(peri)menopause

Thanks Wolf - I eat soy as part of my protien intake. But, not excessively (not daily by any stretch).

I have been taking flax seed oil because I've heard that it's a good idea for many reasons from many different people.

I do get a regular pap, my last was at my last pelvic, I'm prolly due one soon. As far as I know they don't check for hormones, but for cancer and other abnormalities.

All I know is that I am sick of sweating in the winter. I had my nephew in a 60 degree house, I was sweating and didn't realize the temps were so low until I took him by the frozen little paw. Poor kid.

Beth - it seems hormones control everything - but, I don't know what really regulates body temps.

I know (vaguely/distant memory of learning) that a problem with the thyroid can screw up your internal thermometer.

What an interesting thread! And I'm 43, so it's time to start thinking about it.

I find Evening Primrose Oil really helpful for PMS & dry skin/hair. Does anyone else use it? I take 1000 mg capsules when I get PMS.

I also use Sage tea for night-sweats, and it works like a charm. I get powdered Sage cheap from the supermarket and pour boiling water over it (maybe a heaping teasponful). It doesn't taste very good, but a bit of honey & lemon makes it more palatable. Got this from an old herbal book. It works amazingly well, for me.

Never heard about excessive soy being bad for you! But I don't eat/take a lot of it.

I put flax seeds in salads, and to me they have very little taste. I hardly even notice they're there.

K, have you had your thyroid levels checked?

Yep, the shrugging doctor did check my thyroid and my blood glucose and both my thryoid and my pancreas (is that the insulin organ?) were working fine.

Borriskitten - Evening primrose is also widely recommended. I could try sage tea, I have some sage here for cooking.....

Just documenting, here...

Tonight the backs of my hands were sweating. In a house at < 65º.

Yack.

LilK, this sort of reminds me of my nose. A weird symptom. I happen to not smell much and never have and had it checked out. Your thermom is off and it seems worth exploring.

Although, hey, it could be your air circulation.

When we go into our gallery in the morning in winter, it is cold, although it could be colder if we shut the heat off entirely, but we keep the temp relatively steady for the art.
Still, when we turn on the watts in the morning, the heat flings around from the source, bouncing from wall to wall. It will say 67 and we're freezing and 63 and we're roasting - depending on where we are sitting or standing (we have 15 foot high ceilings, and fans).

Nah, it happens everywhere, osso..... in all seasons for the last year or more. I've had face sweats torso sweats - sometimes I get shin sweats. Very very weird.

Yep, my thermostat is broken.

Thank you littlek for bringing this topic to light. I am 48 and have yet to experience any of the "regular" symptoms of peri or actual menopause with the exception of an occasional (like every six month occasional) abnormal period. I'll bleed for 3 days, stop for 3 days and then begin for another 3 days.. This started about 3 years ago when I had my period for 35 out of 43 days. My doctor gave me a ten day dose of Provera and things went back to normal except for the once every six month weird one. They blame that on a few fibroids I have.

While I haven't had any of the hot flashes or irritability I have noticed that my skin and hair are much drier than normal. I followed J_B's and shewolfs advice and went out and got some Cold Pressed Flaxseed Oil 1000mg gelcaps and started taking them yesterday. I also bought a good B-Complex supplement. I haven't started the B-Complex yet because at times I develop a huge hypersensitivity to certain products ( find out as I go) The last time I tried anything natural/herbal I ended up with constant vomiting and diarrhea for 19 days before I realized it was the herbal making me so sick... Doh!! I have to introduce one thing at a time and see how it goes and if all is well, I can start something else.

I am really looking forward to the benefits of the flaxseed and the B-Complex though, provided they work well with my prescription meds. So far, so good! I was actually hoping by my age, I would be completely through menopause. Both my sister and my mom had to have very early hysterectomies (ages 27 and 34) and I have always envied that they never had to have a period again!

And I am wondering if lilK's temp thing has anything at all to do with meno.

First of all, you are in reasonable athletic shape, from my nonathletic point of view, LK. That might account for a degree or two and maybe that is worth investigating, re in-shape and body temp.

I'd also start to look on the internet, wary of course of most everything, re a clue.

Years ago and far away, as I've posted here before and forgotten the name of the guy before, some guy used to sit across from me staring, at the ucla biomed library. Turns out it was the guy who did the dome biosphere in Arizona thing, who subsisted on not much, who a neighbor of ours, Barbara something worked with... but to cut to the chase, he popularized, so to speak, the idea of few calories being much better.

Maybe your temp is diet related re metabolic processes and is normal for that.

just an idea.

K, At your age, I'd be skeptical about menopause. There can be a million reasons why you are having sweats. Have you seen an endocrinologist?

Osso - I did look online. I didn't first assume it had anything to do with menopause, but I couldn't find much else online having anything to do with hot flashes. Maybe I need to tweak the search words.

Hmm.. so if I am gathering this information correctly, you are SWEATING alot.. and that is the only symptom?

interesting.

If that is the case then you may need to have your back checked out again. Remember when you had that nerve pain in your back? One of the symptoms of nerve damage is excessive , or rather instant sweating... Sometime it is only the airy sensation of sweating and there is no sweat produced..

More commonly known as Neuropathy.
Strange but true..

try googling

sudden excessive sweating

I can't automatically pull up the name of the md who made such a noise re very low calorie eating being better (at first re folks in asia with way low cal at high altitude, I think), and was part of the biosphere projects. When I go on google to look it up, I see mostly recent items.

However, I think of you as eating relatively small amounts and being in good physical shape. Your temp may be different than other folks just because of that combo of low input, relatively high output.

Shewolf - thanks! That is interesting and something to think about.

Osso, I'd think that having a different temp would make me tend to sweat more all around, not in flashes.

So, I completely skipped a period. It's sort of nice, but a little scary.

Time marches on.

Of course, you could be pregnant.

Um, nope, not pregnant. Unless God needs a new son.

Suppose the Goddess needs a daughter?

Either way, unless it's immaculate conception, I ain't preggers.