The Emotional Rollercoaster of Menopause

[itself]

Hi Gals,

I did a search and did not find any conversation on the emotional rollercoaster of peri/menopause. I'm in full blown peri now, and it's not the hot flashes that are a killer. It's the happy/sad ups and downs that are horrible. To boot the lack of sleep is not helping.

I would love to hear from you all about what you have gone through, how did you treat the emotional part (christmas, sometimes I can cry at the drop of a pin). As a happy go lucky type of gal, this is a really weird thing to be going through.

Thanks for your input!

Lisa

[Tokie]

Oh, so sorry for you - I did have some moodiness, an understanding DH helped alot. The sleep - PHEW! Now that is a problem. I would do the longest, hardest workout that one year before would have me blissfully asleep a minute after my head hit the pillow. In peri-menopause, I would just lay there and wait and wait and wait. It was crazy. Fortunately (?) I was diagnosed with osteoporosis in my hips and put on Fosamax and estradiol to treat it. That was when I was 42. The sleep and moodiness got better right away. Good luck - tokie

[Tokie]

I remembered this am - as I'm trying to wake up for a pre-dawn ride (ugh) that my GF- before I met her 2 yrs ago- had horrible peri-menopause. She couldn't sleep and felt like she was losing her mind and having a nervous breakdown. It was a vicious cycle for her too, feeling mentally out of control, exacerbated further by sleep deprivation. A visit to a new Gyn doctor helped, and she is on estrogen now - and feels back to normal, no mental unstability, and sleeps as well as can be expected for a woman with 3 teenage girls! ; - ). People will demonize you for taking hormone supplements, but sometimes it's necessary. Get in to see your doctor and talk about it. If there is no empathy, find a different doctor! Tokie

[itself]

Tokie,

Thanks for your response. I surprised not more responses yet...I can't be the only one! I'm thinking I might have to resort to hormones, what your GF was experiencing, I feel her pain!

Lisa

[tulip]

I'm 41 and have no signs of any changes yet. Everything is as it always has been, well since I was 14.

[PamNY]

I felt nothing at all during the years before menopause (and nothing during menopause either).

If I were you, I'd give some careful thought to whether your emotional ups and downs are a result of real-life issues that aren't yet in conscious awareness. That has happened to me a lot.

I'm very worried that women are being encouraged to shortchange themselves by focusing too much on hormones.

Pam

[indigoiis]

Yoga helps.
So does cycling.

[Crankin]

I had much more difficulty with PMS, which got worse in peri-menopause. Other than that, I had hot flashes for about 5 years. I never let it bother me and just kept a water bottle on my desk, drank a lot.
Some people say that using bio-identical hormones that are compounded from natural ingredients is a safer route to go than synthetic hormones. You could research that option, too.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I remember about 30 years ago both times I was pregnant I would burst into tears at nothing during the first 6 months. One time I wound up sobbing uncontrollably over an episode of Lassie. It wasn't depression for me, I was happy overall- but I would just burst into tears so easily!
I feel for you. All good advice so far.
I do think it's good to keep all possibilities open in one's mind. I know that I have sometimes been certain about some cause/effect thing that later I found out was not what I thought it was- leading to various good solutions I hadn't anticipated at first.
Good luck to you in finding some relief.

[Aint Doody]

Itself, go to your doctor. I really thought I was about to lose my mind. Mood swings and night sweats were just awful. A few years on hormone replacement did the trick. I weaned myself off and have a few hotflashes, but nothing I can't live with. There is indeed much controversy on hrt, but it saved my life.

[Tuckervill]

Oprah's been doing a few shows about hormones and etc. I like Christiane Northrop's book, The Wisdom of Menopause. Robin McGraw (Dr. Phil's wife) recently wrote a book about it, too (thus the reason for the Oprah episode). You can get some recommendations on Oprah's website. Say what you want about Oprah, I'm a big believer in getting information from many different sources. This source seems to be very pro-woman, pro-being an informed consumer of health care. It's a good perspective.

I also have this book, recommended by my doctor:
Is It Hot In Here? I think it was recommended by her more because it is her friend that wrote it, but still, it's a good basic book about menopause. I also have a book called The Change Before the Change, which I read about 5 years ago, so I can't remember much right now. It as helpful for identifying those early early perimenopausal changes that I might not have noticed otherwise.

Karen

[ccnyc]

Check out power-surge.com a peri/post meno website with a great forum. Lots of info on the main website and lots of real world experience in the forum.

http://www.power-surge.com/php/forums/index.php?
http://www.power-surge.com/

[bmccasland]

I was there in my early 40s, and the lack of sleep does affect your mood. Duh! I thought I could manage it on my own. ".... It's a natural process, our mothers, if they lived this long, survived..." NOT! This was about the same time the article about the side effects of hormone replacement therapy came out in JAMA*, and it just so happens we had a "lunch & learn" workshop on women's health at the office, the day before my annual check up with my OB/Gyn. I told him I flat couldn't cope with the waking up sweating, then waking up freezing 3 or 4 times a night. I could deal with the hot flashes during the day, but the nights I couldn't deal with, and be functional during the day. So we discussed the JAMA arcticle, the broad spectrum drug that the study used, and the more narrow HRT one he wound up putting me on, for 5 years. Well Hurricane Katrina came through, and chased off my old Doc - and year five was 2008. Last year New Doc (former doc's partner) put me on a 1/2 dose for a year, as I'd tried to go off on my own a time or two with a repeat symptoms. Her perspective is a bit different than his, quality of life, or rather being able to function at work is important, and with regular medical check ups the other risks (heart attack, stroke, cancer) were statistically very low in the study - so HRT is safe. But it is not long term therapy. So in a few months I'll have my annual check up and we'll see what she recommends - continue on the low dose daily, or every other day, or something. I suppose the final decision is up to me.

So, in short, I've been on HRT, FEMHRT to be specific for 6 years (5 yrs regular dose, and 1 yr low dose), and feel fine. No hot flashes, no night sweats. Am functional, or at least pass for normal

I should also mention I was eating right, getting regular exercise (better than now), and having trouble. So I tried all the non-Rx things I could before I got an appointment with my doc. With my family history of breast cancer, I didn't want to rush into anything. But he's the one that went to medical school. I miss my old Doc. Sigh. Damn storm.

*Journal of the American Medical Association

[Irulan]

I had much more difficulty with PMS, which got worse in peri-menopause. Other than that, I had hot flashes for about 5 years. I never let it bother me and just kept a water bottle on my desk, drank a lot.
Some people say that using bio-identical hormones that are compounded from natural ingredients is a safer route to go than synthetic hormones. You could research that option, too.

I'll ditto this. Bio-identical progesterone works for me. NOT Estrogen. I'd recommend reading "what your doctor won't tell you about periminopause" by Dr John Lee.

[malkin]

I've been rotating through the symptoms for years, crazy for a while, night sweats for a while, a hot flash now and then, erratic and sometimes excessive bleeding for a while.

The craziest moment was when I had laundered the bathroom towels and forgotten about them. I called DH at work and screamed at him because the hand towels were missing. Now we can laugh about 'hand towel moments' but at the time it was far from funny.