quote:

Originally posted by pkitty:
Has anyone gone through is is going through perimenopause?

I think it's happening to me

'fraid I have nothing to offer but *hugs*

It's nice to see you around again, pkitty!

Me, I think. A looooong time ago - a year and a half? ish? It was Winter and it was before this last one, so - I hadn't had my period, but felt cranky and bloated and then felt what seemed like a baby kicking. did some thinking and calculating and it would have been a freak of science if it had happened, but I could have gotten pregnant. Peed on some sticks they came back nada. Told my doctor and he just prescribed something (provera?) took that, had a period, kicking stopped. Went a few more months, no period, saw the doc again, he prescribed the provera and told me to take it every three or four months.

So I do. And that's pretty much the only way I have a period anymore. Unless it decided to happen whenever it decides to happen, which is currently once or twice a year.

I get hot. Not hot flashes, I just get really hot, feeling like it starts deep within my skin. I don't sweat, just HOT. I also get constipated, even more so than usual, that I could certainly live without.

I get bitchy. Yeah, OK, not really a symptom, but at least when I had a period I would notice and try to tone it down. Now it's weeks on end before I notice.

I get uterine spasms. It's quite different when you know there's a baby in there and when you know it's just muscle twitching. And sometimes it won't stop. Also I get pain which ranges from feeling like something is trying to nibble its way out with sharp little piranha teeth to feeling like I'm being stabbed with a stiletto from the inside out. I pretty much don't notice pain unless it's intense. Those pains have me clutching my stomach and sometimes ending up sitting on the floor.

And please someone save me from gaggles of older women tsking and saying I'm much too young! There isn't a set age, it's an average! guh.

So. *hugs* I don't really have any advice, but you're not alone.

I hate the cramps they suck!

quote:

Has anyone gone through is is going through perimenopause?

I think it's happening to me

I agree with the "I think" part. I'm 42 and for the last year or so every month has been completely differnt. Bad cramps-no cramps, etc... I have even had a hot flash or two.

quote:

I get uterine spasms. It's quite different when you know there's a baby in there and when you know it's just muscle twitching. And sometimes it won't stop. Also I get pain which ranges from feeling like something is trying to nibble its way out with sharp little piranha teeth to feeling like I'm being stabbed with a stiletto from the inside out.

This describes all my periods since I was about 13 (my periods between the ages of 11-13 were, as far as I remember, completely normal except the recursive psychological trauma of discovering my wishing them away had not worked, once again).

People have said 'They'll settle after a while', 'They'll settle in your late teens', 'They'll settle when you hit your 20s', 'They'll settle when you start taking the pill', 'They'll settle in your 30s'. Well they haven't. The only noticeable change has been that my period lasts now only 5 days, as opposed to the 7-8 of my first Period Decade.

This has nothing to do with anything, though. Except maybe support the 'there's no rules, we're all different' statement.

*hugs*

Not having periods will have its advantages, even if the road there sucks at times.

Well, in one way it's nice that I'm not the only one, but in all other ways that totally sucks!

So, December 2009 I told my doctor that I hadn't had a period in about 5 months, he tells me I'm 'too young for menopause' and gives me provera. And I don't have a period unless I take that (except for once or twice a year, which isn't really a period, it's just spotting for several days.

At that time I tell him that suddenly I'm constipated. Never really had that problem before, despite the fact that I've taken a whackload of painkillers since I was 18. He tells me to take Metamucil and Colace and I'll be fine. Well, that does work, for a few days and then I get packed even worse.

I tell him that I'm still having problems with constipation and he tells me to take Metamucil and Colace. I tell him it doesn't work. He says add Sennakote. I try and point out that Metamucil makes things worse, he gets pissy and tells me that I didn't try all three together! Then he starts yelling, "What do you want me to do? You don't even want to try what I prescribed!"

Last year he specifically told me that I was too young for menopause. Now he tells me that I "must be menopausal" and just let it happen. So I ask what I can do about the uterine spasms and massive pain. He says 'do what other women do and take Aleve.' I tell him I've tried that, it doesn't work and he gets pissy with me again and yammers on about how he can't help me if I don't even want to try.

sigh. He used to be a decent doctor who would listen to your problems, now he's just an ass.

So apparently in a year I went from too young to just old enough.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm glad to have a place to do it!

here, that would be a good cue to go to a different doctor... is that an option?

Finding a doctor who is accepting new patients who also accepts Medicaire is like trying to herd cats. I'm sure it can be done, but it's a pain.

ETA: And he offered to send me to an endocrinologist to check out my intestines, and he also told me that they will tell me the same thing, take metmucil and colace and sennakote. But he didn't tell me that constipation is a symptom of menopause. Google told me that. feh.

Have you tried dried fruit? I used to take Metamucil and got okay-ish results but having at least one serving of raisins, dried apricots, dried cranberries, etc every day gave me MUCH better results in the long run.

I do like apricots. Dried cranberries are weird. If I absolutely had to eat them I suppose I'd get through it, but I can just about stand them in muffins. Raisins fall very near bananas on the fruit-I-loathe scale. I'm, well, picky. He did tell me to eat prunes or drink prune juice. I don't much like them, but if that's what it takes I'll do it.

