Shall we have a little chat about menopause? Or peri-menopause, that lovely term that is supposed to encompass all a woman goes through until the day she has entered menopause forever and a day.
I was lucky for the majority of my adult life in that my period did not run my life -- and in my family, that says a lot! My mother and sister were (are?) heavily affected and often explained many situations due to PMS. I just didn't have it, and therefore didn't get what they were talking about. I had what I termed "change of season" periods, where I got a small glimpse into the PMS world ... but they were so infrequent that I hardly paid attention to them other than to come out on the other side and think, wow, I think I was actually depressed!
Once I started to experience symptoms of peri-menopause, my first thought was that I would gut it out, take nothing and get to the other side with a minimum of pain and suffering. What I didn't expect was the sheer exhaustion that overtook me. I am not a napper, and the ONLY time I had ever become so tired I could hardly make it to the couch, was when I was pregnant. So that made sense, a hormonal oversurge was coursing through me, and my body was mimicking being pregnant. Fine. Except I wasn't, and there was no way I was going to hit the couch everyday! There was that, and I literally felt as though my uterus was falling out. I think this can actually happen, but everything felt all wrong "down there," and I didn't like it. So I was suddenly faced with two issues that I didn't feel prepared to live with, and I started doing research. I had narrowed it down to a holistic clinic in Massachusetts, when I came across an over-the-counter all natural remedy that was cheap and it seemed worth my while to try. So I did. It was about two weeks before I noticed I was back to myself. Or the new self that I am, because as women we don't really ever have a touch stone of "self" to return to, because our lives and our bodies and our minds are constantly changing. Constantly.
So that has been at least a year or so that all has been good -- I take my little green pills three times a day (religiously I must add!) and I use a variety of supplements that are all known to help, like maca powder and flax, and I throw in hemp seed, chia, green powders and the like as well. I do not experience hot flashes EXCEPT when I am about to get my period. And then they are fairly benign, more of an introduction to a hot flash ... I can feel the things friends talk about begin to happen, then it dissipates. I do, however, have one day before my period where that exhaustion thing kicks in and I have given up fighting it, because it just prolongs it, and I just kind of do nothing until it passes. But that is what prompted this blog today ... one because I think as women we need to be talking about it because it is such a minefield of choices, we need to share our stories. And two, because my period, which has been irregular for a long time, but had seemed to find a pattern of regular irregular, seems to be shifting into a new pattern of regular irregular! I went 34 days since my last period, and yet I expected it to come about 12 days prior to that, and actually experienced symptoms. But no period.
So I actually grew excited that maybe this was it! Maybe I had crossed over to the other side and I was going to be free!!!!!
Yeah, no.
So I pulled out my calendar and realized that two months ago the same thing happened ... a huge span of at least ten extra days, and so I guess the new regular irregular is all over the map! In December it was 26 days (between periods) in January it was 33, in February it was 20, in March, 25 and in April, 34. (In case the universe cares or is listening, I am all for the 34 days thing ... the 20 is tough, kind of like having your period all the time!)
So I wanted to see if there was some way I could regulate irregular periods, and the first thing I read was that irregular periods can affect women between three and TEN years. And all of the things I could do to treat the problem, I am already doing. It is due to rising and falling progesterone and estrogen levels. Blah blah blah.
So, no party to celebrate the passing of this cycle that is really at this point, just a pain in the butt. (Well, I guess not the butt) and I suppose I should just be happy that it came with no warning, and I am not the least bit exhausted ... so that is a plus, right?
What is really amazing is that this is still something a woman comes into with very little knowledge and wisdom from others. My mother went on hormone replacement therapy and while it delayed her symptoms for a decade, once she went off of them when they were deemed unsafe, she was left with one confused body. I personally have to believe that it is a natural part of a woman's life ... and have gone along with that for years, as I have been reading about it all along. But when certain symptoms hit you that are untenable to live with ... suddenly you panic and think that there is no way you can spend the rest of your life feeling like this. Sure, it is an over-reaction to a perhaps temporary issue ... but I still think the majority of us are hit with this thinking that it is OUR problem alone.
And it's not.
No comments:
Post a Comment