induced menopause can be worked with, because a virus can be starved and tired adrenals can be fed. I have sat with women who were told their cycle was gone for good, and several have shared that it came back once we addressed what was really going on. Results vary for everyone.
What about early or premature menopause?
If you have been given one of these labels, and if you have been quietly carrying it as something final about your body, here is how I would invite you to think about it. When doctors say premature menopause or premature ovarian insufficiency before forty, or early menopause between forty and forty-five, they are describing when your cycle stopped. They are not telling you why it stopped.
And that is why I never stop at the label. In so many of these women, the why is viral and adrenal, which means the door is not nearly as closed as the label makes it sound.
Surgical menopause, when the ovaries are removed, is a different situation. There the change truly is sudden and real. Even then, your adrenals are designed to produce your reproductive hormones alongside the ovaries, so caring for them becomes the heart of the work.
What causes hot flashes and other menopause symptoms?
If there is one thing I could hand every woman reading this, it would be that menopause itself has no symptoms. According to Medical Medium® Information, each of the things we have been taught to call menopause symptoms has its own cause, and once you see them separately, you know what to actually work on.
Hot flashes and night sweats
Hot flashes and night sweats come from a liver that has spent decades filling with toxins and viral waste. It runs hot, and the body vents that heat. This is why men get hot flashes too, and why I see women in their twenties and thirties having them.
Fatigue, brain fog, and hair loss
Fatigue usually comes from one of two places, and very often from both. An active virus in the liver will drain you no matter what your hormones are doing. And adrenals worn down by years of stress, skipped meals, and pushing through will do exactly the same thing.
Brain fog and memory trouble are neurological, coming from a sluggish liver, neurotoxins, and heavy metals in the brain. Hair loss points to weakened adrenals.
Libido and vaginal dryness
Loss of libido and vaginal dryness are not the end of your womanhood. They are adrenal signals, because your adrenals produce most of your reproductive hormones and even govern lubrication itself. That matters more than most women are ever told. It is not menopause that causes them, it is weakened adrenals. This is good news, because I know plenty of women who are menopausal and enjoying a healthy libido and a comfortable sex life without a lot of lubricant or outside support.
Here is what surprises most women. It takes decades for a liver to fill and for a virus to mature, which is exactly why all of this tends to show up in midlife. The timing was mistaken for the cause, and menopause has been carrying the blame ever since.
So if you have been told that this is just what happens to women your age, and if some part of you never quite believed it, I want you to know that part of you was right.
Hormone replacement and HRT alternatives
And if you are already taking hormones, please hear this without any judgment from me. I understand completely why hormone therapy is tempting when you feel awful. Please talk with your healthcare provider before changing or stopping any medication.
But within the Medical Medium® framework, hormones are steroids. They suppress the immune response and feed the very pathogens behind the symptoms, and the risks that large studies uncovered, including cancers, are real. Steroids also trigger adrenaline, which is why hormone therapy can feel like it is working at first. That lift you feel is the adrenaline, not healing.
If a woman does want support in this area, the one option I consider reasonably safe is bioidentical progesterone from wild yam. It is the closest thing there is to your body’s own progesterone, and for women who are still cycling and swinging hard from good weeks to awful ones, it can ease the road. It is not something to use continuously, and how it is timed depends on where a woman is in her own cycle, so that is a conversation to have with your practitioner. I do not recommend it for everyone, and I want to be honest with you: the deeper answer is never in a cream. It is in the liver, the adrenals, and the viral load.
Where healing starts
Whether your label was perimenopause, early menopause, or simply “your age,” the path forward looks the same, because the causes are the same.
Start by taking away what feeds the virus. Eggs, dairy, and gluten come out first, along with lowering the fat in your diet so your liver can finally cleanse. For a lot of women, the symptoms blamed on menopause soften with celery juice alone, simply because so many of them were living in a sluggish liver. Feed your adrenals by eating every ninety minutes or so instead of running on empty, and let herbs like nettle leaf, schisandra, and ashwagandha support them. The Heavy Metal Detox Smoothie clears what has been building in the brain, which is where the fog and the memory worries live.
And please, be patient with your body. It has been carrying the blame for something it never did.
If you are in your thirties or forties and someone has told you that your body is winding down, I hope this gave you a different way to see it. You may not be losing anything at all. You may simply have something to heal, and that is a very different story with a very different ending.
And if you are coming up on natural menopause in its own time, there is truly nothing here to dread. Your immunity strengthens, your aging slows, and a monthly burden lifts. I am looking forward to that season myself.
If this article answered questions you have been carrying, share it with a woman who needs it, or come continue the conversation with me inside my Intuitive Healing Community. I would love to have you there.
To your peace and happiness,
Muneeza
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Frequently Asked Questions
How can I tell natural menopause from viral-induced menopause?
Natural menopause usually arrives around age fifty, and its one true sign is a cycle that slowly becomes irregular over years. According to Medical Medium® Information, viral-induced menopause shows up years or decades earlier, often with a long list of symptoms. Only a licensed healthcare provider can diagnose what is happening in your body, so bring this to your appointment as a question.
Is perimenopause in your 30s normal?
Many women in their 30s are given a perimenopause label when their cycle changes. In this framework, an early change in the cycle points to a cause worth looking into, such as a virus or tired adrenals, not an early end to your fertility. Please talk with your healthcare provider about any cycle changes.
Are there HRT alternatives within the Medical Medium® approach?
The approach focuses on the liver, the adrenals, and viral load first, using foods, herbs, and celery juice. Bioidentical progesterone from wild yam is the one option I consider reasonably safe, and it should be timed to your cycle with your practitioner. Always consult your healthcare provider before changing or stopping any medication.
What is the difference between early menopause and premature menopause?
Premature menopause, also called premature ovarian insufficiency, is the label used when the cycle stops before age forty. Early menopause is used when it stops between forty and forty-five. Both describe timing, not cause. If you were given either label, ask your healthcare provider what testing led to it and what else could be contributing.
Can you have menopause symptoms in your 20s or 30s?
Yes, women in their twenties and thirties report hot flashes, fatigue, and brain fog. According to Medical Medium® Information, these come from the liver, the adrenals, and viral load, not from menopause. Men get hot flashes too. Please talk with your healthcare provider about any new symptoms.
