For the "pushing 50 ladies"
 

I am 49 yrs young...I am perimenopausal....I had my period 3 weeks ago and started again today!!!!! ARRGGGGGHHHH! WHEN WILL IT END!!! Just want to know if any of you ladies out there are at "this lovely time" in our lifes...are your periods all messed up? I am ready to change......NOW! LOL....

I'm 49 too and going through it with ya'. My last period never quit. It just got a lot lighter but now it's started again!!! My hormones are out of whack!! I'm having heart palpatations, hot flashes, and headaches again. I think that it's time to go back to the dr. and get my Prempro dosage upped!!! Uuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

I feel so bad for you ladies. :( I didn't have to go through all that. Hysterectomy cured that slow agonizing torture...:) All I had to do was start taking the hormone Premarin and everything is just fine!! I think????

I'm with Janet, hysterectomy along with ovaries at 35 and Premarin since then. I still have the flashes occasionally and I HATE them

I will be 52 next week and have only had 2 periods in the past 7 months. I am somewhat more emotional than usual, but not nearly as bad as some I've known or heard about. I do get an occassional "power surge", but they seldom last long.

I too just want this to be over with NOW. LOL

I often think of Archie Bunker telling Edith she had just 5 minutes to get this chage business done with and get back to normal. :rolleyes: If ONLY it were that easy!

I don't have any advice, but wanted to jump in with the others in letting you know you are NOT alone!

LOL! thanks! I agree with Archie!! LOL have you ever had your period and then a few weeks later bleed again? this happened to me yesterday...I thought I was starting again but it was just for the day....I to get more emotional and my fuse is a little shorter than it used to be....I realize this and try to control it...of course my husband doesn't help!! and I tell him to just let me be but, you know how men can be... I use the always thin pads with wings....I never noticed this before but on the (wing) paper it says "have a happy period" I called my husband in the bathroom and said CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS!!! HAVE A HAPPY PERIOD! had to be a man that came up with that one! well hundreds of woman before went through it and now it's our time but ENOUGH ALREADY!!

i am 47 and i havent had a period in over 2 years, i do get the occasional flush mainly at night when i am in bed. as far as being emotional i dont think i am though my husband would probably tell you otherwise but i dont feel like i have changed any. i just hope things dont get worse the older i get so far it's been pretty smooth sailing.

I haven't had more periods at all. I love that I haven't had one for so long... it's been about 4 months and I haven't missed it at all. ;)

I am less tolerant of peoples bad attitudes, especially at home; and I find myself tearing up at things that normally wouldn't have bothered me. I lost a young man a yr ago who was like a son to me though, and have been rather depressed since that anyway, so can't say for sure how much of this is related to that. :(

Certain songs will make me get choked up and I don't have the strong constitution about a lot of things that I used to. I blame it to age because it's a handy scapegoat. LOL
Who knows, maybe it's environmental as much as hormonal?

Isn't growing older just the best thing??????

Hot flashes, peeing when you laugh/cry, crying at the drop of a hat, losing our tempers, having patience, being sad, being happy, being emotional, not caring, loving our family, wanting them out of the house, being confused, knowing it all.

Can't get any better than that!!!!:D :D

:yelrotflmao: :embarass: :yelrotflmao:

LOL! don't forget peeing when you sneeze, and cough!

My goodness ladies. You all sound like you are fallin' apart :yelrotflmao: !

I'm 52. Won't admit it to most people. Never had many periods anyway. Infertility issues, but have two daughters, so things worked out.

Hysterectomy in '95 ended all of that anyway. I was on Climara patches (estrogen) until earlier this year. Just wanted to add a note of caution to those of you on hormone replacement. Please, please be diligent with you annual checkups, self breast exams, and mammograms. I had to stop hormone replacement due to a lump in my breast. It was not cancer, yet, but if it had been, it was large enough to be reason for concern. It was actually too small to feel, but I'd missed a couple of mammograms, and was kicking myself for skipping while we were waiting from biopsy results. I've now had two biopsies, neither showed actual cancer, but my oncologist at Baylor Medical Breast Cancer Center in Houston has be taking Evista for the next 5 years which has been found to prevent breast cancer, and I have mammograms every 6 months now.

The problem is Estrogen feeds cancer. Women on hormone replacement are at greater risk of developing breast cancer. There's lots of information on the web to support this. My mother took Premarin for 40 years without problems, so I thought I would be okay, but my doctors got me off the Climara very quickly when this all happened. They used to think that the estrogen protected your heart and bones, and helped prevent Alzheimers, but now they think it may actually cause these problems.

