Why some people call it "The time of your life" i will never know lol. I am 69 and will be 70 in December. I started the time of my life when i was 45, great joy! As i am still having the time of my life. I have been on HRT and that helped a lot. Then i had to come off as i was getting too old to take it. Now i am going back on as i feel so useless, ill, tired, depressed "de da de da" This time it is the real thing, so they tell me, so wish me luck ladies.
Hi Mary
yeah time of life hahaha not time of your life ..😃
sorry your suffering .. HRT only postpones the menopause as boosts and replaces the declining hormones ..
so when HRT is stopped the body has to decline again as it does in a natural peri menopause to post menopause phase.
one reason i would never take HRT ... I am 51 now almost 2 years post menopause .. And its done ... In natural mode.. I couldnt face that again in my older years ... ( personally)
such a shame doctors dont explain while HRT may help some .. When stopped its Bam .. Back to the symptoms that most go to HRT to eliminate.
good luck Mary
jay x
hi mary,
being on hormonal replacement therapy will help you to postpone your menopause and the balance of hormonl amount will be maintained. Once you will free from the hormonal treatment it will have the sympotoms again.
Hi jay
Thanks for all your really useful advice and support on this site. However I feel I must say please be careful when giving your opinion about HRT. Any consultant or expert in the field will tell you that you don't go through peri again when you stop HRT. Yes it is advisable to wean off it but taking HRT does not delay the menopause. I take HRT and truly believe I wouldn't still be here now without it. I know everyone's experience is different but please remember it is just your experience and your opinion.
Once again,I appreciate your support
Anita x
Yes i know that now but no one thought to tell me that back nealy 30 years ago it was just a wonder drug. Ho-Hum
Hi Jay ,Im with you in regards to this HRT .im in a second meno from an illness as you know ,and Im Marys age range .This time around I have IB S as well ,needing to watch everything ,sorry Anita I gave you a heart by mistake pressed the wrong one .meant for Jay .
everything i've read by doctors and research agrees with you. i am trying to do this with diet, exercise and relaxation. i'm 52 and still bleeding fairly regularly; just started to get closer together and heavy and light...weird. i'm going in to see about a hysterectomy because my gyn is 99% certain that i have adenomyosis, so my painful bleeding days are numbered, TG!
my friend was on hrt for years, went off and had to go back on because the symptoms came right back. she is at the age where they recommend you go off - 60 - but i don't know if she'll be able to handle the symptoms again; she doesn't do relaxation very well. she didn't know that it's only recommended for 5 years either.
Hi jayneejay, I guess you never read my posts because you keep perpetuating the myth that we have to go off hrt at some time and go through it all at a later age. As you have never experienced using hrt, then you cannot report on it. You are only repeating mythology.
As I keep saying I have been on it for 25 years, am now 64, and I am never going off it. Don't have to. I have had times when a prolatinoma made my oestrogen ineffective for 6 years and I suffered terribly because of drs incompetence and ignorance (until a different dr thought of sending me to an endocrinologist), and again just recently when an oestrogen pellet was not implanted in a pad of fat so did not work. It takes a while to realise that what is happening to me is menopause, because I have haemochromatosis and it can cause the same symptoms.
So all the women who are forcing themselves to suffer terrible, mentally and physically, and relationship wise - stop it. Your whole body and wellbeing will be healthier. Educate yourselves on the real facts of HRT and go for it. Get another dr if your current one is not sympathetic.
not every woman will experience the multi problems that you are, and i'm sorry you do; i HATE feeling sick. i am hoping that i will have a bearable transition and not have to do HRT; but if i do, then so be it; but so far, so good. i think the diet, exercise and relaxation is helping... by no means am i suffering "terrible, mentally and physically" at the moment. I am hoping it stays that way and to be that part of the group that sails through. like i said, if it doesn't work that way, then HRT for me. "suffering" is subjective.
I based my words on the posts on this whole forum by the many, many women who describe their sufferings, not mine. If you read some, you will know what I mean. They are painful to read and one wonders why they are putting themselves through this for years and years. There is no reward at the end - only subsequent bad health, and a good possibility of broken relationships. You can also read of the pain of the husbands whose wives' personalities have completely changed and the marriage is too horrendous to continue.
No, not everyone has a hard time and will transition easily, including some friends of mine (and they just don't understand what the rest of the women are going through). It is all about the difference in the makeup of bodies. But there are lots of women who have a terrible time and it never stops, as per previous posts on the menopause forum.
You cannot have read every research by drs etc, and come up with that conclusion. There are leading and well known drs who say and write books about it very differently. Old research has been exposed and admitted to by those who did this research as flawed. I guess people only find what they want to find. Then there are the constant reports that new research has found it to be bad, quickly followed by more research that says differently again. You really have to look at the detail of that research, and how they carried it out and not just look at some broad outcome.
However, it seems that a lot of drs are only prescribing oral oestrogen which is problematic. Ask for bio-identical oestrodiol in the form of implant pellets, patches and daily gels. That is why we need to take responsibility and educate ourselves.
