I know I’m not yet a “woman of a certain age”, but I got a sneak preview today.
I didn’t experience the full body soaking kind of heat. It was more like the sensation you get when you get really spicy food and your eyes start to water. I felt “flushy” all up and through my face.
And my toes! OMG, the itchiness drove me crazy. Then I started get a strange “creepy crawly” sensation all over my body. I’ve been antsy and restless and (ticcy) all day because of it.
I’m guessing it’s ovulation-related. It’s that time of the month, and a number of sources indicate that some women experience “menopause-like” symptoms right before their eggs squirt out.
Has anyone else experienced these symptoms? And what do you do about that itchiness?! I’m kind of worried that if menopause is anything like what I experienced today, I’m going to be in some trouble ten years from now.
Good news, I had the same things! This could be a problem w/ your thyroid instead of being menopausal. Have you had your TSH levels checked, ever? In my family our thyroid goes nutty leading up to menopause.
We also get (water-filled) breast cysts that show up suddenly and hurt like a mofo (going away at CD1) but those can be prevented by taking evening primrose oil around ovulation/CD14.
In any case, jot down the symptoms you feel and what CD you feel them; this will help whatever medical pro you see narrow things down.
Ah hot flashes. Or energy-surges, depending on what you are doing at the time. I learned to go with the flow and get busy cleaning or reorganizing when they’d hit because I could get really far with any task in a relatively short period of time. Sweat in eyes bites though.
They could be thyroid, peri-menopause, or even something else. They can be a pain.
N.W. I should have checked with you a long time ago. I get those cysts and have never known what to do about them. So what is CD, and CD1?
monstro, I don’t know your age, but peri-menopause can start up to ten years before actual menopause. :eek:
I had my first hot flash when I was 35 years old! It sucked!
A few years back, I told my GYN about all of my menopause symptoms during my annual exam. I was hoping to hear, “You’re far too young!” but instead she looked at my record and said, “Well, you’re a little young, but…” Then she ordered some blood work.
So she put me on HRT, and that takes care of 99% of the problems. I do get the “antsy” and wiggly feeling every so often, usually when I’m trying to go to sleep. rollseyes But I haven’t had a bed-soaking nighttime hot flash since starting HRT, and that alone makes things worth it.
I do get a very occasional mini-hot-flash, but it goes away if I drink a large glass of ice water (which I keep around anyway, because we all need to drink water).
Echoing the idea that it could be thyroid related. I had an episode just like that soon after I had been diagnosed with thyroid deficiency, and was getting my dosage adjusted.
CD1 is the first day of your cycle, the day your period starts.
In women of a certain age (I’m 45 next month) it often coincides w/ ovulation which is typically on cycle day 14.
After I ruled out sudden onset of breast cancer (my cyst showed up in an afternoon), I took ibuprofen and after some reading, evening primrose oil which I already take starting ten days before my period starts for PMDD. This decreased the inflammation and pain. The following month I kept track to see if it appeared the same day and it did (in the same place, same size); ibuprofen and EPO helped again. The third month I started the EPO the morning of cycle day 13 and the cyst never showed its face. That’s been my routine for nearly a year and it hasn’t failed me yet. Yes, I’ve mentioned it to my PMC and they just nodded a bunch.
My mom went through aspirations but never mentioned it until after I told her about mine. Now she’s mad her doc never suggested any other treatment BUT aspiration; I think it’s due to mom being on HRT at the time but who can say?
I’ve been wondering about menopause onset myself. I’ll be 48 in a few weeks. I’ve been on depo for ages - like fifteen years - because my monthly period was such a nightmare and I don’t have a period on depo. But I had one last month and I was surprised by it (fortunately, it was pretty light.) It was probably just a fluke, but I wondered if maybe it was getting about that time for me to think about this.
I desperately don’t want to stop taking depo because having a period makes me so miserably sick - but on the other hand, I’m not really sure what happens with menopause if a person is still taking it? If I stay on depo, does it just put off menopause?
I’m looking forward to menopause being over but I’m dreading the process.
I had my first hot flash around age 44. When they started waking me up every hour, I went on HRT. Greatest thing since sliced bread. Unfortunately 5 years ago I developed DCIS so had to go off HRT. Guess what came baaaaack??? The hot flashes. And I’m 57. So yes, they can go on forever. I’m thankful I don’t get the full body sweats, just hot from the chest up. The funny thing is that my skin doesn’t feel hot when I touch it during a flash. The heat is inside me. I hate hot flashes.
This thread scares me. I HATE feeling too hot, but I am 46 and I know my mom hit menopause at 50. I am already reluctantly on Synthroid and another medication is just too much. I never even used this body for kids or very much sex at all – can’t I escape the rest of it!! :mad:
My friend calls hot flashes “personal summers”. I was thrown into menopause by surgery last year. About a month ago it hit me with a vengeance. This stuff has helped so much. After two weeks I have a few small flashes per day (more like flushes), no night sweats, I’m sleeping a little better and I don’t cry get teary at the smallest thing:
Maybe my experience will make you feel better. My mom had a hysterectomy when she was around 30 which slammed her abruptly into menopause, but the reason I mention it is that also prevented me from ever knowing what my menopause might be like since hers was unnatural. So I toodled along through life until I turned 50 when mine started. Suddenly irregular periods. I’d go two months without, then one month bleeding like a stuck pig, two weeks without, then bleed some more, three months without, another heavy period, etc. The times in between gradually lengthened over the year until they stopped altogether. My hot flashes were just actually warm flashes, nothing I couldn’t tolerate.
I’ve never had kids either, and hated having periods. When my menopause finally happened, I was tempted to throw a menopause party and invite all my friends (I didn’t). But it’s the best thing since prepubescence. I STILL remember when my breasts grew out and I couldn’t sleep on my stomach anymore because of them, and I resented that for years. I always hated waking up on bloody sheets, despite sleeping with tampons, napkins and occasionally both. I do NOT miss the mess or inconvenience!
I’m 37. I know that technically I could be going through the change, but I do think I have some more years to go before that happens.
My hormones sometimes go a little screwy right before ovulation (which started today). I think I have had miniature hot flashes in the past, but nothing like what I had yesterday. And that itchiness! Apparently itchiness is also a sign of a loss of estrogen. I told a coworker about it and she looked at me askance when I said my feet were itchy. She said “I’ve never heard of itchy FEET during menopause.” I didn’t know what she was hinting at until I google-searched “itchiness and menopause”. Usually it’s the vagina that itches. But it’s not unusual for it to happen in other places.
I was thrown into menopause by surgery last year. About a month ago it hit me with a vengeance. This stuff has helped so much. After two weeks I have a few small flashes per day (more like flushes), no night sweats, I’m sleeping a little better and I don’t cry get teary at the smallest thing: