Woman ? Warning TMI post

krzymomof4

Have any of you been through "the change" or "Pre Change"?
I know I am young for this, 36, but some women in my family have went through it early. My mom has been going through it for over 8 years.
My question is did you lack motivation, etc? I don't much care about squat anymore, the house could fall down around my ears and I don't think it would phase me much. I am tired all the time and don't sleep well at night.
Has anyone had this experience or am I loosing my mind?

Kitchen Diva

Due to some unwise medical decisions by doctors, I am in peri-menopause at the age of 36 and I have had issues with severe fatigue, pain, foggy mind, hot flashes, insomnia, (yes with severe fatigue, it goes in cycles) etc... I have been on Hormone Therapy for almost 2 years... I stopped taking it to see if I still needed to take it, and after 30 days my body unanimously asked me to start taking it again. I take the bio-identical hormones... I take Progesterone and Testosterone (I call that one my macho man in a bottle) LOL

krzymomof4

I have had night sweats, but they are infrequent. My cycles are really messed up anyway. Go for 2-3 days. off for 1-2 days, back on for 1-2 days. Then it seems like I do it all over again. I have also started to get a migraine the first full day of my you know what. LOL

Kitchen Diva

I deal with the same thing- the hormones helped with that! I have too much estrogen... my body doesn't feel like making cortisol, testosterone or progesterone on it's own...

Ginger428

I went through mine REALLY early...was totally finished by the time I was 40. Sorry, but I guess at the time I was working WAY to much (7 days a week) to notice...

krzymomof4

Well....you are no help at all now are ya

Kitchen Diva

funny!!

pamperedlinda

Have you had your thyroid checked?

Kitchen Diva

Yes, and interestingly enough SEVEN doctors said it was fine... Thanks for asking though, Linda!

Oh, wait,,, you weren't asking me, were you? Oops!

krzymomof4

The last time I had it checked was about 3 years ago. According to my OBGYN, all my bloodwork came back fine. Levels, etc.

ChefBeckyD

Google Hypothyroidism, and read up on it.

The frustrating thing is that most DR's, as long as your thyroid is active, will tell you that it is fine. There is more and more info out there about underactive thyroid, and how much it can effect you, but the medical community continues to rely on old data and information.

I was told by 2 different DR's that my thyroid was fine...but finally went to a DR who said my thyroid was underactive. I now take a natural Thyroid medication (Armour Thyroid) and it makes all the difference in my life. I have found that you have to fight for your health with some DR's....and keep searching until you find a DR who doesn't just give pat answers!

susan g

These are also symptoms of depression. You can be depressed and not even feel sad. You may want to consider that if your thyroid is not the problem. With 4 kids, I'm sure it's easy to get overwhelmed and a little burned out (I only have 3 and I feel that way sometimes). Good luck!

Your MD should be able to check about perimenopause with a blood test too, so ask next time you go.

pcchefjane

I have been "pre-menopause" for over 10 years! I think my hot flashes and sleeplessness have a lot to do with my stress level. Right now, I have been out of work over 3 months and am working my PC but it is not at the "support" level right now. My DD & SIL are having some financial problems due to their "own bad decisions" according to my DD but add my bills to theirs plus DD not getting about $600 a month in income right now due to maternity leave and it's stressful! The last period I had was in July but it was about 24 hours. I have had the "bleed 4 days; stop 2 days; bleed 4 more" thing in the past several years. All the drs can tell me is that I am "pre-menopause" and it is hereditary when you stop. Well, my sister was 61 and my Mom was 60 and I am now 56 so that gives me not much hope! According to what drs have told me, you are pre-menopause until you have completely stopped any periods for 12-18 months. I have gone as long as 11 months... It's not fun. Just keep a fan close by!

chefshawna

I have found that bloodwork for your thyroid is rarely accurate in detecting a problem with the thyroid. My sister had thyroid cancer and her blood work was always fine, I am having surgery on Monday to have mine removed for possible cancer and my bloodwork has always been fine. I hear a lot of people say there bloodwork never came back abnormal, yet they had problems. Not that I am in anyway saying you have thyroid cancer!!! It is very rare! I am just saying that you should ask them to do further testing of the thyroid if you continue to feel this way and don't get anywhere with the menopause meds!! Good luck!

kathijenkins

I was 29 when I started having problems. I got the DepoProvera shot after my last child & apparently my body reacted very badly. It literally shut everything down...I had no estrogen, progresterone, testerone, nothing & that was after only 1 shot!! So after fighting with my doc for what felt like forever & not having a cycle for a year, they finally sent me to a GYN specialist & the hormone replacment started. After 6 months of no progress, that doctor sent me to a fertility specialist. I felt like such a loser going to that one...I mean here's a room full of women trying to conceive & then me who's just trying to get a cycle going. Anyway, after another 6 months, we FINALLY were able to "jump start" things again. Now the kicker...my cycles aren't what you would call normal & they can't guarantee I'll make it to 50 having cycles but for now at least my "plumbing" is trying to work. And the last time the doc got the bright idea to start me on OCP to control some other issues, guess what? It shut down again!!

And for info google perimenopause...there's a bunch of sites out there with info, what questions to ask, support you name it. But I highly recommend keeping that fan near by & a washcloth handy to wipe your brow!!

ETA-here's one website that may help...http://www.webmd.com/menopause/guide...-perimenopause

MissChef

Oh Leslie, Thanks for starting this thread! I don't feel so alone anymore! It's times like these that I am so appreciative of this board! It can be very educational as well as supportive!
It's nice to know I'm not the only one, although, I don't wish this on my worst enemy! I feel so old and tired and I often feel like I don't even care about some things that I should be paying more attention too, like cleaning the house! I need to loose weight and exercise, I think I'm bigger than I've ever been and in this last year I feel so disgusted with myself. I want to be healthy and I try to be but dang it's so hard to motivate myself to exercise compared to what I use to be able to do! After I had my son, I got into such great shape, and then I let it go!
I must be going through the change because I have such weird patterns! I will go for days staying awake late and then days sleeping more, basically trying to catch up!
Anyway, more later, I need to finish the laundry and try to go to bed!

Ginger428

Alrighty Then!!

raebates

Definitely check on your thyroid.

Another thing to try is progesterone cream. One of the first hormones to go is progesterone. Creams are available at most health food/alternative medicine/supplement places. It's not particularly expensive. You just rub about 1/4 teaspoon into your skin. I noticed a difference after about 3 days. It helped me to sleep better, which made a huge difference. But, it also seemed to even things out for me. The great thing is that if it's not what yo need, you just don't see any difference. My adviser told me that if I didn't see any change after a week to discontinue using it. (She also told me to bring it back. She's the shop owner, and she's great.)

Just know that you're not alone. Peri-menopause can happen naturally as early as your 20s. And, of course, medical menopause can happen at any age due to surgery or injury.

chefkristin

Ladies, I just need to say please be careful of the HRT (hormone replacement therapy). This can cause a lot of other problems and one of them is strokes. My mom had a stroke while she was on it and they immediately stopped it. Now she has to suffer with the hot flashes but at least those won't kill her. They did find out that she had a hole in her heart and they did repair that but there is so much stuff out there pointing to the HRT being a culprit as well and adding to the issue. Just be careful. Oh and mom is fine thank god! She is my miracle.

krzymomof4

I am going to see my dr about the thyroid thing.
Does anyone know if having a hysterectomy helps or makes it worse?