Anyone think this is true?
Psychological symptoms of menopause
Studies indicate that many cases of depression, for example, relate more to personal circumstances than to the menopause itself. Studies have also indicated that women who are generally happy with their lives experience fewer problems during menopause.
I'd say i was normal woman, bit fed up at times with husband, children etc but I'd say I was generally happy with life, then this hell has happened!
I have an amazing life then thrust into hell it's a copout because they don't understand it or the symptoms
Hi liz
i totally agree, not had a bad life, usual divorce, kids, deaths and coped I think, I have mainly been a party animal.
as soon as I hit puberty the problems started, hot sweats every two weeks panic and anxiety, and it's carried on all the way through my life, now meno 3 years ish, it's all returned but doubled problems, depression anxiety illnesses, prolapses, incontinence, you name it I have had it and still do, my mental status is awful, panic anxiety insomnia fatigue paranoid.
so I think the answer to your question is yes, I do think meno causes lots of problems, women many years ago used to get electric shock treatment, I have heard of women wanting to commit suicide, me being one of them.
We will get through this nightmare one day.
I just can't understand how one month I can be OK then next I'm mad!
Trying to keep smiling but its hard eh!
Hi
Yeah its terrible! I think I was naive when it comes to menopause. I thought, irregular periods for a few years, hot flushes, night sweats. NOT the anxiety, dizzy and depression.
My life has stopped, I'm constantly thinking, how do I feel now!!
We will get through it, keep smiling!
Hi Liz - I am going through this at the moment and I definitely think the menopause causes these symptoms!
Omg, it's menopause, menopause, menopause and being female. I think this is part of the problem, research done by men about women! Or done by women who don't want to reveal their real feelings. I really believe if men menstruated the whole world would be more knowledgable on Hormones. We are all scurrying around trying to understand and live with these changes that have happened since time began. You'd think that menopause had just been invented from the lack of understanding towards it, even from female GPs and after all this time all we are offered is HRT and they have no idea about that. We should never be given HRT until it's known the hormones that need replacing but countless women are prescribed it, just like antibiotics, without question. Sisters we know more than many doctors. sorry about the rant, it's over now as I slide my sweaty, bloated, anxious self back into the shadows
It's hit me like a head on bus crash I've gone from being confident and happy to being a complete misery who lacks motivation/focus and is hell bent on destroying the relationship I'm in because I'm desperate to be on my own.
Hi Liz,
I read some similar research from last year (might have been the same study) and was highly sceptical. It's just too simplistic and ignores centuries of women's (often untold) experience of the links between menopause and mental health.
I had the usual problems life brings before all of this started, we all have are ups and downs, but I felt I could cope and manage. I'd have good days and bad but overall life didn't overwhelm me. I generally felt confident and able to be enthusiastic and engaged with new ideas, plans and projects. It felt really good to be alive a lot of the time.
That all changed about a year ago when (coincidentally??!) my periods started becoming irregular. All of a sudden I had an increasing list of new (peri) physical symptoms but also an increasing fatigue and sense of dread and anxiety that developed into a full blown panic disorder and depression towards the end of last year.
I am still struggling and all I can say is it feels like something physical is causing all of this and I strongly feel it is the hormones. No matter how much I reason with myself and what anti-depressive measures I force myself to put into place (exercise, diet, mindfulness etc. etc.) I can't quite get on top of it, it just seems to crash over me like a wave sometimes and has knocked me for six. I'm always bursting into tears. I have this awful sense of my life being over somehow, like it's all ending, a felling of intense doom and gloom. And it makes absolutely no sense because I have an eleven year old daughter who is my world and before all this happened I still had goals in life and things I could get excited about. Every day I want to wake up and just feel like I did before my world was turned upside down, before I woke up each day in a panic and like you say, Liz, constantly asking myself "How am I feeling now?"
Does anyone else get that awful bleak feeling, like it just feels hard to contemplate each day, that all pleasure/peace of mind has gone? I'm sorry to be on such a downer but I just want to be rid of this feeling.
I to was a confident person and very independent until about two years ago...It was like somebody else took over my body and mind..anxiety no self worth and just felt ill...Things are better now that i understand whats goin on but still have really really bad days and its like im out of body and watching myself do things from a far...very strage feelin and those days its like your in your own dream..the worse for me is not being able to drive far...i just dont want to be driving and start feeling bad and hurt someone else since i can feel fine and bam feel like crud that fast....just one day at a time like my grandpa always said!!!!Hope all you ladies feel better soon....
Hi Ruthie
I am exactly the same - have a happy marriage, lovely kids, one new grandchild and for the last few months all I can think about is me - how I'm feeling - all day long! I know I need to change my thought process but it's so damn hard! Am starting clinical hypnotherapy this week and hope it helps xx
Know what you mean, I,m constantly obsessed with health anxiety 24/7, what if this what if that, and yes its very hard indeed, bloating, dizziness, severe fatigue, wobbly, uuuuggghh the list goes on ( surgical menopause ), always looking in mirror at my haggared body and face thinking what happened to me, sad x
All I can say is I am not one to suffer from depression yet over the past few years I have felt incredibly down and tearful some days for no reason that I could think of, then the next day I would have my period and be fine, so, no, I don't think it is all in our minds but caused by a condition called menopause.
