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[msparticularity]

Hmmm, so what is a huge dose of fish oil?  I take a small dose as it is.

I seem to recall that MsP is on about 6g a day of one of the high strength oils.

Even if it doesn't work, you'll at least be the mouse with the glossiest and sleekest fur.

And the cleanest arteries.

Yes--that's the dosage I take. The key issue is the combined EPA/DHA; the target range for RA is 3-6g per day.

Question for the fish-oil users:  do you know if there is any variant of fish oil available that has been purified well enough to not set off fish allergies?  

You might want to take a look here: http://www.ehow.com/how_4712427_good-omega-substitute-vegetarians.html.

Vegetarians and vegans don't take fish oils. There are a number of alternatives a person can take to get their omega 3s. I keep walnut pieces and raw almonds take a small handful of either each day, food choices also help. You don't have to take a pill, but if you want to, take a look around the health food shop or online and find a veggie alternative.

Biomancer, the molecular distillation process is designed to remove heavy metals, not to reconstitute the fish oil itself. I would suspect that the proteins would be what sets off your allergy, and the molecular distillation wouldn't help that--although if anchovy doesn't bother you that raises other questions about the exact allergan.

And while I agree with Punchnpie that there are good omega 3 alternatives that are vegetarian, you also need to know that they may or may not provide the same benefits. The vegetarian sources provide only ALA (alphalinoleic acid), which has not shown the same benefits as EPA and DHA for inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. I would tend to suspect that ALA might work for menopausal issues, though, since evening primrose oil is helpful for PMS, and it is an ALA source.

[biomancer]

Thanks, PunchNPie, Llanfair, & Ms.Particularity! 

I don't know exactly what I'm allergic to in fish and shellfish, but I know that I am sensitive to iodine (antiseptic iodine gives me hives), and that I can't keep fish or shellfish down.  Shellfish products (standard glucosamine, for example) give me hives too.  The foods with trace anchovy give me a burbly belly (just like eggs do) but don't seem to provoke the hives or the fierce vomiting.

But I digress.  I'll be on the lookout for evening primrose oil, and I may just give the fish oil a try and see what happens. 

[llanfair]

I take evening-primrose oil, more for the Omega-3s than anything else (I have high cholesterol and my dr doesn't want to put me on statins just yet).  I tried salmon-oil capsules but quickly gave them up - no digestive upsets but every burp was fishy!

[barred_owl]

Reviving this thread in light of lemonbar's recent post on the topic of menopause.  Sadly, I'm reviving it just to vent.

Night sweats are the work of the devil!!  Went to a conference where I had to share a room with a colleague--woke up about 4 times in the middle of the night, pillows soaked, kicking off covers right and left, finally had to move to a chair near the AC unit and spend the rest of the night there.  Colleague must've thought I was crazy.

Night sweats at home are not any more tolerable.  If I have any other symptoms, they're very mild in comparison--this sweating biz has got to stop!!

[llanfair]

The night sweats were my first introduction to perimenopause.  After a couple of years, though, they've receded quite a bit, so perhaps there's hope, Barred_Owl.

Mind you, hot flashes have taken their place ...

[barred_owl]

The night sweats were my first introduction to perimenopause.  After a couple of years, though, they've receded quite a bit, so perhaps there's hope, Barred_Owl.

Mind you, hot flashes have taken their place ...

Ugh...not looking forward to the hot flashes, if they're in store.  The thing is, I'm way too old (in my opinion, anyway) for this.  Shouldn't I be now transitioning gracefully into my elder years or something?  Heh.

[collegekidsmom]

I hear tons about perimenopause and menopause, and everything that happens in the 30 years before. I am interested in knowing what a woman can expect to  be like AFTER menopause-a few years after maybe. For so many years a woman is dealing with fluctuating hormones, all kinds of symptoms and issues, maybe pregnancy or a million other distinctly female issues. When it is all said and done, and if you have not had any surgeries, for instance, do postmenopausal women have an easier time losing weight, or feel the type of mood that is more consistent, or what? I know the symptoms that happen from declining estrogen. I know that ovaries still produce hormones, including androgens. So, would anyone share anything positive, other than the obvious, about what might be expected AFTER menopause? Is there a new "zest" or more fatigue or less insomnia, or is it all just too individual to generalize?

[llanfair]

I've wondered about that as well, CKM.  There have to be some pluses - for one thing, mood swings should be a thing of the past, shouldn't they? Now that I will love.  Being Shrieky Sheila for the whole of my adult life is getting tired.

