OS menopause memories?

charlies-aunt

I am 59 and still having menopausal symptoms - I was on HRT for approx. 17 years prior my doctor refusing to prescribe them for any longer
Its true that they just delay the symptoms! I have horrendous night sweats and frequent intense hot flashes during the day. I wish now that I had just let nature take its course and have got it over and done with.
The only benefit is that my mood has stabilised and I feel more at peace with myself

Mrs_Ryan

My menopause started at 31, I had a radical hysterectomy including ovaries due to cancer and I can't take HRT because of the cancer. Hot flushes are horrendous- often wake up soaking with sweat as well. Just about everything that could have gone wrong has- I suffer with anxiety and depression which means my moods are all over the place, my joints hurt so much- I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia but some of my doctors reckon it's the menopause- if so I wish it would just do one!
There's only my sister in my family who will have a natural menopause- when she went to her doctor as she thought she might be menopausal the doctor asked her what age had the other females in her family reached menopause and she had to say she didn't know- my nana, mum and me have all had surgical menopause after hysterectomy.

candygirl

Does anyone else get itchy skin, or the feeling that a spiders crawling up your arms? I do, n tbe doc reckons it's A common symptom :eek:

Serendipitious

I'm one of the lucky ones, but there may have been contributory factors to how easily I sailed through it.

When I was 48, I found myself living alone again, and having moved to a very rural location, I decided to experiment with food and diet as there was only myself to please. Over the next few years, I gradually eliminated sugar, increased my veg and seed intake and started using soya milk. It reached the point where I was having raw vegetable smoothies for breakfast, choosing home made yoghurt with flax seeds for a snack, and eating three or four veg at each evening meal with some grilled meat. I also ate a lot of oily fish and lots of stewed apples and plums as other people gave me windfalls, and I did a lot of walking. I'd say this went on for a good 8 years before I moved again, and somewhere in the middle of this there was a menopause which passed virtually unnoticed. (I can't say it was a genetic blessing as my mother had multiple health issues and temperamental difficulties since my early childhood so it would have been difficult to unravel what was going on with her at any stage.)

The problem with menopause though is that you can't plan for it because you don't know when it will start, it begins without warning and you don't know you're officially in it until it's well underway.

suki1964

candygirl wrote: »

Does anyone else get itchy skin, or the feeling that a spiders crawling up your arms? I do, n tbe doc reckons it's A common symptom :eek:

Don't know so much about me arms, but my pubic area I could rip clean off at times:eek:

No rashes, no infection, no nothing but I can wake myself scratching away

moneyistooshorttomention

Serendipitious wrote: »

I'm one of the lucky ones, but there may have been contributory factors to how easily I sailed through it.

When I was 48, I found myself living alone again, and having moved to a very rural location, I decided to experiment with food and diet as there was only myself to please. Over the next few years, I gradually eliminated sugar, increased my veg and seed intake and started using soya milk. It reached the point where I was having raw vegetable smoothies for breakfast, choosing home made yoghurt with flax seeds for a snack, and eating three or four veg at each evening meal with some grilled meat. I also ate a lot of oily fish and lots of stewed apples and plums as other people gave me windfalls, and I did a lot of walking. I'd say this went on for a good 8 years before I moved again, and somewhere in the middle of this there was a menopause which passed virtually unnoticed. (I can't say it was a genetic blessing as my mother had multiple health issues and temperamental difficulties since my early childhood so it would have been difficult to unravel what was going on with her at any stage.)

The problem with menopause though is that you can't plan for it because you don't know when it will start, it begins without warning and you don't know you're officially in it until it's well underway.

I reckon you've given the clue to this personally.

I eat pretty healthily compared to the majority and believe that is probably the reason why the only symptom I had was hot flushes and they did eventually stop (if much later than I expected). The periods went more awry than usual at some point in my 40s and were much worse in a variety of ways - but I think that passed over my head to some extent as they had been making me feel ill occasionally during them since some point in my 30s. Boy - am I ever glad they've finished (as I didnt know what was worse about them - the general problems with them or the sometimes feeling ill with them). The cost was upsetting too - money literally straight down the drain that I knew I wouldnt have had to spend if I were a man and there I was having to spend it at what I think was about 3 times the rate I was told was normal for women.

I still can't really afford to eat super-healthily - but have decided to do so anyway now (as at 60 plus I am simply not prepared to wait any longer to do so until I can really afford to do so) and think it very likely that if I had put my foot down earlier and insisted I was going to eat super-healthily, rather than just "more healthily than most" that I might have sailed through it barely noticing it.

Other than that - I would say you possibly cant tell its the menopause until there has been a few months of "not feeling right" - but I think the combination of hot flushes and being in my 40s told me that 99% that's what the problem is. At least the periods finished bang on the dot - ie at 52 years old (if the darn hot flushes carried on for a few more years - until some point in my late 50s).

dandy-candy

The diet aspect is something I'm really interested in. I've never managed to stick to a diet as I love my food and it takes me so long to lose even a couple of lbs that it didn't seem worth missing the good stuff. However, dieting (as in healthy eating) to reduce menopause symptoms sounds like it would definitely be worth it!

moneyistooshorttomention

Probably one of the easier/cheaper ways of ensuring a healthy diet Dandy is to grow as much of your own food as you can manage to find room for. Apparently the vast majority of British people don't even have the old "5 a day", never mind the new levels (think its now "8 a day"??).

With growing what you can of your own food - then that helps a lot. Today's total of fruit/veg so far to date is home-grown rhubarb with my breakfast. Lunch has included 2 types of home-grown green salad veg and some home-grown strawberries and some bought tomatoes/melon/vine leaves/olives. Dinner will probably include home-grown plums and someone else's home-grown blackcurrants (swop for some of my stuff) at least.

You just "pile in" the fruit/veg portions pretty much without thinking about it if it's largely a case of "walk round the garden and see what's growing at the moment".

Torry_Quine

I didn't find that taking HRT meant symptoms were delayed. I had hot flushes etc while taking it but that had stopped by the end and didn't start hen I stopped taking it.

Tipsntreats

I have just found this thread. I was asking about my hot flushes over the garden fence. I have had hot flushes for nine years now. I have quickly scanned through the posts, is there no hope?
An elderly lady told me yesterday, that when they stop, the whiskers come!!!!! I am 59 in September.
My late Mother claimed she never had any. She blamed it on the pill. I was on HRT, it stopped the daytime ones, but NOT the night sweats. I came off HRT more than 4 years ago. My sister, a few months ago, had a stroke. The hospital blamed it on HRT!!!!
So, as this is a money saving site, use frozen peas for night sweats. Keep them in a cool bag beside your bed. They are cheap enough, well better than all those herbal remedies that don't work.
Is it true about the whiskers?
Tips x