There Will Not Be Blood: What Menopause Means to You

haha i know that game! occasionally i think, "what about thermonuclear war?" ... speaking of games you don't win

have had two heavy periods in one month ... at first the brain fog was like, "oh, maybe it just feels like it was two weeks ago since you had the last one?" ... for the last couple years I have actually been tracking them on a calendar and I could verify, no, actually, it was just two weeks ago ... so I guess, before there is no blood, there is a lot of blood at random times.

yeah my last one was a two-week cycle, it had been normal for about 6 months, but yeah not looking forward to these starting up again

also the shorter cycles are WAY heavier
makes me feel like i’m 14 again having to stash pads & tampons in every bag/purse/backpack

like i used to be under the misapprehension that menopause meant NO period, not fuckin MORE periods
biology sucks i hate it

hating biology rn for sure

also I forgot if I mentioned this upthread but I sing "night sweats" to the tune of "Night Shift" by Siouxsie ... eventually I will cram all my annoying menopause symptoms into alternate lyrics for that song, and it will be my menopause anthem

i think i literally just had my first hot flash
while i was standing in the kitchen making coffee

my review: yuk, hated it

but it also might have been hypoglycemia
so yay thats fun

This is the problem I am having! Is it a menopause thing or a diabetes thing? I wake up every single night feeling hot and crappy.

I'm going to a film festival this weekend--will I once again be dashing to the restroom between each film because I've soaked through yet another tampon?

I've still never experienced anything that I would recognize as a hot flash. I may be lucky, but my doctors are always weirded out when I tell them this.

After I get back from NYS, I need to make a gynecologist appointment.

today i burst into tears in the middle of a zoom meeting (luckily mostly passive companywide monthly thing)
they were playing taylor swift cruel summer over a photo slide show & i had to turn my camera off bc i was fucking SOBBING for no reason like i like tswift but i have no personal connection to the song or the slideshow

like my hormones were like LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOO

wee

my darlings, you will each get through this in your own way, and it might be very difficult at times, but then the other side is so, so free. i love it here.

I gotta say the cessation of periods has been *chefs kiss*.

This thread <3

The phrase "blood, sweat and tears" pretty much covers what I am experiencing all the time right now. Just make it all stop already :-(

like i used to be under the misapprehension that menopause meant NO period, not fuckin MORE periods
biology sucks i hate it

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, August 5, 2023 5:15 PM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

It is! Technically I don't think you're considered menopausal until you've gone a year without one.

I still haven't had any peri symptoms though a lot of my friends are really struggling. Sounds terrible tbh.

I'm getting cold flashes at night, which is actually quite welcome since I only have one of those little bedside swamp coolers for air conditioning. (Other than the fans that are all over the house.)

*I gotta say the cessation of periods has been *chefs kiss*.*

For some people the mini pill has this effect...

10 years of no periods has been great, and also not having wild mood swings. It's tough to recognize how hard we are driven by hormones until we aren't.

If y'all aren't following Dr. Jen Gunter, I highly recommend. Her newsletter The Vagenda is menopause and repro science-y goodness.

The mood swings are what I’m most looking forward to gtfo. Bleeding is messy and aggravating but it doesn’t make me utterly lose my shit every 4 weeks. Saying goodbye to dramatic mood fluctuations will feel like a zillion bucks.

*I gotta say the cessation of periods has been *chefs kiss*.*

For some people the mini pill has this effect...

― kinder, Friday, August 11, 2023 6:51 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mirena IUD too.

xp - kinda wish i could just "skip" them, like a "not feeling this, thanks" track on an album lol. I feel like the mood swings in the past year have been more intense than when I was "regular" ...

this year for me: no periods for 3 months, definitely not babby ... I'm cool with this; two regularly timed but incredibly heavy periods ... not great, Bob; two heavy periods in one month plus crazy mood swings ... ughhh.

meanwhile I am becoming like my mother, who at one point in her late 40s, read somewhere that aluminum cookware is linked to alzheimers so she got rid of all her aluminum cookware ... instead, I am diligently investing in clothing made of natural fibers that are "breathable" because that will make the night sweats less awful.

also apparently UTIs are much more common during & after "the change" ... on the bright side, all the Covid-inspired virtual medical appointments made it astonishingly easy to get a prescription for antibiotics

For me, the swings amped up to 11 through perimenopause, so frequent and intense. About a year in to the post-pause, it hit me that wasn't happening any more. Then when Trump got elected and I was 100% rage all the time, it was a different flavor - more focused, like laser-rage instead of exploding supernova.

the most annoying thing for me rn is the "brain fog"

Had a long overdue eye exam today cos I need new glasses and also diabetes = gotta get that checked. I asked about the insanity-enducing dry eyes Ive suffered from for like a year or more now and the opto immediately said "yeah sorry thats caused by hormonal changes" ie from menopause. Yugh. I hope that settles eventually! At least she recommended some drops that Actually Work for a change (Cationorm if anyone's interested).