Oh ruthie I feel for you. I feel I am always thinking or talking about how I feel or don't feel!! Iv been on so many websites reading stuff about it all searching for that one thing that will make all this hell stop!!
This forum does help and us ladies take whatever help we can at these times.
I don't know what the answers are I wish I did. I'm doubting my life before all this niw, is there an underlying problem that I had that is an issue and I was ignoring it? How come in January I could work but February I couldn't cope??
Should I be taking anti depressant and now contemplating HRT?
Ooohhhhhh!!!!!grrrrrrrr
Ruthie I am sending you a lie and hug, good luck x
Wow everyone I feel like you are all following me and writing a book! Although it is nice knowing we as individuals are not alone, it's scary knowing we may face up to 14 years of feeling like a psycho lol. I too have 2 wonderful supportive children and a gorgeous 4 month grandaughter (sure I'm being stalked), but as I also have fibromyalgia and cfs I never can work out which symptoms are hormonal and which are due to fibro as all the same to me!
Hi everyone,
I was absolutely fine until the Menopause started. Always been a rock for my family , as others have said , coped with death, heal t h scares of loved ones , etc
Def. Menopause , dam thing š
hi.
i had this feeling years ago and it turned out my thyroid was unseractive, have you had it tested? i used to feel if the house went on fire i wouldnt get out of the chair, i put on weight and cried all the time, as soon as i got thyroid meds i felt 100% better. its just a simple blood test, but makes a huge difference.
Going by that way of thinking I should be suicidal then ! -
I was -
1) Bleeding every day for 18 months (fibroids) (heavy - going through a large maternity pad in minutes
2) Had Full hysterectomy due to complications
3) Had and still have very active Meniere's disease with vertigo, deafness and tinnitus.
4) Mum bed ridden for 9 years with leukaemia and dementia, then passing away.
5) Dad struggling to cope with mum, then he was diagnosed with colon cancer which had spread to liver. He died 3 months after diagnosis.
6) Having to wait 9 months to get "Deputyship" of mum's affairs so I could pay her care bills, dad's funeral and household needs.
7) Having to fight for social services to clean my mum properly - times they left her with motions in place - I saw them, the images are etched in my mind.
8) Doctors not listening to my pleas for help
9) Having to move my mum from a BUPA care home as they had broken my mum's hip - she was paralised - the only thing she could move was her left hand - not enough to hold anything. (her bone density was quite good so I dread to think how it happened)
10) seeing my mum for the first time when dad and I got her home from hospital - she weighed 4 and a half stones !
I could go on
I'm not depressed ( I have seen two psychologists) I'm just angry with certain people on this planet.
In fact I've found that I'm much more forcefull now and not afraid of anything, even though I am now disabled and cannot do the things I would like to.
Oh and my mum went through a bad menopause, but was really happy with dad and had no other worries until her leukaemia came along
I have been suffering terribly with the menopause, it's hard to express how awful I have been feeling over the past two years. I was a really confident, happy and busy person. Now i'm so low and tired all of the time, really lack confidence and am a completely different person than I was before starting the menopause. I live in Hampshire UK, my GP surgery are not at all interested in menopause and would not even take my hormone bloods to see if it was the menopause making me feel so bad. The surgery is run mainly by men, maybe this is why there is little interest. I ended up paying out of my own pocket and have spent a fortune to see a hormone specialist. After paying for the blood test, it was found that my Estrogen and Testosterone (females need this too) levels were really really low, my Estrogen levels were so low, they were practically non existent. Now getting treatment and starting to feel better, but not quite there yet. None of my friends or family suffered with the menopause, they have all gone through it or are going through it with very few symptoms, so they don't really understand how I have been feeling. I am appalled with my GP surgeries attitude towards menopausal women and even now, although I have paid for treatment myself, they will still not entertain helping me through the menopause. I have heard that GP surgeries dedicate funds for certain condition and often menopause is at the bottom of the list. Obviously my surgery have not dedicated a single penny to menopausal women. It does make me laugh, the surgery seems to focus on dedicating fund to things that benefit them and make money for them. They also give people accupuncture for free, but cannot help women who are feeling so low that they feel suicidal.
What are us women going to do?
Hi Ruthie49
I have the same feelings I have two girls 14 and 11 and in the last year I've had myself dead more times than enough. I have everything to live for and sometimes the overwhelming sense of doom is unbearable. I try to concentrate on other things to take my mind off it, my simplest one is to blast my music and try to just let it take over my head. I was a completely healthy 42 year old and then bam my periods went crazy and I started with aching ribs, stomach pains, emotional outbursts, temper swings, hot all the time, greasy hair, etc. Doctors (including a female gp and nurse) wouldn't entertain peri because I was too young I've had all sorts of bloods and ultrasounds and everything other than vitamin d is normal. I just get so confused as my symptoms change daily and I don't know what to take (naturally ) to help. Eventually they said I was peri as fsh level of 16 but didn't offer me any support or guidance so I'm winging it with the advice of the wonderful ladies on here and the laughter and support of my gorgeous friends. I hope you feel better soon, it's definitely a tough journey.