How many years have you had a period?

[Bad JuJu]

I read somewhere that, on average, women who start earlier also stop later, while those who start later will stop earlier, which makes no sense to me, but seems to have been true in my case. My periods didn't start until I was 13, about 13 1/2 actually, and by the time I was 51, I was done. I'll be 54 next month ( ) and I've been post-menopausal for about 3 years. Jeez, it's nice to be done with that.

I've had a little in the way of hot flashes, mood swings, and sleepless nights, but never anything bad enough for me to consider HRT. But here's the strange thing: I continue to have some symptoms of pms occasionally--maybe every 3 months or so. No blood, but some of the other indicators: headache (which I never get otherwise), mild cramping, fatigue, even mood swings sometimes. My doc says my system's probably still pumping out some residual estrogen now and then. Weird, eh?

I guess some of this is hereditary. According to a maternal aunt, my experience is pretty typical for the women in my family. Can you ask your mom or maybe an aunt?

[sgtiger]

I read somewhere that, on average, women who start earlier also stop later, while those who start later will stop earlier, which makes no sense to me...

EEK! If this is true, mine will be around a while. <sigh> It's bad enough that I started early. At the ripe old age of nine, BTW. And it doesn't help knowing that my maternal grandmother went into menopause late. She wasn't perimenopausal until her very late fifties and it took a couple of years for her menses to stop altogether. When she was pregnant with my mom's youngest sister in her early fifties she thought she was menopausal then. She even went to go see her doc and he didn't bother giving her a pregnancy test because of her age. She didn't realize she was with child until she was six months gone! I just can't believe it took her that long to figure it out when she had experienced it six times before.

[surgtech1956]

I started at 12 1/2 yrs and stopped around 45 yrs old. Never took any hormones. I still have some 'power surges' but they're not that bad. When I first started with the hot flashes, they were bad - bearable, but the worse thing for me is not sleeping well. The last year I'm bad to sleeping like a baby.

[bmccasland]

Original topic.... I started when I was 12 1/2 or 13 - at a Girl Scout camp-out as I recall. Did two 5-yr stints of being on the pill with approximatly 5 yrs off between. Two pregnancies, but no kids. Premenopausal in my early 40's, last period when I was 44.5, am now 47. Have been on HRT for 4 years, and according to my Dr. will be on it for one more year. I requested the HRT due to the hot flashes, night sweats cycles during the night, I just could NOT sleep. Get hot, kick covers off, wake up freezing, pull covers back, rearrange kitties, repeat 4 or 5 times during the night. GIVE ME MEDICATION!!!! I see my Gynocologist next month (3 weeks to get a routine well woman checkup!!!).

Both my grandmothers had early menopause, hard to say about my Mom. She had a hysterectomy when she was in her mid-30, am not sure why (but not Cancer), and nearly died on the table. She did survive the surgery.

(this reads really concise, to the point. and dry. the facts, just the facts...)

[Crankin]

Started at age 11.5 (June 1964) and I had my last one on June 5, 2002, at age 48. I had horrible PMS, mostly physical, my whole life, along with cramps and heavier bleeding the first 2 days. I was on the Pill from age 17 to 25, stopped because of all kinds of weird symptoms. I had 3 pregnancies, two kids in a short time frame, after which the periods got a bit better, until I began having perimenopause symptoms around age 37, getting progressively worse in my early forties. In fact I had a couple of years where i didn't have my period for 3-4 months and felt like i was going to explode. I have exercised my whole adult life, since about 25 and always eaten a healthy diet, and i am not overweight. When I was around 46 I went for almost a year without a period, but then I had them irregularly until the last one at 49. During that time, I did start gaining weight and started cycling because what I was doing was obviously not working.
Didn't ever consider HRT. I had hot flashes on and off for a long time 5-6 years, but nothing I couldn't live with. I just took a drink of cool water from my water bottle at work! A bit of insomnia, but I have always been a poor sleeper. My hot flashes stopped last summer, but i started taking Evista for osteopeinia in January and that has brought them back (but not even as bad as they were before). I am 53 now and I definitely think all of the cycling helped me through some of the perimenopausal stuff. The worst noticeable side effect was the lack of uh, lubrication that was mentioned. It was not lack of desire, so to you younger people, don't think that automatically happens! I now have an E-string, which is like a birth control device that stays in for 3 months at a time and supplies a super low dose of local estrogen to cure the problem. My gyn said that even cancer patients are allowed to use it. Not only did it cure the problem, but it also made cycling a bit easier (I had suspected that part of my seat issues were really physical ones related to menopause). So, I think i have had it fairly easy compared to some and i was frankly, very happy to get rid of my periods. I had to plan my whole life around them for 37 years. I had it for every school dance, vacation, and special occaison I can think of.