[anthroid]

I'm nearly 18 months out; my last period was in April 2009.  The night sweats are gone; the mood swings are gone; the word-forgetting is, largely, gone.  I never really had hot flashes.  It is, in short, glorious.  I have energy.  I don't want to eat stupid stuff (well, not all that much anyway).  I'm losing weight.  I feel positive and as though I'm not being held back by all of those wet, cutting, leather tethers that is peri-menopause.  I feel like myself again; I thought I had lost her 6 or 7 years back but it turns out she was just hiding under some hormones.

As I said upthread, I chose to go through the experience without drugs.  Though I think my symptoms were pretty typical, I do think what disturbed me most were the mood swings.  I am typically a sunny, optimistic, slow-to-anger person, but I was being set off by the most minor things (which explains some of my posts here between 2006-2008!).

Really, having my self back, the person who I typically experience myself as being, is the biggest gift of menopause.

[llanfair]

Anthroid, I've wanted to be you for quite a while now, but now I really want to be you.  Thanks for giving us all hope!

[lemonbar]

Hmmm...this might explain some things as well for me. For the longest time, I have felt really short-tempered and frustrated. Now that I've figured out that I am probably in menopause (and perimenopausal since my late 30s), maybe I too (and Mr. LB!) can look forward to a time when things will even out again.

[collegekidsmom]

They always say that women become happier and more satisfied in the mid to later 50s. I have often noticed that women in their later 50s and older seem different somehow. So, maybe other than myriad other lifestyle things, that can be due to menopause. I'm glad to hear, Anthroid, that maybe after all is said and done, we can all be our old selves-no longer under the influence of constant hormone issues. 40 years of all that is a long time. Thanks.

[punchnpie]

OK, call me vain and shallow, I don't care.  As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I'm taking hormones, mostly for hot flashes, but because my endo believes all middle-aged diabetic women should take them.

My nurse practitioner thinks I should consider weaning off of the hormones (though she wears a patch herself!). On days when I forget, I'm not getting hot flashes anymore and generally I feel pretty good. I think I need to discuss total withdrawal with my endo, it may still be worth taking them for heart protection, but I can see that the days on hormones are growing shorter.

So here's my problem. I am 57 with no wrinkles. People often comment on how youthful I look. I swear I'm not youth-centered and I enjoy (usually) being my age, and it's not like I look like I'm 22, but if I can get by a few more years w/o wrinkles, fine by me. Does anyone know whether, if I stop the hormones, I'll start getting wrinkles? For some reason, I'm especially worried that, because I've been taking hormones and things have been on hold, as it were, that once I get off of the meds, I'll just wake up one day and the face I've known will be gone.

Thoughts? If you're going to laugh or snicker, please do so behind my back.

[collegekidsmom]

I don't think I have many wrinkles. But I do know that if I have a few extra pounds on me-my face looks better. My mother is underweight and was more wrinkly when she was my age. So, I will not take hormones and I will eat whatever I want. That is how it will have to go.

[anthroid]

I think I look better without the hormones.  I was on the Pill for--it turns out--2 too many years.  I may have been able to enter menopause earlier (and thus get out of it earlier) had I not been taking hormones.  I swear that my face is smoother and less wrinkled now than it was throughout peri-menopause and the Pill.  I really think my emotional state made me look worse.  Whatever--my experience is not everyone's.  Punchnpie, there is no need to explain your choices.  You do what you know to be best for yourself.  Menopause can be so idiosyncratic; we do not have to justify the ways we get through it.  Gin was a constant friend for me.  Seriously.

Quitting smoking helped alot with the wrinkle issue too (6 years last Thursday!).

Lemonbar, the mood swings and emotional stuff (and the not-finding-words, poor memory stuff) crept up slowly; it's easy to pass it off as middle-aged blues and the like, but, for me (as it turns out), it was absolutely connected to peri- and actual menopause.  Once I realized that, it did make life so much easier.  I still experienced the feelings and symptoms, but I found them easier to cope with when I was able to name them.  I don't know that I was all that much easier to cope with but knowing it was menopausal gave me great comfort.

Really.  I'm here to say.  Things DO even out and get even better when you're on the other side.  I feel so much more ready to tackle life projects (a couple of books I want to write, articles I wish to offer [and luckily have been invited to do], curriculum revisions, and even--gasp--personal relationships I want to deepen).

As I've said, I feel as though I've found myself again, and it is such a gift to have the energy I had at 32 but the confidence and experience I've garnered at 52.  I am healthy and happy and ready for the next challenge!