At first I was extremely moody, would cry for no reason at all, but I've gotten much better now. I really don't miss the hormones and I've lost weight and feel much healthier. I have been working out and trying to eat a healthier diet (no trans fat, more fish and chicken, whole grains, more vegetables, very limited sweets), so not sure what is causing me to feel better, but I know the hormones are not necessary for me to feel good.

Hope you all can get through the memopause thing, and stay healthy.

I have heard so many bad things on hormone replacement...I am opting to just take the bull by the horns and hang on for a rough ride! I will probably try soy products..I would rather have a hot flash than cancer. My Aunt had a partial several years ago and was put on replacement therapy and just by chance was reading a magazine in her doctors office about the pills she was taking...she got tested and sure enough she had lesions on her ovaries...had to go and have the rest removed...I haven't gotten the night sweats...I have read that some woman don't,,,only the hot flashes...these I can deal with.

I"m with you ladies when it comes to hormone replacements. I'm not wanting to even try them since I've heard too many scary things about it.

I have several medical problems that I'm on meds for, and take those because they help to keep me going, but I avoid whatever meds that I can.

In the past I've been prescribed Celebrex for my arthritis but opted not to take them because they really aren't going to lengthen my life, and the side affects might actually shorten it. I was on Celebrex for about 4 months, and that's when I had my heart attack. I had been off it for several months due to the expense (it was VERY pricey!) when it came out that celebrex has been proven to cause heart problems. :(
I'd rather ache than have another heart attack!

In the same vein, I'd rather wait out these pesty menopause symptoms to go away on their own than to end up with cancer or something else from taking them.

I felt that way too and then I started having hot flashes and night sweats. I couldn't sleep at night because I was either throwing off covers or trying to find them to put them back on or just laying there, awake. At first it wasn't too bad and I thought "Hey, this is going to be a breeze!" After all my Mom didn't have any trouble going through the change. WRONG!!! I was extrememly grouchy...... or crying all the time. So my doctor recommended going on Prempro for a year and see how things are when I go off. She thought that it might help me get through the worst of it. We'll see!!

I definitely don't want cancer, BUT those hot flashes are horrible! Be fine one minute, standing talking with someone and then all of a sudden you feel on fire and the sweat just poors. The person you're talking with looks at you like "what the heck"!!! It was bothersome at night too. Had a lot of sleepless nights.

I take the lowest dose of Premarin and then only take it every other day. I'm doing great now. My mom didn't even have one single symptom when she went through the change. I wish I could have had it that easy.

OMG!! I am turning 50 in Dec. Aside from my period being heavy one mt. or light another . That is the extent . I am getting nervous listening to you girls...lol I am dreading the hot flashes they sound soooooooo bad...lol thanks for the warnings, all kidding aside tho , my mom was ok with her changes and I hope I follow suite..

Just to let you know, I was on hormone replacement for 12 years before my problems developed. If you're having lots of hot flashes and mood swings, it may be safe to take them for a while to help with the transition through menopause, but I would really consider my options and have a heart to heart with a good doctor before taking them for as long as I did. When I came off of them, I had mood swings for a few weeks, but I'm pretty much normal now.

I'm trying to gradually wean myself off of them. I'm suppose to take them everyday, but I'm now taking the lowest dose every other day. Hopefully I can get off of them completely. I didn't really have the mood swings or anything like that....it was so awful hot flashes...day and night. Too rough for me to handle, but I'm doing great so far as I've been taking them.

I turned 49 this past July. I haven't had any sort of period at all for nearly three years now. I do have hot flashes every once in a while. I was told by a woman where I used to work that is about ten years older than I that smoking will bring on menopause earlier. I don't know but I do smoke. So far I haven't seemed to have mood swings like I did before with the PMS thing. I know each of us is different but we do pay our dues, don't we!!!!

Menopause Meeee toooo!
 

I'm 46 and I looked up the symptoms to see how many I had...I had no idea all these could happen to me!!! Thank God I only have a few... :confuse2:





1. Hot flashes, flushes, night sweats and/or cold flashes, clammy feeling

2. Bouts of rapid heart beat

3. Irritability, Mood swings

4. Sudden tears

5. Trouble sleeping through the night (with or without night sweats)

6. Irregular periods; shorter, lighter periods; heavier periods, flooding; phantom periods, shorter cycles, longer cycles

