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| |  "The Change"
That was what my mother's generation called it, that wonderful time in a woman's life when her hormones start heading for the exit and the body she's depended on for forty or fifty years suddenly behaves like a total stranger.
I like the diminishing periods, and most especially the emotional and spiritual growth I've experienced in the past couple of years. But this body......well, I don't recognize the middle-aged woman in the mirror, and I can't figure out how I can be freezing from the neck down and on fire from the neck up at the same time. The area under my breasts is perpetually sore and itchy. My legs sweat. My dreams have turned bizarre on me. I never know when my bladder will let loose. My libido.......what's that? And of course, one always feels SO attractive when she's waking up approximately 2,793 times a night to pee, change nightgowns, flap the bedclothes or turn the pillow over.
So, what are some of YOUR experiences with menopause? What age were you when it started, and how did you deal with it? Any and all replies will be appreciated, unless of course you're a man like Archie Bunker who tells Edith, "So CHANGE, already!!"
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| | No. 1 | 
Aug 31, 2003, 03:51 AM
you are scaring the @#$% out of me..................
| | No. 2 |
Aug 31, 2003, 05:29 AM
While I had a TAH when I was 42, I have recently stopped taking my Premarin (the 20 pounds I put on were a deciding factor). I'll be at work and fanning myself while everyone else is freezing and as far as Libido goes...well, I'm still trying to find out what shelf I put it on!!! LOL!
I'm curious to see what happens now since I'm in my last year of school. Hopefully my memory won't end up on the same shelf that my libido is....now where was that again??????
| | No. 3 |
Aug 31, 2003, 05:38 AM
I had a total hyst almost 5 years ago. I have night sweats but am on estratest to boost my libido and stop the flashes. What libido? LOL. Everyone I talked to that had the procedure done said they felt less inhibited after the procedure and your sex drive went up. WELL I was not that fortunate. Mine did a nosedive never to be seen again. I can say I feel much better more at peace with myself but find I sometimes have little patience for things. Sometimes I have endless patience sometimes I have little. Hubby laughs at me as during the night I am either naked with the fan blowing on me or covered in quilts LOL.
renerian
| | No. 4 |
Aug 31, 2003, 08:20 AM
soooo....how long does it take for this to end??????? My doc told me I was premenapausal at 38.............turned out to be thyroid problem Ha-ha..........now I am 48 did the hot flases about 2 years ago periods now are coming when they want to between 20 and 28 days and lasting for 3 or 4 days................I want it to be finished...........soon
| | No. 5 |
Aug 31, 2003, 08:36 AM
My sister said hers lasted one year or less. Me I am going on almost 5 years. Our family went through menopause in their 40s. Periods stopped in late fourties. I don't miss that. I think the libido and sleep disturbances bother me the most.
renerian
| | No. 6 |
Aug 31, 2003, 08:50 AM
My libidao unfortunatley has gone the other way, it's my spouse's who has dissappeared.............what a bummer. Sleep disturbances really stink...I am starting my first noc shift tonight.
| | No. 7 |
Aug 31, 2003, 01:47 PM
Yeah, disturbed sleep is probably the worst part of all this. I took an Ativan last night and got the first good night's sleep in almost a week; of course, I use it only 2-3 times a week because I'm terrified of becoming dependent on it. I just take it when I've had several bad nights in a row and can't stand it any longer. Why it seems to help with the hot flashes is beyond me; my sister said Valium did the same for her when she was going through this, and we all know there aren't any hormones in tranquilizers! But the fact is, it DOES reduce the night sweats, and getting a full 6-7 hours' sleep is such a blessing.
| | No. 8 |
Aug 31, 2003, 02:13 PM
MJLRN97,
I dig your signature line.
Anyway, about "The Change"-
I'm only 38, but it has started. I've never had any surgery.
Hot flashes all day long, sleeplessness, fatigue, moodiness, cravings for sugar and carbs.
I can identify with flipping the pillow over and over, and kicking off the covers!
I have the AC on so high, my poor dh is freezing.
| | No. 9 |
Aug 31, 2003, 02:40 PM
My OB-GYN says it's far from impossible to start perimenopause in the late 30s, so don't think it's unusual.......I had a few inklings of what was to come as far back as my early 30s, but didn't go into full-blown perimenopause until the early 40s. My mother and sister also started around the same age, and family history does tend to predict approximately when an individual woman will begin to experience symptoms. Still, I'd been having hot flashes and night sweats for a couple of months before I put two and two together; I was totally unprepared for it to be "the Change", and it just blew me away when a co-worker pointed out what was obvious to everyone else as I was leaning over a desk fan on full blast in the middle of winter.
I think what bothers me most, other than the lack of quality sleep, is the fact that MOST menopausal women are in their 50s and I have more in common with them than I do with most women my age. Yesterday I was at a clothing party with my sister and her friends, all of whom are in their late-late 40s and 50s, and I looked around at all these neck wattles and wrinkles and pooching bellies and saggy knees, and I realized OMG, I look just like 'em!! What's worse, I UNDERSTAND them!! ARRRGGH!!
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