Let's talk about Menopause - Please!

I thought I was doing pretty good. I had not had a period in almost 6 mos. I got one last Tues. It has been really heavy (flooding) and it has eased up, but still is not gone. Last night I had my first night sweat and very bad dizzy spell. Then I got a migraine. I feel like crap today. I was suppose to take my folks to doc appointments (as I am off on Weds.) but hubby is doing for me so I can rest all day. I had 8 daycare kids Mon and Tues. and I have 9 tomorrow! So I need to rest. Anyway, I had hoped I could go thru peri-menopause and menopause without taking any medication, but I don't know how many times I could have a night like last night. Anyone here care to tell their menopause stories or that of any friends who dealt with the issue? There is such pros and cons to hormone therapy I just wondered what you all thought.

Thanks!

FC, I still get periods - some light, some extremely heavy. I guess what you call FLOODING. Could not leave the house occasionally. It's horrible. Won't wear white just in case. I had a period last for 57 days! The flooding was only for a couple of the days, but about a week was very heavy. They put me on iron pills because I was SO exhausted.

My GP sent me for ultrasounds - last year I had a cyst which was breaking up and causing most of the problems. But then it started up again, had another ultrasound - no cyst. Then she sent me to her gyno for an endometrial biopsy to make sure there was nothing really bad going on. Luckily, everything was okay. The gyno put me on YAZ, which is a low-dose birth control pill. This is supposed to regulate things. I have been on it for about 5 months and have only had one really bad period since then.

Yesterday I started having a little light bleeding, but it's the middle of my cycle! So, I'm afraid to wear light-colored clothes.

I haven't had a lot of problems with night-sweats, just a little. I get something weird where my body goes ice-cold. I keep a robe near my bed just in case. I'll wake up and feel like I've been in a freezer and I'm so cold that I can't get out of bed because I'm afraid to take the covers off of me!

Good times.

Thanks for talking to me about it Austin! Sorry you are going thru all of this mess too. I'll glad the pills have helped you. I stopped taking birth control pills ages ago because they made my migraine issues worse. I would hate to have to go on them again, but I don't think I could take too many more periods like this. I couldn't leave the house!

I am just so emotional today. I know hormones are playing a big part of that, but I am just crying right now. It is my mom's birthday and I don't feel up to going to see her. Hubby is helping them today, but he hurt his back (he suffers from back problems) while doing some landscaping this weekend. He is in a lot of pain, but was still willing to help my dad today. Dad has to have all these test run today because he still cannot urinate and the docs are going to train him and my mom to put a catheter in. They will be at urologist for 3 hours. So thinking about my mom having a lousy birthday, poor dad, hubby in pain and my migraine and frustration with everything just has me all weepy. I usually handle things much better than I am today. I am sure this awful period and the dizziness and night sweats caused this migraine and all this emotional mess. Sometimes I don't enjoy being a girl!!

I know I need to get back in to see the doc, but I just don't know when! Between the daycare, helping my folks on Weds. and Sats. (docs don't work Sat. around here anyway) helping out my 85 year old MIL, it is so hard to fit in an appointment for me! The whole time I didn't get a period, almost 6 mos., I really felt good and had no real peri-menopause or menopause symptoms. Just an occasional "flushing" not even a real hot flash. I hoped to be one of the lucky ones where the "changing" process was not too bad. Maybe this won't happen again for awhile.

Ah, the joys of being a woman. I am fully past menopause now, and have been for about five years. It took about three years of weird periods...light ones every two weeks for a while, huge heavy flooding ones, none, more flooding. I did not get night sweats, but did get day sweats...soaked in 5 minutes. Birth control pills gave me migraines, back in college, so I was reluctant to get hormone therapy. I finally did for just six months..low dose. It helped with the sweating. When I weaned myself off them I started getting night sweats, but they mostly happened when I was taking some other sort of medication...Theraflu, anti-histamines, and most especially anti-depressants (Prozac, and by far the worst, Effexor). I did not get migraines, thank god, during the whole time. Now I am only on anti-histamines (over the counter) at bedtime. Aside from the fact that anti-histamines keep me overweight, I am fine.

