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[history_grrrl]

Menopause is coming and I'm kind of excited about it, because I think there's a very good chance that my migraines will disappear. I've been in perimenopause for about 2-3 years, and things are getter weirder and weirder, so I suspect I'll hit the Big M within the next year.

I wonder: would others be willing to share their experiences with menopause (and the lead-up to it)? I realize everyone is different, but I'm interested in the range of possibilities, particularly around how folks have decided to handle the ERT issue.

Or maybe people will think this topic is too unpleasant to bother with or belongs in the Uterine thread, which is okay too.

[biomancer]

Hi History_Grrrl!

I don't see any reason to move this to All Things Uterine, since there are a lot of whole-body effects involved.

I've been on Lupron for the last 3 months - thus an artificially and quickly induced menopause.  There's a long story to that on the Uterine thread, but the point I want to make is this:  the most annoying effect of it all has had nothing to do with the conventional stuff (hot flashes, sex drive fluctuations, moodiness, etc.).  It's been that my GI system has been tied up in knots.  My diet hasn't changed, but my intestines can't seem to make up their collective mind about which way they want to misbehave, so I'll have a few days of constipation followed by a few days of diarrhea, then back to the constipation.  It seems to be slowly converging on normal, but it's been a not-very-fun effect.  The abdominal bloating that accompanies it has me in clothes two sizes bigger than normal.  Everything "came unstuck" today, and so now the shorts that I could just barely button this morning are hanging off of my hips.  I will be so relieved when this all passes.

I do plan to have estrogen replacement after I get spayed (coming up in July) - I'm only 35, and osteoporosis runs in the family, so it makes a lot of sense.  

[mignon]

I'm still in perimenopause, but I very much welcome this thread, since I'm staring down the gun barrel of the Big M.  Crazy stuff, crazy hair, crazy hair LOSS, crazy periods.  If only it were just Uterine.

[gennimom]

Each person is definitely different. My mother said she couldn't understand what all the hype about menopause was. She sailed through it. Hot flashes for her were like slightly warm days. She had a period, then another about a year later and that was it. I'm wondering what having 8 pregnancies and 7 kids might have to do with that though.

Like Biomancer, I was on Lupron, only for 6 months. The first month was the worst, with the first 2 or 3 days being a little rough after each injection after that. I figure I've had a little practice for what is to come. I'll be full blast into menopause after the 21st. I'll come back here and let you know!

[llanfair]

I'm in perimenopause - hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings have been the biggest deals there so far.  What bugs me most about the whole thing is that I won't know for sure when it's really over - I was hysterectomatised at 35 but kept the ovaries, so there are no periods to go by.

Not that that's a problem or anything ;)

[theatremom]

I'm in perimenopause, too, and have been...er...hmmm... "enjoying" it for about the past two years.  I'm not thrilled about the night sweats and the periodic hot flashes, but, really, the part that bothers me the most is the utter unpredictability of my periods.

In my younger years, you could have set a clock by my cycle. I used to joke that I'd only been "late" three times -- once for each of my kids. Now, it comes when it comes. Could be every two months, could be every two weeks. I never know. I feel like I'm thirteen again.

[anthroid]

I am menopausal, officially.  Last period was a year ago in April.  I'm not quite 52.  It is so incredibly liberating!  I was peri-menopausal for what felt like over 10 years--hot flashes, night sweats, a time of about four years of serious mood swings, having regular periods, having incredibly heavy periods, missing periods now and then, mood swings, night sweats, mood swings.  My first hot flash (I remember it very, very clearly) was in 1998.

Did I mention the mood swings? 

I actually gutted it out without any meds.  I knew what was causing my mood swings (I did say something about mood swings, right?) and, while knowing what was going on did not diminish the mood swings, I did feel as though they were manageable as a result.  My GYN recommended Paxil (I think--some antidepressant, at any rate) but I really didn't want to take them for what I knew was a temporary situation.  I didn't want to take hormones for something that I knew was a natural process through which all women go (and the side-effect risks were too high for me to be comfortable).