7. Loss of libido

8. Dry vagina

9. Crashing fatigue MORE INFO

10. Anxiety, feeling ill at ease

11. Feelings of dread, apprehension, doom

12.Difficulty concentrating, disorientation, mental confusion

13. Disturbing memory lapses

14.Incontinence, especially upon sneezing, laughing; urge incontinence

15. Itchy, crawly skin

16. Aching, sore joints, muscles and tendons

17. Increased tension in muscles

18. Breast tenderness

19. Headache change: increase or decrease

20. Gastrointestinal distress, indigestion, flatulence, gas pain, nausea

21. Sudden bouts of bloat

22. Depression

23. Exacerbation of existing conditions

24. Increase in allergies

25. Weight gain

26.Hair loss or thinning, head, pubic, or whole body; increase in facial hair

27. Dizziness, light-headedness, episodes of loss of balance

28. Changes in body odor

29. Electric shock sensation under the skin and in the head

30. Tingling in the extremities

31. Gum problems, increased bleeding

32. Burning tongue, burning roof of mouth, bad taste in mouth, change in breath odor

33. Osteoporosis -- MORE INFO

34. Changes in fingernails: softer, crack or break easier

35. Tinnitus: ringing in ears, bells, 'whooshing' buzzing etc.

OMG!!!! I have 23 of those symptoms!!!!!! Well, maybe this means I am that much closer to stopping!

Don't worry Brenda....heck my husband has more symptoms than that....LMAO.....!!!!!!!!

I saw a few things ont hat list that I wasn';t aware of, so thanks for posting it!
I have a few of the symptoms, and just feel lucky to not have more.

I do have night sweats, wake up several times during the night, get confused at the oddest times, get weepy over things much easier than ever before, my legs ache and I absolutely HAVE to have my 8 hrs of sleep each night now.

I went for my flu shot today so I hopefully won't have to deal with that this year on top of this.

LOL! I only wish MEN went through this!

It would be easier to count the symptoms that I DON'T have than to count the ones that I DO have!!! I can't wait until this is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey...has anyome tried the bio identical hormones? Suzanne Somers recommmends them in her book... The Sexy Years!!! I wonder if they really work? I too am 49 and suffering from a lot of anxiety.:confused:

Kimberly, I haven't tried any synthetics. I did want to say that the moods and personality changes seem to be just so frustrating though! I'm finding myself so much more teary and easily frustrated now than I ever was before. Especially when I mess up at work, which is very maddening, since I'm learning a lot of new stuff, so it's to be expected that I'm going to mess up at times. My boss is a 29 yr old male, so I really don't want to have to try to explain to him that it's Menopause messing with me. :o Oh the joys of aging. LOL

hey there...I'm so glad someone reminded me to come here -

I'm almost 49 and have terrible hormone problems - I took 2 Saliva tests and flatlined the progesterone and estrogen and 3 other hormones they tested me on - I did ok on ONE test out of 6....

no mood swings or hot flashes... but wicked tiredness and hair loss - there's other symptoms and sleeping terrible is one of them - if ANYONE knows a solution - I'm ALL EARS !

Villette, what kinda saliva test did you take?? I'll run it by hubby and see what he thinks you should do.

red98vett, calcium is a natural sedative that might help you in your sleep problems. It calms and is of course, good for your bones, which tend to become brittle and weaker in us women as we age. It shouldn't hurt to give it a try! I know it really helped my daughter when she had sleep problems while pregnant.

I don't get the night sweats but I do get the hot flashes...like I'm sticking my head in a hot oven....I LOVE IT!!!!

LOL What kind ?? A pain in the butt kind that you get up and have to do it before COFFEE :eek: It was a 6 panel test that you do at home - bring it back to the doctor and they mail it out - does that help ??

oh - for those hot flashers out there a friend said a natural progesterone Cream - called 'Emerita' REALLY helped her - I don't have them - but I bought some anyway - if anything it cant hurt right ???

http://www.emerita.com/
click on Menopause/perimenopause


adn Rebecca - I would LOVE to hear what your husband says cause I'm thinking I may have to go back to see the dr. again ...I've put it off for 1/2 year now -

I tell my husband I can't wait for menopause because I can't wait to be done with my monthly visitor, but truth is, I am happy just waiting! I am not so sure I will like the hot flashes or emotional upheavels that come with it. I am emotional enough LOL

My mom just went through it a couple years back and on occassions it sure seemed like she was 13 and I was the mom. That wasn't fun!

I had a hysterectomy in 1990 and was on hormones for years till I found a lump in my left breast inOct 2005. My lump was malignant, needless to say hormones were a real no no. My doctor and my nurse practioner both recommended vitamin E and 1 capsule 2 times a day did help me with hot flashes. Ladies, please have your mammograms.:thumbup:

I have never had a hot flash yet but I sometiems get night sweats...My sleeping patterns have changed so now in stead of sleeping through the night ALL the time I some times get up at 4:00 AM for the day!!!! I have also gain 15 pounds that will not come off... The one thing I do like about geting older is the exsperience I have gained along the way...