10 Herbal Remedies for Perimenopause Symptoms

Noticing changes in your flow, mood, sleep, or temperature?
These are signs of perimenopause, and this transition can stretch for 8–10 years!

In this post, I’ll share seven tried-and-true herbal remedies for perimenopause symptoms to help you move through these changes naturally.

As master herbalist Susun Weed reminds us:

“You are changing, getting ready to be initiated into the third stage of your life. Are you ready for the ride of your life?”synergy-health.co.uk

6 Key Foundations for Transitioning with Grace

1. Diet – A whole-food diet rich in healthy fats, protein, and fiber supports hormone balance by supporting estrogen elimination.

2. Exercise – Strength training (yes, heavy weights!) supports your bones, metabolism, and overall vitality. Aim for 8-10 reps to fatigue when lifting.

3. Adrenal Support – Your adrenals take over during menopause, so we have to support them now. Calming your nervous system is key to transitioning with grace.

4. Liver Support – Supporting your liver is essential during this time. And, if you choose to add hormones, you need even more liver support!

5. Stress Management – Techniques like breath work and visualization help lower cortisol and ease symptoms like hot flashes.

6. Sleep! If you’re not sleeping, you’re not healing.

10 Herbal Remedies for Perimenopausal Symptoms

Here are seven powerful botanicals that can help ease your transition—and how to use them effectively:

1. Vitex (Chaste Berry)

• Benefits: Supports progesterone balance, helps regulate mood and cycle irregularities, and increases LH.

  • Has your cycle shortened? Try just one drop of Vitex daily for days 7-14, until you begin ovulating again.

• Caution: if your estrogen is low, this may increase depression.

• Dose: I’ve been using Vitex Day 7-14, only to encourage ovulation. Just one drop, every morning.

2. Ashwagandha

• Benefits: A powerful adaptogen that eases anxiety, improves sleep, and may rebalance hormones.

• Use for: From the Ayurvedic medical system used for premature aging. Dubbed the “Indian ginseng.”

• Gives you the strength and stamina of a stallion

• Made as a decoction with the root - look for KSM-66

• As an adaptogen to relieve stress

• Slow, restorative builder of strength
  

• Action: Bitter, sweet, pungent, warm & dry

• Dose: 240–500 mg standardized extract, 1–2x per day.

  • We’ve found that the Ashwagandha powder KSM-66 works best. Like this ONE.

  • Try taking Ashwagandha powder at night to support your sleep.

3. St. John’s Wort

Historically, Flowers around St. John’s Day, the summer solstice

• Benefits: Helps with mood swings, mild depression, and supports your liver with estrogen clearance

• Action: cold, bitter, astringent

Use for:

• tension, stagnation, and depression

• nervous system, hepatic, antiviral, relaxing nervine

Organs affected:

• Supports the liver in processing excessive estrogen

• Depression with liver heat

  Jaundice, bitter taste in the mouth, dizziness, mood swings, pain in the upper right abdomen

• Dose: 300 mg daily (standardized to 0.3% hypericin).

4. Rhodiola

• Benefits: Enhances energy, reduces stress, and combats fatigue.

• Caution: Don’t use if you have bipolar symptoms.

• Dose: 200–400 mg in the morning, if you’ve experienced mania before - skip this botanical.

5. Motherwort

Leonurus cardiaca- “The heart of a lion.” This plant teaches us that courage rises from our core when we relax and allow our authentic self to shine through.

• Benefits: A calming tonic, especially helpful for alleviating palpitations and irritability.

• Dose: 0.5–1 mL tincture 3x daily.

6. Shatavari

• Benefits: Supports lubrication and hormonal balance.

• Dose: Use together in tincture form (0.5 mL each, 3x per day).

7. Dan Gui - Angelica Sinensis

• Strengthens “blood,” supports cycle irregularities, insomnia, and mental clarity.

  Use for:

  • tonifying blood, regulating menses

  • causes red cell proliferation, so it’s important for anemia

  • dizziness, numbness in the limbs, heart palpitations during menses

  • promotes a feeling of compassion

  • Some studies show estrogen activity, while others don’t.

    • helps reduce fibroids

    • Alleviates constipation

• Action:

• Warm, sweet, spicy, and bitter

• Organs affected:

  • heart, liver, and spleen

8. Red Clover

• Benefits: Red Clover provides phytoestrogens for hot flash relief and bone support; Black Cohosh helps alleviate hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and mood disturbances.

• Dose:

  • Red Clover: 40–80 mg extract, 1–2x daily.

9. Black Cohosh

• Current uses

  • Body pain, neck pain, and menopausal symptoms

  • headache right before your period {low estrogen}

  • organ prolapse {lifts the sunken}, vaginal dryness, giddiness

  • antiestrogenic of tamoxifen

  • displace stronger estrogens - net effect

    • Avoid in hypertension

  • Claims to have estrogenic effects

    • It appears to have only this effect on the bones and brain, not the uterus

      • Binds to beta receptor sites; it is unlikely to have a phytoestrogenic effect in humans.

    • -Roy Upton

• Traditional uses:

  • USED short term: menstrual cramps, acute pain

  • hot flashes, sweating, and rheumatism weed

  • Most studies for perimenopause have been done by the pharmacies and only for 3-6 months - Roy Upton

    • A famous blend called Remifemin

• Actions:

• Cool, sweet, spicy, slightly bitter

• Use for:

  • Clears wind and damp

• Organs affected:

  • Liver, spleen, stomach, large intestines

• Note: Don’t take during your period

  Dose: Black Cohosh: 40 mg twice daily, short-term (≤6 months recommended). HealthVerywell Health

10.Eleuthero- Eleutherococcus Senticosus {Siberian Ginseng}

• Action:

  • Warm, sweet, acrid

• Use for:

  • adaptogen energy tonic, antispasmodic

  • low energy, vitality, chronic fatigue, exhaustion, and weakness

• Organs affected:

  • Kidneys, adrenals, and spleen

Why Herbs Alone Aren’t Enough

• We need to look at your full picture of health.

• And, staying calm is key to finding the right remedy for your body.

Health Consultations

As an herbalist, I look at your diet and supplements and make suggestions for herbal remedies. Sometimes, it’s not perimenopause at all that’s bothering you. As your estrogen decreases, your protective hormone, you may experience strange symptoms like long-term Lyme and chronic Epstein-Barr virus. The answer is not to add more hormones to your body, but to uncover why you’re struggling so much.

xo

Tara

P.S. Which botanical is supporting you the most right now? Let me know in the comment area below.

Read more

• Perimenopause: Age, Stages, Signs & First Steps

• How the DUTCH hormone test can help you during perimenopause

• Alcohol and hot flashes:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1949018/