Oh yeah, I did get the freezing thing at night, much like what Austin describes.

I went to a doctor (now retired, alas) who was really into blood tests...and did an anlysis of many more aspects than the regular ob/gyn did. He was the one that discovered that I was so overloaded with eosiniphils (evidence of allergies) he was amazed I was functioning at all. I turned out to have super high FSH, though I forget what that means.

Here is a great place with many articles about Menopause
http://www.womentowomen.com/menopause/index.asp

Things that are fabulous about being post-menopausal (of course you may not consider these things fabulous):
I am not nearly as susceptible to finding myself ragingly attracted to men for no good reason. (This is the major one)
I save money only keeping one box of tampax and one of pads for friends. I have had that same box now for five years.
I smell better.

Thanks so much Frazz!! Glad you are through with it all! I went thru that light periods every couple weeks just like you did before I went the 6 months without one. Than this one hit like a hurricane! I never had the day sweats and last night was the first night sweat. I wonder how often it will happen? I had a wonderful female gyno who moved out of state 2 years ago to be with her daughter and grandchildren who relocated. I loved her and was so upset she left and I have not gotten another doctor. As long as all was great with me the last two years I just didn't bother. Right before she left I had a pap and a mammogram and all was fine. I know I have been a bad girl not getting another gyno and going two years with no tests. I really need to take better care of myself since I am responsible for so many other people right now. Perhaps the stress got to me this month.

Thanks for the link to the site Frazz. I will be reading it tonight!

FC, I'm not menopausal, but I do have some wacky stuff going on with my hormones. I have androgenic alopecia (aka-male pattern baldness - no, I'm not bald, just VERY VERY VERY thin hair) and had such horrendous periods when I was young, that it would incapacitate me from morning till night, puking my guts up. Plus, really really heavy. Like, where I'd feel woozy (still have this sometimes now). My friend, who had light periods, had to come to me for advice recently. She felt lightheaded while we were out shopping. The voice of experience, I ordered her to get orange juice. So, I feel I can speak from some sort of experience here.

You might consider some herbal treatments. Maybe vitamins especially for women. It certainly couldn't hurt, right? If it doesn't work, at least you don't have to wean yourself off of drugs.

Just a thought.

Thanks GE! I appreciate all input from everybody! Sorry you have had it so rough. My mom lost a lot of hair during menopause - a LOT! Makes me worry

I have been taking some vits with iron this week. I think I will but some of those vits made just for women going thru menopause and see how that goes.

Ok, I am well into the perimenopause deal myself. Irregular but light periods, (one every 3-5 months now) then the night sweats stated about 3-4 years ago (not really sweats per se, just got hot and clammy and had to throw covers off) and it interfered with my sleep. Then came the hot flashes that came every hour or so all day long and left me feeling like I wanted to crawl out of my own body.

I got on very low dose hormones almost 2 years ago and feel like a 20 year old most of the time... I will stay on them as long as I need to. For me, it helped keep me sane and doing all the things I need and love to do.

I feel for you FC! You are not alone though...

I think I'm not quite there yet. I do think I've begun the perimenopausal cycle. Ever since I had an ovary removed about five years ago, nothing has worked quite the same as it did before. I had a bunch of ovarian cysts and they removed the whole thing. My periods were very much lighter after that, and often they did not come at all. It's one of the reasons why I was surprised to find myself three months pregnant with my youngest child - we were still using condoms (birth control pills made me sick) and I could no longer count on regular periods. After his birth, I got my tubes tied, and I've had very light, sporadic periods ever since. I wonder if this means I'll avoid some of the flooding when menopause does happen?

After I gave birth to my youngest, my weight exploded. I'd been effortlessly thin my entire life, but a pregnancy at forty really did me in. I'm 30 pounds overweight now - one of the reasons why my husband and I are working out at the YMCA three or four times a week now. I don't think I've lost much weight, but I feel better. It's become a full-family activity.

