paying attention
waiting for instructions to start knitting a halo
menopause forever closes the nursery while leaving the kitchen still open for business.
What a lovely time in a womans life. (and a man's)
I am not worried about not being able to bear children. I'm worried about the implications of early menopause - higher heart disease risks, I believe, and maybe other things. Plus, I will never really know when I'm ovulating until I know for sure it's all over.
perimenopause - definite pregnancy russian roulette time
littlek, you might have already answer this and I missed it but, did you get your hormone levels checked or talk to a gynie?
J_B - I have only spoken with my GP. I do plan to see a gyn/ob, but I am being lazy.
I had blood tests for thyroid levels, a hormone to do with my ovaries and another one. Blood was taken friday, I'll get results this week. Meanwhile, I spent the weekend deciding whether I should go on the pill. The OB/GYN said that pre-menopause wasn't a problem in and of itself. She gently pushed the birth control if I wanted things regular. I will try it for a few months.
So, if anyone reads this and is willing to take notice of my moods, let me know if I start getting emotional and sensitive.
I'm still emotional and sensitive, with less hormones romping around.
Are you talking about the hrt pills? I loved them, they really helped me. Sadly a percentage of women, low, but real, appear to be adversely affected. If you look at stats, all the phoofuraw has been about not that much of a percentage, as I remember, but that translates to many more people.
I've had breast cancer. I am always aware of that. Saw my surgeon for the fourth year just this morning. Clean bill/health. I really admire this woman, another story.
anyway, I might have gotten my bc from any of many places, starting with radiation as a person who took xrays at sixteen, to lab chemicals up the kazoo over fifteen not so careful years of lab medicine, to lots of time with kerosene in printmaking and turpentine as a painter, and years of hormone therapy and before that birthcontrol pills, and who knows what I knoshed on. Or gardened with.
I was rather fond of my HRT, but waved goodbye the day of my positive bio.
That was a safety measure.. I am not at all sure it had anything to do with my tiny dots.
Didn't see you up there, Beth - yes it is a tricky time fertility-wise.....
Osso - congrats on your 4 yeras of well-being! These are not HRT, it's a low-hormone birth control pill.
Littlek, I went on BCP to regulate my cycles when I was 41. I just came off them a few months ago. I found myself less emotional and sensitive while on them then when I came off.
J_B - has the emotional ride abated? Seems that maybe any changes in hormones could make one emotional.
It's not too bad, but my cycle is screwed up again. Knowing and sometimes controlling your cycle has it's advantages.
Irregular cycles are annoying, cycles which occur too frequently are super-annoying, but not being able to accurately know when I'm ovulating is downright scary sometimes.
Exactly! I'm in the super-annoying and scary categories.
So, why are you off them?
I was hoping I no longer needed them. I had this fantasy that I would BCP my way through menopause and at 49 I could come off and be done with it all. Er, fantasy indeed. I could go back on but I have a family history of strokes, phlebitis, pulmonary embolisms, etc on both sides of the family. I felt like I was playing Russion Roulette. If my cycles continue to be 17 days and less I'll start up again.
littlek, remember that ovulation in general is way less predictable than we used to think -- so not being able to predict ovulation might not be so different from thinking you can predict it. (Unless you're like doing complicated thermometer-type calculations -- timing alone isn't reliable.)
littleK, I just noticed this topic. I went through a weird time when I was 36 and I also thought it was peri-menopause. I didn't miss cycles, but my hair and skin texture changed and I lost a lot body hair. While I still have a ton of hair on my head, but I noticed gray for the first time. It was like I passed into another stage of life. I'm now 44 and I haven't had more big noticable changes (OK I'm not as horny as I was at 36), but back then it was like I walked over a line into a new stage of life.
PS-I thought the soy information was interesting. My husband and I started living together when I was 36 and he is a vegetarian. My soy consumption went way up - like I was eating it every day instead of once a week. I did cut down, but I still think it might have influenced my hormones to some degree.
J_B - what about the actual HRT?
Soz, I had a good deal of luck with the method. But:
To anyone who thinks they can rely on the rythm method - it is a notoriously dangerous form of birth control. Completely unreliable. I just got really really lucky.
