Author |
Message |
Dfennessey
Member
07-25-2004
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 10:44 am
My doctor told me you do take after your mother's side of the famaily when it comes to going thru the change. My mother died at 48 and I do not think she had gone thru it
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Serate
Member
08-21-2001
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 11:46 am
Well I took after my mom as far as cramps go. I never had a baby but I remember one time as a teen going to the doc for something and him asking me if I was having bad cramps. Said oh nothing spectacular. He said I was cramping so hard he could see my stomach cramp and it should hurt like crazy. He also said I was going to take after my mom when it came to childbirth. When my mom had her first baby she had to be told she was in labor. She said her worst contraction was like a tap on the middle of her back, kinda like when you put your finger behind your thumb and flick it. The other 2 babies didn't hurt at all either. With me her last she decided no meds and walked into the labor room and walked out. AND made them hold supper for her because it was her favorite. [My mom was the only person I ever knew who could go into the hosptial and gain weight on their food!] But I never ever had the bleeding problems she had during regular periods or in peri before they took everything out. I lasted MAYBE 2 days.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 12:18 pm
WHAT do people DO when they have their monthly hormonal ups and downs???? Do you take meds? Do you see a shrink? I can't take it anymore. I'm borderline bipolar at the best of times. sigh. I am so done with it! I get so anxious and depressed til thoughts in my head dive down so low as to include suicidal thoughts, which of course I ignore. Thankfully I think I'm mostly over the last bout which lasted for quite a few days. Since I had a partial hysterectomy in the summer of 2004, I thought that I was still having PMS, but since I'm 52 it's most likely peri-menopause or actual menopause, (shrug) I dunno.
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Beekindpleez
Member
07-18-2006
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 1:37 pm
One year...no periods. Hot Flashes...yes. Mood swings...yes. (Darling DH has definately learned to accept these, bless his heart) I love it. I feel young again. Granted, weight gain and other bodily changes, but after years of difficult periods, etc. I feel free and am learning to really enjoy this time in my life with kids gone and DH and I reconnecting as just the two of us. No HRT for me.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 4:21 pm
I went for about 10 months without a period and then last month, had one. It was very light but it was there. I thought I was probably good and done with it but surprise! I have the wonderful hot flashes, I have the wonderful mood swings but I also find being at this stage in life to be very freeing. I say what I feel, I don't hold back too often. I feel more me, if that makes any sense. My mom was 50 when her periods stopped and I just turned 50 so I'm hoping!
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 5:25 pm
You'd think if you started your periods early in life you would stop earlier and start late -- stop later. My doc said it's the opposite -- start early, stop later and start late, stop earlier.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 5:30 pm
I started a bit later in life so I guess I'm glad about that now!
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Landileigh
Member
07-29-2002
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 5:38 pm
i haven't had a period since june, since i started on insulin. i'm 45. my mom never had menopause, but she died at 54. i have no symptoms. but then again, i do have to inject insulin at least 6 times a day!
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 5:45 pm
officially you have to be period free for one year to be considered starting menopause. having no period for months and then a light one is definitely perimenopause and can go on for years.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 6:32 pm
I started way late -- two weeks before my 16th birthday. Wonder when I would have stopped -- naturally. Plumbing out at age 43.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 6:59 pm
I've been in perimenopause since turning 40. It's been so much fun! LOL
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Landileigh
Member
07-29-2002
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 7:29 pm
i know i'm not in menopause. but i wonder if i'll ever know about if i'm in it, as everytime i have a trauma to my body it just STOPS.
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Sportsfan
Member
09-03-2007
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 7:57 pm
Mame, hang in.....it gets better! I went 8 months then a light period. Then 10 months and another light period, now almost 2 years. Heat flashes and mood swings were really bad until about 4 months ago, I think I made it whoop!! p.s. just turned 50-started peri kinda young.