Luca, I am glad you found something that works so well for you! Oh, to feel 20 again!

Abrahammy, that is so cool that hubby and you are working out and made it a family activity!

Thanks everybody for sharing your experiences with me! You've all helped a lot

Abrahammy, I wonder if the flooding thing happens if periods were always on the long and heavy side?

Mine have always been on the lighter side and I have not had the flooding deal happen, just a rather heavy first day every now and again.

I will not miss periods- that is for sure! That is the best thing about this deal!

Alrighty..........been there! I was on hormones, and slowly weaned myself off of them. I just didn't like the risk factor. I was lucky that I had always had light but long periods, so I had no heavy flows. It is so nice not to have periods! That's the bonus for going through hell! The hot flashes weren't too bad, you learn to cope, at least I did. I am experiencing the hair loss, mainly in the front, not real noticeable though except to me. I still occassionally have a brief hot flash, mostly in the evening. The reason I went on hormones to begin with was so that I could sleep and it wasn't from night sweats or anything, I just kept waking up. We'll all get through it!!!!!

I always had heavy periods, but not the flooding I had this time. Scary let me tell ya I got spoiled going 6 mos. without one. So sad when I get one last week. I know I will LOVE not getting them anymore.

Thanks Sky. Good to know you got thru it pretty easily. I mostly sleep fine except I can't sleep more than about six hours. I am wide awake after 6 hours.

Wide-awake after 6 hours? Good morning. I know THAT feeling. Actually I got 6 and 1/2 last night. It's amazing when I sleep 8 hours. I take naps once in a while. On really bad days I drink coffee (I don't do that well with caffeine.)

Interesting discussion.

I can't even imagine 8 hours of sleep! It's been so long since I slept that good.

I had to stop coffee. For about the last year the caffeine was really giving me the shakes. I am fine without it. I don't miss it as much as I thought I would and my teeth are getting whiter

I am getting by on a lot less sleep these days too, but my problem is from not going to bed and being on the internet too much!

Hey, me too Luca....................I get way too little sleep..............it's going to catch up on me at some point.

I was just so exhausted yesterday afternoon, that I laid down about 5 and slept until 7. Then, it was, okay what's for dinner? There were 5 of us here, but nothing was done for dinner until I woke up.

I'm not sure if it's the menopause, the fibromyalgia, or just aging, but I am SO exhausted in the afternoons sometimes.

Wow Austin, I finally looked up fibromyalgia and I am so sorry for what you must be going through. Wish there was a way I could help you

Thanks FC. I was actually relieved when I FINALLY found out what was wrong with me about 5 years ago. I was told that it was probably post-partum depression but I knew it wasn't; I went to a neurologist, but those tests were negative. Finally after listening to exactly what my mom had been saying all these years, (she has it), I realized that her symptoms were very similar to mine.

I took myself to a rheumatologist and, sure enough, that's what I have. I have been almost without symptoms since then mainly because I went on an anti-depressant to help my sleep-cycle. (Lack of good, restorative sleep can exacerbate the pain and other symptoms.) HOWEVER, I find that some of the side effects are really annoying. One probelm is that I can't seem to write when I'm on them.

So, now I've been off about a month and I've been able to do some writing. But now I'm having some trouble sleeping, and the pain is returning. And the extreme tiredness.

I am just not sure if it's ALL fibro related, or if some is from menopause, or from stress, or from actual depression. I am sort of a mess. Now that my mom left (this morning), I am going to try to get back to my regular schedule of exercise and hope that helps with ALL my problems.

Good luck! I hope you get it all under control.

I have no idea if this is menopause, or age related, but the last two nights I had some water retention in my feet and ankles. Not for long. A few hours. It has been really hot the last few days and I spent a lot of yesterday driving my folks tiny Saturn. I don't know if the inactivity had anything to do with it. Scared me though.

Driving around a lot can be so tiring and with the heat, I'm not surprised about the water retention. However, I have high blood pressure (under control with meds) and that was one of the symptoms. I wouldn't worry about it if it just went away though.