I’m starting to exhibit a few preliminary menopause symptoms, specifically, palpitations and irregular heartbeats (at least, I hope it’s menopause - I’ll find out the EKG results shortly) and insomnia. At any rate, I wanted to chat and commiserate with a few other 50-ish women IRL about this. Here are the results of these conversations:
Co-worker 1: I asked her opinion about the recent controversy over HRT’s, and she said it didn’t affect her, as she never put anything unnatural into her body. I pointed out that HRT wasn’t unnatural in the sense that it was a dangerous chemical or anything, but there was some question lately as to whether the treatment was safe. She then proceeded to give me a lecture about herbs and natural foods that I should be consuming. I’m an old hippie, too, but her whole-earth spiel was not what I was looking for.
Co-worker 2: She advised acupuncture to “cure” the palpitations, and then a “toxic cleansing” to rid my body of impurities, as that had worked for her. Mmmm, yeah, whatever.
EKG ultrasound technician: Wanted to engage me in a debate about how menopause is a “spiritual journey” and that vitamin A would cure my insomnia. I kind of hoped for better from a medically trained individual.
Dopers, please, I look to you for a few sensible, facts-based remarks regarding the onset of menopause. It’s not that I haven’t googled up info about the condition myself, but I need reassurance that everyone isn’t duped by alternative medicine claims and glurginess.
Menopause was easy for me, but I still got lots of advice about “natural” products to easy the symptoms. I tried a couple of them but didn’t notice any effects, good or bad.
The most common complaint seems to be hot flashes. What worked for me was dressing in loose layers and wearing cotton. If I broke into a sweat, I could take something off and it helped.
I did take PremPro for a year or so, but stopped when the reports came out about increased risk for stroke, etc. (I know now that I could have asked for a lower dose.)
I hope your EKG comes back okay, and that your “journey” (snort) is as trouble-free as mine was.
I’m still in the early stages – my period is getting really erratic, and I haven’t had my first hot flash yet – so no advice, but I’ll be reading the thread with interest.
Re: diet vs. chemicals – I hear soy is a good source of natural estrogen. I’ve got breast cancer in my family history (my sister had it 12 years ago – and now eats a lot of soy …), so probably will not be taking estrogen supplements.
I doubt I’ll do HRT either, as breast cancer runs down my maternal line. I’m not there yet (soon, I’m sure), but my mom’s just finished the worst of hers, and my MIL, mom and friend all recommend evening primrose oil and black cohosh as herbal supplements to help with some of the symptoms (hotflashes, insomnia, etc.) for those who can’t or don’t want to take HRT. I believe these were recommended by at least one of their doctors, too.
I haven’t tried black cohosh, but I don’t have many hot flashes. I do think that evening primrose helps, just to smooth out the emotional swings a bit. Exercise is good, too. I’ve noticed that I have more of a tendency to gain weight around the middle now. I used to just gain all over. I also had two UTI’s in about 6 months–the first I’ve had since I was a teenager–so you might want to watch out for that.
I noticed a few years ago that drinking gave me a racing heart late at night, so I gave up drinking. I noticed a year or two ago that eating a meal that was heavy and/or full of carbs gave me a pounding heart afterwards. A month ago, I consulted my GP about this, and he immediately ordered an EKG. During the month between seeing the doc and having the EKG, I started having irregular heartbeat and/or pounding heartbeat almost around the clock.
Since I’ll be 51 in a few months, I thought I’d check out the symptoms of menopause on the net, and lo and behold, irregular and pounding heartbeat is right up there with the most common symptoms. A further check of the message boards at power-surge.com shows dozens of women checking in with this symptom, and also advising that alcohol, sugar, caffeine, chocolate, carb-y meals, and decongestants can exacerbate it. I cut back drastically on all of the above stuff, and the irregular heartbeat eased off to next to nothing. Ain’t the internet grand?
Well, I’ve yet to experience hot flashes, and I’m still having periods. However, I’m still on BCP, so I haven’t a clue how I’m supposed to tell if my periods are starting to vary. I’m seeing my OB/GYN on Tuesday, and will discuss all this puzzling stuff with him. I hope he doesn’t give me any balderdash about a “spiritual journey”!
I’m an old hippie too, but these damn hot flashes have me fantasizing about confronting my doctor at gunpoint and demanding estrogen*. And maybe something fun like Valium.
There have been a few articles lately about doctors revisiting HRT and noting that it’s less of a risk that they had thought. Unfortunately, I only read the headlines, so I can’t give you specifics.
I hadn’t heard about irregular heartbeat or palpitations being a sign of menopause. Now I’m going to have to stop and think.
OK, I do get little flutters, but they started years before the instant menopause event (hysterectomy) three years ago. Not sure if they’re related. And they go away if I cough. Haven’t had any other symptoms.
I’ve had to give up caffein for other reasons. Now I’m going to have to stop and think about whether the flutters settled down after I did that. They may have. If caffein is part of your diet, you may want to try going without and see if it changes anything. How I reacted to it changed as I got older.
51, and I’m done. I still have palpitations some times at night, but no hot flashes anymore, thankfully. I used to walk around in a sun dress in February. Here’s my advice on hot flashes: move to Arizona. You’ll never know if it’s a hot flash, or just business as usual.