Good luck to you for an easy transition, and I am glad you are open to HRT if you don't, but please don't wait too long. Delays are problematic too. It is best for your body to have a more smoother transition to HRT instead of waiting till your body is completely bereft of oestrogen.
yes ma'am i've read here how miserable some women are... i came to this page thinking i was in misery... my case pales in comparison to most. i am also diagnosed with hypothyroidism which mimics menopause; i've recently had an ulcer discovered. because of ALL of these issues cropping up and being worsened one by the other in february, i came searching and found this page. because i found this page i've gotten more information and done more research for information than my doctors ever gave to me or suggested in the 17 years since hypothyroid diagnosis, or for perimenopause that started about 8 years ago.
what have i discovered so far?? i've discovered that my anxiety had to be gotten under control. anxiety is the WORST thing you can have during this "time of your life"; my diet had to change; and not just cutting back on calories, but cutting OUT certain foods. foods that i really love. are those crispy fries worth the hot flashes and stomach upset i'm going to get --- NO!. i had to start exercising - swimming, walking, weight training; losing excess fat and increasing muscle is better on... you guessed it, your hormones. since i've done all this, just in the last 5 months, i've actually been able to face these changes and feel better while doing so; i've lost weight (melted off) which makes everything feel better. and that's why i think i might try this without HRT. at the moment i'm not miserable; nor am i emotional; or stupid for that matter. IF i need it, yes, bio-identicals are the way... only IF i can afford them.
you have to realize something. women have been going through this for THOUSANDS of years. if god/nature intended this as part of a woman's body plan, why are we dealing with it with extra drugs -- more drugs -- aren't we already taking enough drugs?? my only undeducated thought is that it might be necessary today BECAUSE of the crap foods we put into our bodies; the stresses of jobs, money, kids, spouses and how to keep them entertained; the toxins in our air, food and surroundings; crap our ancestors didn't have to deal with on the level we do today. that might be why there is evidence that clean living, including diet, exercise and relaxation may be the key to getting through this. that is my plan of attack.
i do understand (and just read in an article last night, thanks) that taking HRT too late is a very real concern; but if i don't need it...why would i start taking it? just in case?? yes, be educated, but don't FEAR that you should be taking something that you really don't need; and don't FEAR that you shouldn't ask for something that could help.
you know what works for you, and i respect that. you are trying to reach women who FEAR to ask for this treatment because of a scare that happend 10+ years ago, and i respect that. i think jaynenjay, you and i are trying to do the same thing: inform EVERY woman, not just the miserable ones.
i hope this clears things up.
Not quite, but you do understand that it is not all about me and it is not all about you. You have discovered as I have long ago, healthy living and eating. The weight does just melt off when you eliminate sugars and starches. I don't even want to try even one chip off my husband's plate when eating out (he's still learning!). These foods don't even make it into my house. Yes, there are times when we have to partake just to be polite. But the message is, do I want to go back to middle age spread again? Like you say, NO!
Unfortunately, you have raised another myth. Women have not been going through menopause for thousands of years. Genetics is a major interest of mine, and that involves learning the history of the health and living styles of man (and woman) back to 'prehistory'. Old age was about 38 years. Women barely made it because of death by childbirth, disease, famine, climate, and predators (animal and man). Stress was an everyday event for them. And I am talking European, including Great Britain.
As you search through the years, people were riddled with parasites and disease. They did not lead a simple healthy life. Stress was always present, in their search for sufficient food and shelter, and violence was often ever present. Water, where people lived, was mostly toxic and diseased. Stress was trying to keep their kids alive, not just entertained. Even in Victorian times, people's health was constantly in danger from, e.g. arsenic in wallpaper, lead in paint, and those and many other toxins were used as medicine. Not to mention the women who had to try to get by by prostitution, debasement and beatings. They did not live very long either.
The women of my grandmother's generation died in their 50's from heart disease because their hearts were no longer being protected by oestrogen so they had the same heart disease risk as men have. Many died from breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer without a hormone drug passing their lips. These causes were secret business back then.
Young women also died from breast cancer back then and young women are still getting breast cancer and ovarian cancer without having used hrt. There is no evidence whatsoever that hormonal contraception is causing it.
It is only the post-war baby boomers that have now reached a higher longevity rate (see life insurance life expectations and all the pension debt that governments are worried about) because of the advanced development of drugs which are keeping us healthier and alive longer.
Trouble is, this health advancement is taking a dive when the current generations up to 40 years old have taken to constantly eating junk food and bringing their kids up the same way.
jayneejay can talk all she likes about how she went through menopause without using hrt, but she should not perpetuate myths about hrt to scare other women into doing the same or not seek hrt assistance.
No - if you find, luckily, that you don't need hrt then you won't be using it. What I am saying is don't keep suffering and suffering thinking the change will be just around the corner, or because someone says give it another 6 months and so on. However, you are one of those who have educated yourself on it, but many don't and just depend on their unsympathetic dr and blogs like this.
And yes, I want women to feel confident and knowledgeable enough to assert themselves to get the right treatment, so that they do not have to turn to forums like this in a lot of misery, fearing the myths and doing nothing proactive about it.
Luckily in this day and age, because of advanced medicine and drugs, we have good options.
yay!