Menopause - news and discussion thread

Oh, and there's no such thing as 'post-menopause' because menopause is forever

Why can't researchers figure out why some women are mildly affected while others suffer for years/forever?

 

Offtopic fun fact: I actually know who Davina McCall is as she was one of the MTV hosts when she was younger and I was just a kid (glued to MTV).

 

My initial symptoms were awful - months of waking every two hours, terrible hot flushes, exhaustion, even achier joints than normal, I felt terrible, and this is from someone with severe ME. The poor sleep and the constant changing of clothes was absolutely exhausting me to the point of tears and I’m not someone who feels like that normally, as well as exacerbating my ME symptoms which was worse.

Luckily my GP at the time was amazing and was happy to go along with my request for HRT. It was a godsend. It took about a month for the symptoms to dissipate but dissipate they did and I’ve been on it for about five years now. It even sorted my hair loss out. I was aware of the risks of HRT, especially being overweight, but I also couldn’t go on dealing with all the physical stuff and I was worried that the continual physical stress (which is major PEM trigger for me) would push me into the very severe category which is something that (obviously) I wanted to avoid at all costs.

So while it can be difficult, if you’re able to take HRT I can highly recommend it. If you can’t, I can also recommend taking sage supplements - they’re great for alleviating hormone-related overheating and sweating. My daughter takes it for the sweats she gets with her period and swears by it - I used to take it for the same reason. I hoped it would be enough to help me cope with the hot flushes and night sweats of peri-menopause and menopause but while it did help a bit, eventually they just got too much for me to cope with and I clearly needed something more.

 

I got a migraine last week which was the first time in 10yrs since menopause started. I got the aura but the headache was very mild.

Before meno I'd have a migraine every 2-3 years and it would last 4hrs.

 

Speaking of migraines, MrDoodle decorated his whole house like this