I still have night sweats now and then, but the mood swings are completely gone.  I'd say that bursting into tears over stupid little things was the very worst part of being peri-menopausal--the physical effects were not nearly that bad.  I found that serious exercise helped to ameliorate the symptoms all around; the various herbal remedies (mainly, black cohosh) made things way worse for me.

YMMV.  Indeed, it will.

[janewales]

HG, I do think you might get relief from your migraines-- I've had them all my life, but the last couple of years (perimenopause), they've dropped off dramatically. My grandmother, who also suffered from them, said they stopped entirely after "the change."

So, that's a symptom/ effect I'm looking forward to. On the other hand, I'm going to miss my hair...

[field_mouse]

I appreciate anthroid's post but would like to hear more about what people have done for mood swings, because I fear losing my job if I can't bring it under control.  I'm perimenopausal and young enough that I could be looking at 10 years of this.  I have angry days and depressed days (and perfectly fine ones, too, of course, but only about a third of the time).  On the depressed days I also experience significant confusion and sometimes aphasia.

Does HRT fix this?

[anthroid]

I appreciate anthroid's post but would like to hear more about what people have done for mood swings, because I fear losing my job if I can't bring it under control.  I'm perimenopausal and young enough that I could be looking at 10 years of this.  I have angry days and depressed days (and perfectly fine ones, too, of course, but only about a third of the time).  On the depressed days I also experience significant confusion and sometimes aphasia.

Does HRT fix this?

I can't speak for HRT as I chose not to do it, as I chose not to do anti-depressants.  I had very, very angry--fury, really--days and depressed days (sometimes on the same day) for many years; I would forget things, tasks, people's names, and, disturbingly for me who is so very verbal, would forget words.  I don't know if you count that as aphasia.  It really does matter what you believe constitutes being out of control; I often felt out of control but also aware of the causes of the behaviors.  From what I understand, what I experienced is very much normal, but there are outliers on both ends.  Field_mouse, what does your GYN say?

[llanfair]

Well, I was already on Paxil for anxiety before I started with perimenopause, and tho' the mood swings have gotten somewhat worse, I'm positive that they'd be ten times worse yet without the drug.  But as Anthroid says, YMMV - it can't hurt to try it (as long as you can take SSRIs, of course).  Don't expect it to kick in right away; it takes a couple of months to take effect.

Anthroid, I'm so glad to hear that the mood swings will go away! I look forward to a (more nearly) serene future.

[field_mouse]

Me being a field kind of mouse, she won't have the opportunity to say much for a couple of months.

[biomancer]

I appreciate anthroid's post but would like to hear more about what people have done for mood swings, because I fear losing my job if I can't bring it under control.  I'm perimenopausal and young enough that I could be looking at 10 years of this.  I have angry days and depressed days (and perfectly fine ones, too, of course, but only about a third of the time).  On the depressed days I also experience significant confusion and sometimes aphasia.

Does HRT fix this?

My gut feeling as someone who knows a bit of physiology is that it should.  We still don't really understand the biochemistry of mood swings, AFAIK, but all signs seem to point to the idea that massive hormonal fluctuations are tied to all the negative things (menopausal mood swings, migraines, post-partum depression, pregnancy-related mood swings, etc.), and therefore evening out the fluctuations should mitigate the symptoms.

I will be doing estrogen therapy after my hysterectomy, so I should be able to provide some "anecdata" once I get there.  Yes, there are risks, but for me the benefits outweigh them.

[llanfair]

Especially at your young age, Biomancer - osteoporosis isn't something to mess with.  We'll look forward to your anecdata (a word which I love and will be stealing).

[biomancer]

Especially at your young age, Biomancer - osteoporosis isn't something to mess with.  We'll look forward to your anecdata (a word which I love and will be stealing).

Indeed - my mother's mother, despite a cheese-heavy Italian diet, developed osteoporosis bad enough that one day she broke 3 vertebrae in the process of trying to lift my baby brother out of his crib.  I don't want to end up in the kind of shape she was in.

My GYN is more concerned with my heart, and wants me to have estrogen to protect against heart disease.