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Y2krazy
Member
09-17-2002
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 8:22 pm
I started very early, before my eleventh birthday. Stopped at 45ish....went four months without a period before I noticed! (I had a lot on my mind at the time) Then I had one a year until last birthday in March (50!) and haven't had one since....the last few years...very, very light. All my life they were very heavy and quite a few cramps. Night sweats and hot flashes were something else! I'd wake up feeling like I'd wet the bed...have to change, put fresh sheets on...(waking DH to do it!) I've been too hot my whole life, but a hot flash is like a fire rushing over you...it sweeps across you. I told my work mates to watch out for a pile of ashes...I was sure I'd burst into flames at some point, and DH would want something to bury....maybe. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I also became diabetic, and doctor didn't want me to be on hormones as well as the meds to control the sugar...Oh well, most of the symptoms are done..no more night sweats, and far fewer hot flashes. DH is very good-natured and has put up with my mood swings..he just says, I think I'll leave you alone for a while...and walks away. Our 25th anniversary is coming up in less than 2 weeks....I knew he was a keeper. LOL
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 8:58 pm
My husband now looks at me with fear in his eyes! LOL He knows that it's better not to cross me too much.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 9:00 pm
Mamie, bad news for me was that once the periods finally ended, I had never-ending hot flashes, as in ten to twenty an hour, 24 hours a day, which meant next to no sleep. After ten months, I happened to mention it to an OLD woman at work who I had heard was having hot flashes. She said she had been having them for TEN YEARS!!! I got on drugs right then and there, tried to go off them when the scary study came out but the hot flashes came back in a day or so of quitting the pills. I am not at particularly high risk for any of the side effects, so I am still on pills.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 9:03 pm
I have been surviving on not much sleep this whole past year. It's the night sweats and the insomnia. I find that I can handle them so far. I plan on sticking it our as far as I can go.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, November 30, 2007 - 6:49 am
I had my hysterectomy at 45, but I had stopped my periods the year before. The damn perimenopause was worse than PMS!!! I have been on ERT since my surgery. My aunt had estrogen driven breast cancer 3 years ago and my mom died of a heart attack 5 years ago, so I have decided that 5 years of ERT are enough. So far, the hot flashes/night sweats are livable.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Friday, November 30, 2007 - 8:00 am
I was on Premarin (estrogen) for 12 years starting day after hysterectomy. Then I got the DCIS (very early breast cancer) diagnosis. Was that the cause? Who knows for sure. Any ways, stopped cold turkey. Two - three months of occasional night sweats. That was it.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, November 30, 2007 - 9:54 am
Texannie, I would do the same, given your family history. And one day of my peri-menopause was WAY worse than my entire life's total of PMS. I had been teeheeing my entire adult life what a breeze I had of things, and then I got payback in spades from 47 to 50.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, November 30, 2007 - 1:26 pm
No joke, I never had any cramps, PMS probs ect like my friends did. Then BAM, the forties and perimenopause hit and it was awful!!! I kept taking pregnancy tests cause I wouldn't have a period, would gain weight, tender breasts the whole nine yards.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, November 30, 2007 - 1:36 pm
I was just going to enter high school when I first had my period. I used to get physically ill and my cramps were so bad that I would be curled up in a ball for the first day. After I started taking the pill, it made a world of difference. I stopped taking that some 27 years ago and after having my children, was very regular with some mild cramping. I've been lucky that it hasn't changed since I've been in perimenopause. I don't have much cramping.
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Beekindpleez
Member
07-18-2006
| Friday, November 30, 2007 - 2:42 pm
Oh yes...no sleeping. Can't remember the last time I slept. But, it's kind of fun, too... for instance, I saw nearly every moment of Big Brother. lol And I sure can get a lot accomplished in the middle of the night.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, November 30, 2007 - 2:51 pm
Bee, I find if I take at least 1000 mg of Calcium at bedtime, I sleep the whole night.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, November 30, 2007 - 5:04 pm
Calcium makes you sleep?? Sheesh, maybe I better quit taking mine at morning and noon.
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