I had an incident last month during which I lost a great deal of blood; very unusual. After running some blood tests my doctor informed me that I’m entering menopause. I’m 43. At any rate that would explain a lot. Guys, it may be funny or a way to vent when you talk about women PMS-ing, but stop for a minute and imagine what it must be like to go month after month bleeding and experiencing mood swings that truly suck to have to deal with.
I’ll be glad when this crap is over with. For now I’m struggling with a lot of emotions, some that are hard to define and others that are obvious. Ladies, how do you deal with the mood swings? I’m usually fairly good natured and calm, but it seems like lately I’m inexplicably angry more and more often.
Right now I’m working 40+ hours a week and taking a double load at school so I can graduate this June, so I know that has a lot to do with it. With that being said, my husband often practically has a target on his back. I know my hormones are shooting all over the place right now, but I really don’t want to go through the next who know how long before things get better.
All of us have good and bad characteristics, and I hate being angry at him for things that are, in the end, nothing that is ever going to change. I think when it comes down to it I miss our daughter (she moved out of state and is doing well) and this house just feels so quiet without her.
Maybe I’m having a mid-life crisis. I should go check out convertables or something.
What seems to be working for me, and is surprising the heck out of me, is drinking soy milk (in the form of Silk chocolate soy, which is the only soy that doesn’t taste like ass to me), and eating black licorice. I’m getting phytoestrogens from both, and it seems to be calming down my mood swings. I’m 44 by the way, and I expect I’m in perimenopause at this point.
given my mood swings and sudden, unprovoked crying at the drop of a hat, my doctor decided mine was due - and then some - for a check-up.
sure enough, i have an under-performing thyroid, which was largely the culprit behind the boo-hooing and a probable side-effect of early meno.
i was in my mid-thirties when it struck, which is early but not unheard-of. the thyroid med keeps it under control and i found that i feel a lot better as a result.
That’s not a thyroid disorder, lack of capitalization starts in the pituitary, overuse of exclamations points is due to an overactive adrenal gland, too many colons are a disorder of the large intestine and overuse of ellipses is a hormonal issue from your ovaries causing too many periods.
I was hoping for someone to snort soda out their nose but that’ll do.
To the OP, I am trying Maca, a South America root that’s supposed to help with some menopausal symptoms. I got it in powder form because I hate taking pills but my plans to make and mix it in breakfast smoothies every day hasn’t quite worked out and it doesn’t just mix in by stirring a drink, it lumps up, so it has to be blenderized. But it does come in capsules. Research it and see if you think it might help your symptoms.
All I can say is “good luck with that.” I’ve been “in menopause” for 8 freaking years now and I still haven’t actually “skipped” a period ( get them every 3 to 6 weeks like a broken clock…except when I took some HRT meds that suppressed the periods ( that one made the mood swings worse, not better).
I dropped all meds for 6 months about 8 months ago to get a baseline and nothing has changed. Words can not describe how sick and tired I am of the emotional effects of menopause.
And I have been to doctors and specialist that poke and prod and biopsy ( if a doctor ever recommends a uternine biospy and tells you it won’t hurt, kick that doctor in the crotch. It wasn’t really painful but it was incredibly tramatic and I curled up in bed, whimpering, for about 3 days afterwards.
All this to get the cheery news that I’m not in full menopause yet. DUH and double duh.
8 freaking years, sometimes I don’t know how I manage to get up in the morning.
The onset of very heavy periods, exacerbated by fibroids, which meant I had them for 5 days every fortnight and became anemic , was solved by a microwave ablation of the uterine lining. I wish I had had that done years ago.
I am now taking Remifemin as suggested by a menopausal female doctor. I am no believer in “alternative” medicine (if it works, then it’s “medicine”) but placebo effect or not my hot flashes are far fewer and the mood swings and night sweats are greatly reduced. You have to persist for a month or two at least in taking it and it does not work for everyone.
Fuck frisky inner organs sideways. I only wish I had thought of a damned hysterectomy when I originally had my tubes tied back in 1984, it would have stopped 20+ years of torment in its tiny uterine tracks.
Soy, black cohosh (which is what Remifemin is) and licorice (watch it with the licorice at large quantities if there’s high blood pressure or kidney disease in your history or family) are the most oft’ consumed herbals for peri/menopausal women these days. I’ve had clients where they helped, and clients where they didn’t, same as HRT.
I would be highly surprised if a hysterectomy helped. If anything, it’s going to throw you into menopause all at once at full speed, rather than the gradual decline of hormones over time which, while it has its drawbacks, is also cardioprotective and a bit gentler of a landing.
I went from full on peri complete with random length periods, ranging from bleeding out in ounces per day down to barely spotting. Believe me, when you can change off from that randomness hell to a nice dependable menopause, it is heavenly. Since mine, I have never gotten that gift of the sensation of someone reaching up an orifice, grabbing a handfull of intestines and slowly twisting while eviscerating me randomly happening [ah the wonders of ‘menstrual cramps are all in your mind’, Fuck you sideways with razor blades dear doctors] No longer the wonders of that flushing blorp of a huge clot slithering out and making ones clothing looks like Jeffery Dahmer has been at work in your panties while you are trying to get your shopping done … As I said, I would have welcomed one way back then if I could have talked my doctor into doing it. [it practically took me kidnapping and torturing my doc to get him to snip me, being a single young unmarried 24 year old ‘are you certain, you might want to have a baby sometime …’:rolleyes::mad:]