The problem sort of clears itself up after a while, but then the menopause symptoms hits (hot flashes, extreme bitchiness, uterus spasms and pain) and then it'll be a day before I go. Then two days, then three, and then it just backs up.

I really hope that whenever you all reach this stage that this isn't what you go through! I hope I'm just an anomaly! *embraces cronehood*

Linseeds are also really good -and you can add them to any stuff you bake, or sprinkle them on salads (over here at least they also sell them crushed, which is better for salads).

Tons of fruit and veg (like 60% or more of each meal) have had a huge effect for me, much more than bran cereal or any other stuff. (I don't have problems with constipation anyway, but when I've been on several diets I've noticed it, and realised that when my new agey magazines claimed that if you eat properly you go once per each meal taken, they weren't exaggerating.)

And that doctor is an arsehole. And since when something entirely natural needs to be treated with such an insane drug cocktail? I refuse to believe there aren't other options.

Metamucil isn't a drug, it's just extra fiber that comes in different forms, including a powder you can mix into drinks. I used to have to drink it with orange juice to try to trick myself that it was just extra-pulpy juice. *gag* I don't know about the other two.

Maeve, I'm like that about other things, so no worries. I can't stand banana chips or dried pineapple and I'll only eat prunes if I absolutely HAVE to!

Heyla, Jena

I know that Colace is a drug, specifically used with some opiates to mitigate the constipation that may result. I vaguely recall hearing it mentioned as a method of purging with some eating disorders, as well (at least, I think that is why I looked it up the first time).

Maeve, how do you feel about shredded wheat?

My mom went through the same thing about 10 years ago when she was in her early to mid 40's and called my Aunt (who's a doctor in Wisconsin) for advice. She suggested eating a handful of dry shredded wheat every couple of hours, and from what I heard it works like a miracle. It doesn't taste very good, but I can imagine it's better then the alternative.

Every couple of hours? Like, every day, or just until you go?

Linseeds=flax seeds, right? I do use those and flaxseed oil.

I'm just everso thankful to have Google because otherwise I'd be clueless.

Just until you go and then as needed afterward.

quote:

Originally posted by Maeve:

Linseeds=flax seeds, right? I do use those and flaxseed oil.

That's the one

I used to bake this wholemeal rolls with linseeds, poppy seeds and some other seed I can't remember, and worked really well.

I've also heard that a lot of people take linseed oil (something like one or two spoonfuls before meals, i. e., on its own, not as a cooking ingredient) and have heard it can even work too well! So if you have a health food store nearby you can maybe check that.

As for the menopause symptons, in natural medicine they recommend soy and soy products. I've read somewhere though that your intake has to be quite high (for our normal standards) and regular, and the effects are gradual. But I also know that regular doctors prescribe certain stuff that's basically concentrated -stuff-that-in-soy-which-has-an-effect-on-the-body-similar-to-natural-female-hormones. My mome takes that.

Sorry Maeve- what about yogurt type stuff? Also figs have a lot of fiber (instead of prunes) and there are some breads and tortillas that have extra added fiber as well (so you don't feel like you're eating a fiber brick all the time). Is the pissy doctor a GP or your gyno?

All the women on my mother's side of the family had menopause at 50, and I'm 46, so it stands to reason...

I've always have had irregular periods, but this last 9 months have been a doozy- 3 periods at 46 days apart, then 3 periods at 26 days apart. Occasional night sweats, maybe 2 hot flashes (One might have been due to a cold though), and sore boobs for 2 weeks per month. Plus the fun ovarian cyst ovulating pain. Bleh. Then I had a weird 3 day thing that read like fibromyalgia (but apparently is common in perimenopause). I hope to never have that again- I was pretty wretched.

But I've started taking Evening Primose Oil and Vitamin E, so I hope that will help. A friend told me Damiana herb as well.

bluh, that sounds awful!

He's a sort of GP. and he didn't even mention going to an OBGYN 'cos apparently 'all women do this' and I'm no different, so just suck up and deal. At least that was the attitude I got.

I already do whole grains - so much so that I have a Nutrimill home grain mill thingy, which also grinds corn and beans - but not flaxseed, that's too oily. That goes into the coffee grinder.

And for a loooooong time that regimen will work just fine, flaxseeds/meal, yogurt (I love the Greek style stuff) dried apricots, whole grain foods, veggies (OK, I could do a lot more veggies, but I dislike so many of them or if I do like them they don't agree with me) And then my body gets to the point where it'd like to have a period, but nothing happens and it gets all backed up.

It's just so ridiculous that not having a period means not being able to poo!

Thankfully I don't have night sweats. yet.

Vitamin E huh? what's that do?

I've taken Evening Primrose Oil too and I think it worked with some of my period stuff.

And since you mention yogurt, do you know kefir? It's very effective too, taken regularly.

(I also get constipated before my period. Then I get it, and I might remain constipated, or I might go in the opposite direction. That and the blood and the pain and the gas makes me feel supersexy, I tell you!)