[anecdotal stuff]My spiritual journey included Paxil, which kept me from murdering all my near and dear. I don’t really recommend it, though. It was horrible to get off of.[/not medical advice]
I watched a show on PBS recently about menopause with Dr. Christiane Northrup, and it was quite good (she got a little hippy-dippy at times, but mostly she had what sounded like good, medically-based advice). She suggested a “dusting” of hormone therapy; just enough to take the edge off, basically.
One thing I took away from the show that made me feel really reassured was that at the end of it, instead of cycling and getting PMS and feeling miserable for half of each month, I’ll be feeling as good as I do for the first half of my cycle ALL THE TIME!!! I was sort of thinking that it would be the opposite; like having PMS for the rest of my life. That was a load off to learn that, let me tell you.
Vitamin B complex helps me a lot with PMS symptoms - I’d suggest trying that supplement. It’s for stress as well, and it seems like we all have too much stress in our lives even without any hormonal stuff going on.
Is it okay if I join this little group on the question side, rather than the answer side? Because I have two.
First, for those of you who have migraines, did approaching menopause change them any? I don’t get the major headache, but some auras and dizziness and other things. They’ve been much more frequent with the BCP, and even now that I’ve been off of it for a few months.
Also, when your periods started winding down, as it were, did they ease up or did you just miss one sometimes? I’m about two weeks overdue for the first one I’ve missed since my youngest was born.
It started with my skipping one, getting one (so every 8 weeks instead of every 4 weeks) but within a year or so got more sporadic than that. At this point, I can’t keep mental track of when my last period was at all, so when it starts, I mark it on the calendar and think “wow, it’s been X weeks since my last period…” where X is anything between 5 weeks and 17 weeks.
Black cohosh didn’t work for me, either. I went on the patch (which is supposed to be safer than pills because it’s transdermal) for a good 18 months. It saved my life. I was surprised that I had such a hard time with menopause, as I had trauma-free periods for the most part.
My doctor took blood once a week for three weeks to determine the level of hormones in my system. My levels indicated definite menopause. Jeeez…I could have told her that, considering I had one period in a year’s time. That one period also flagged the need for a uterine biopsy, to rule out cancer. If I had it to do over again, I would have had to see more, and erratic bleeding before I’d enter THAT chamber of horrors again. It is one of the most unpleasant (and by unpleasant, I mean FUCKING PAINFUL) procedures I’ve ever had to undergo.
I’ve been off the patch for some time now. I still get palpatations occasionally, and I seem to be getting hot flashes sometimes in the evening again. I’m on antidepressants now, too.
I’m 51 and the real horror ride began at about 48, though they say it takes a full 8 years to run the gauntlet.
As a 32 year old, this is still an academic issue for me, but I just want to ask: so, they give you hormones (single or double, patches or pills or creams) and then what? Do they wean you off gradually? Don’t you just have to deal with the hot flashes, palpitations and all the rest at some later date? Or do you take the hormones forever? Or can they make it such a gradual thing that it really is an easier, more gentle way of menopausing (if I may make a verb of it)?
My own mother had a total hysterectomy and removal of her ovaries when she was in her thirties, and she’s been on a single hormone HRT for 20 years to give her a fairly normal feeling adulthood. Now that she’s really at or beyond menopause age, they’ve been trying to get her off of it for about 10 years now, but she’s having a hell of a time. They lower it, she freaks out, they up it again. I don’t know how she’s ever going to get off completely (assuming, of course, that she should get off completely. I’d hope her doctors wouldn’t keep torturing her if she could safely stay on it forever.) But I know her case isn’t typical, and I just wonder how it works for most women.
Har! Find me some tree-of-life roots. I think I’m still young enough, at 50, to ingest them safely. Then the HELL with this hormonal crap.
As an aside, though, I bet female protectors go through one hell of a menopause if their ovaries shrivel away overnight. You wouldn’t want one of those bitches going all hormonal on you.
Ya know…I couldn’t get a straight answer on this. All I know is I’m still having mild symptoms. But no one can explain the logic to me. I went nutzo because my hormone levels dropped. I went on the patch for a while. Now I’m off. And I’ve still got mild symptoms and had to go on antidepressants. I keep asking my doctors if it goes away, but why would it? I’m still sans hormones, right? No straight answers. I hate them. I hate them all.
Thanks so much for starting this thread. I fear I am peri-menopausal at 46. I’m just starting the much-loved night sweats - urgh.
My periods have been all over the place since my gastric bypass surgery 3 years ago. I was like clockwork even as a morbidly obese woman, but now I can have anywhere from 0 - 4 “periods” a month. I track them, but there is no pattern whatsoever.
I’ve been taking black cohosh for about 30 days with no really remarkable change or improvement. Another side effect of the great weight loss has been that I’m cold all the time, so I bundle up at night and then wake up swimming.
Mine went nuts during the 5 or 6 years of going through menopause. I look at that time as one half-decade-long-ass headache. Now that it’s over, I still get them fairly often, but the 3 day barf-fests are rare and the garden variety migraines aren’t quite as severe.
Don’t go by me, though. My mother’s migraines went away entirely after menopause. Hope your’s do too.