I'm dealing with dry eyes from taking duloxetine - lotsa drops including these gel ones at night plus a silicone sleep mask from EyeEco that helps. Glad you found some drops that work!

Cool, cool, cool, so awesome, love being a woman:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjpsych-bulletin/article/severe-mental-illness-and-the-perimenopause/8D072AACBCD3C7888C173B36635C08C3

Perimenopausal hormone fluctuations lead to an idiosyncratic array of physical and psychological symptoms, which may lead to new-onset mental disorders as well as affecting pre-existing conditions. Patients with severe mental illness going through the perimenopause may expect changes in their symptomatology and response to treatment.

stoked for the madness

wait no not stoked, the other thing

i was looking forward to not bleeding through my fucking clothes every other month but yeah, okay, better put the suicide hotline at the top of my favorites again

forewarned is forearmed at least

weeee

I honestly found breast cancer easier to deal with than this menopause shit. A lot of women find it nbd; I am not one of them.

sorry quincie :(

Yeah - just given my age I assume I'm peri but I haven't noticed any symptoms to do with my actual period or otherwise whereas I have friends who are GOING THRU IT. I feel quite lucky right now but also scared because what they're going through sounds, quite frankly, horrible.

Anyone have tips/recommendations re bedding and sleep stuff to mitigate the night sweats? I am afraid to ask on social media because too many of my friends are woo-woo and I don’t want to be mean

All too timely a threadbump. WHY AM I STILL GETTING PERIODS AT MY ADVANCED AGE?

I am finding helpful to wear light PJs (top and bottom) so I can strip them off if they get damp. And I keep a large beach towel by the bed and put that down if the sheets are also damp.

I have an appointment at a specialized menopause clinic, but it is not until July. In the meantime I am simply losing my mind.

Hey I went on HRT and I recommend it!! I'm taking estrogen via a patch (so, so helpful--it hasn't reversed everything but it's making a difference in some uh very personal things that are useful), and supposed to be taking progesterone to balance out uterine tissue something something, but I noticed a slight correlation in nights that I took the progesterone + having some stomach issues, so I've been skipping it most days so basically I'm only taking the estrogen part of my Rx.

Since the start of this thread I completely finished going thru it all by the age of like 46! Pretty early. Apparently average age in American women is 51, or so my doc said. I'm reasonably sure that my height of psychological symptoms was 2020-2021 and indistinguishable from covid anxiety and frustration around other things that were happening? For instance, that was not a good time for my boyfriend to decide to have his kitchen renovated so we lacked cooking facilities for 3 months while his boorish friend came stayed over!!! In retrospect.

Anyway. Welcome to the other side!

I didn't go anywhere specialized, I just asked my regular gyn for HRT and she did an assessment and prescribed it to me.

Apart from the sweating and fatigue and muscle aches … I am actually not that bad? Except for i am becoming mildly lactose intolerant maybe?

My mynstrual tracking calendar is completely blank for 2024 so far

I mean if you got to your big age without being lactose intolerant, you've had like 30 good years post-childhood that many of us didn't get! lol

I can’t/shouldn’t have HRT thanks to good old estrogen/progesterone positive breast cancer. Though I might beg for it because I do not want to live this way.

My brain has turned into I don’t even know what. Doesn’t feel like me anymore

I'm so sorry.

Thanks IO. Good to have you back around these parts :)

Glad for both of you being around

I have one of these on my pillow, but once the gel shifts, you can't shift it back, so don't roll it up and put it in the freezer, like I did!

The sweating drives me bonkers. I mean ffs yesterday I was sweating even though it was not warm in my room and my feet were cold. Also, because of this, BO control has beocme really difficult, I end up only being able to wear every top once only, or else I stink :(

My GP has been so occupied with my T2D, I havent got round to asking about/getting onto HRT. I mus remember to mention it.

I thought about trying black cohosh/vitamin supplements, but the bottle I bought gives the indication I shouldnt take it if there's liver issues - which I have to watch cos of my cholestorol meds and drinking, so I DONT KNOW.

Trayce, if you’re not already doing so, use a cleanser like Hibiclens or Panoxyl (not all over, as they’re both drying, but in your main sweat areas). It’ll minimize the smell.

I shall indeed try that thanks for the tip!