Sadly I know this is just the beginning.
There are women out there that have far worse symptoms than I have. I have a co-worker who's a year younger than I am and hasn't had a period in 8 months. So close and yet so far. I'm SO jealous. But she has hot flashes. She started an estrogen cream about a month ago and "Bye, Bye hot flashes."
None for me so far. I actually get the random cold flash. I've had them on and off for a few years. These seem to time in with ovulation so I call them "hormone surges." I haven't had one in months and suddenly had one last week. SM came home to find me bundled up in the lazy boy, nauseated and shivering.
"You OK?" He asks, kissing my forehead.
"No. I'm having one of my cold episodes and I've got this weird pain down here." (indicating my lower right abdomen.)
"Well...we know it's not your appendix." SM says cheerfully. (Emergency appendectomy in 2010.)
"No." I agreed. "I don't think it's a kidney stone either. No fever." I sigh. " Believe it or not I think I'm ovulating. Wanna make a baby?" I joke.
SM takes a step away from me like I'm a bomb that's about to go off. "HELL NO!" He says shaking his head, no doubt wondering if there's someplace else he can go to get away from me.
"I just hope it's not a cyst." I say more to myself than to him. Sure enough the pinch went away after about a day and I felt fine the next day.
A few days after that the boobs start hurting. Yep. Hormone surge indeed. SM came up behind me and draped an arm over my shoulder. I shrug him off in seconds feeling myself start to snarl like a caged tiger.
I apologize immediately and back off knowing that I didn't want to hurt his feelings.
A few days ago the HVAC system in the medical building where I work went on the fritz. The temperature in the building got hotter and hotter. Patients are hot and tempers are short. The Dr I work with made a heat induced comment that had me giving attitude back. We paused. She says "You know I didn't mean..." and I waved my hand off with a "You know I didn't mean it either..." Thank God we've worked together long enough to able to know these moments happen and forgiveness is easy. Same thing applies to SM. Thank God he's the sort of man who can roll with the punches.
I'm getting smacked around a bit this month by my hormones. Sigh. I sure wish we could wrap this crap up. I'm getting SO tired of dealing with ME.
Oh you poor thing! I was lucky and really didn't have many symptoms at all....just an occasional hot flash once in a great while. I stopped nearly two years ago and then had a surprise this past September. The thing that gets me is the weight gain. I think that is finally stablizing and maybe I can loose a good 10 lbs now.
ReplyDeleteTami - A couple of years ago I had a visit to my gynaeocologist in June. In December that year I had severe stomach pain that was not going away, and on the 28th December I couldn't take it anymore, and visited my GP. He discovered a 3kg "tumour" on my right ovary, which necessitated an emergency compete hysterectomy (including the lymph nodes in my groin). Thankfully, it was benign. But it did induce immediate menopause (I had been peri-menopausal before).
ReplyDeleteI have done nothing apart from taking a soya phytoestrogen supplement for about a year and a half prior to the "tumour".
BUT, I do take a calcium supplement (with added Vit K & D) and I don't eat red meat (haven't for about 20+ years). I try and get whatever exercise I can (although my work and this dang blogging is not helping LOL) I do enjoy a glass or two of wine in the evenings, and watch my diet (low saturate fat / egg consumption, and lots of fresh veg and fruit).
Suggest you speak to the Dr you work with, and see if she can advise you re: HRT / suggest relevant test(s) to determine your current menopausal status.
And I have found that walking 2 - 4 kms 2 - 5 times a week, with my MP3 player firmly plugged into my ears, helps my moods immensely! Nothing like "me-time", listening to my favourite music (even 'gasp' singing along) and getting exercise simultaneously, to lift the spirits LOL
Good luck to you. I'm in year ELEVEN of hot flashes/night sweats/ and general all-around crankiness from all that and prickly,itchy skin. Sigh. I never thought I'd look forward to OLD AGE , but bring it on! It would be a relief!
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain! I had 11 months period free, thought I was THERE (yay), then started hemmorrhaging. Finally gave up after a non-stop month, and went to the doctor. Nothing stopped it but taking progesterone, and my gyn says you can't tell when you've hit menopause when you're taking the progesterone. Boo, hiss. Ah well, at least the hormones fixed it. Guess I'll just take them until I'm about 70...
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