Among Friends

[SurferWife]

Holy ******!  I think I have officially entered menopause.  Hot flashes are for the freaking birds.  For those of you who have gone through it, how long did menopause last?  I've been doing a lot of reading on the internet and many of the things I love (wine, spicy food, caffeine) encourage hot flashes.  I'm so ready to move to Alaska...LOL!

Please share your experiences if you'd like, but nobody please tell me to go to the doctor.  I don't want to hear it.

[Susan Louise]

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@SurferWife wrote:

Holy ******!  I think I have officially entered menopause.  Hot flashes are for the freaking birds.  For those of you who have gone through it, how long did menopause last?  I've been doing a lot of reading on the internet and many of the things I love (wine, spicy food, caffeine) encourage hot flashes.  I'm so ready to move to Alaska...LOL!

Please share your experiences if you'd like, but nobody please tell me to go to the doctor.  I don't want to hear it.

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@SurferWife  I had to have a full hysterectomy in 2005 due to a fibroid that grew to the size of a grapefruit within a year after I had lung cancer surgery.

Well, long story short, I still go through hot flashes 24/7 even now and see no signs of it slowing down. Some women can take estrogen supplements to help, but I can't because of the added cancer risks.

The worst part for me is at night when I try to sleep. Even with a fan on high directly on me, many nights I still have difficulty cooling down. DH will be wrapped up like an eggroll too since we have to keep the thermostat around 67 at night for me to have any chance of sleepng.

On the upside, remember every woman is different...some of which breeze through menopause with no symptoms whatsoever. I seem to be on the other end of that scale...oy.

BTW, omitting any foods or drinks didn't lesson the symptoms for me whatsoever, so I continue to enjoy them. The only exception is spicy foods...I never liked them anyway.

I'll be 60 in December.

I wish you luck

[tedEbear]

@SurferWife @Susan Louise ----Hystectomy at 42 on premrin after, until cancer was found (nothing I worried about. Mammograms since 18 because I knew I would get cancer eventually. Family blah, blah, blah!) Ripe old age of 64, BINGO, I got it. For the last9yrs I have been flashing like a red light in "THE" district.  Keep begging for premrin since I have NO girl parts and at 73 I would rather be comfortable and back to 120lbs.  This is just my opinion.   Good thoughts to everyone with Any type of cancer.-------------tedEbear

[sunshine45]

well, i hate to tell you this, but i have been HOT for probably 7 years now. there seems to be no end in sight. not much helps other than a/c, keeping the heat low, and wearing layers that i can peel off. i have been so happy that autumn finally has arrived and the cooler weather is here. sleeping at night is so much better with the windows open. i dont care for fans blowing on me.

it is pretty rare that i am cold. i dont wear heavy coats anymore, i dont wear leather jackets anymore, cannot stand turtlenecks or any top that is too constricting.  my stash of tank tops has grown tremendously and i rarely need blush anymore. LOL

oh well, it beats the alternative.......

[SurferWife]

Thank you @Susan Louise for sharing your experience.  I have read that another symptom of menopause is difficulty sleeping.  I've noticed since I started taking magnesium before bed (I used to be good about it then got lazy), I'm sleeping like a baby.

I'm 53 and really just started noticing hot flashes within the last month or 2.  I didn't think anything of it until I started researching menopause & a little light bulb went off in my head.

I never recall my mama complaining much about menopause so hopefully I won't have a rough road of it.

Thanks again for your input.

[Drythe]

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@SurferWife wrote:

Holy ******!  I think I have officially entered menopause.  Hot flashes are for the freaking birds.  For those of you who have gone through it, how long did menopause last?  I've been doing a lot of reading on the internet and many of the things I love (wine, spicy food, caffeine) encourage hot flashes.  I'm so ready to move to Alaska...LOL!

Please share your experiences if you'd like, but nobody please tell me to go to the doctor.  I don't want to hear it.

---

@SurferWife 

No information to add, just saw your nick and popped in to say HI, and wish you, Mr. Surfer, and sweet Toby all the best.

[x Hedge]

   @SurferWife   

I started peri-menopause in my late 30s. By the time I hit the early 40s I constantly alternated between hot flashes and being freezing cold. At night I'd wake up soaking with sweat in the 2 o'clock hour every night.

I developed migrains, which thankfully ceased after hormones stabilized at their new level. My skin appearance and texture changes were typical.

And my mother's words came back to me.

She said if you ever need to lose a few pounds, do it while you still have your hormones, so your body will cooperate with you. It seems to be much harder to reshape your body after menopause.

I went into a fitness phase, wanting to lose 20 to 30 pounds, while adding more underlying muscle.

Yes, it worked, and the unexpected bonus was as soon as I started being aerobic every day, the hot flashes and night sweats abruptly stopped, and never returned.

Edit- my mother's started in her late 50s, and I recall she developed acne in her 60s!

[Naturesbeauty]

Look into Andrew Lessman “Positive Passage” supplement. It has really helped me with my hot flashes. Go to HSN and read all the reviews. Also his “Womens Wellness” supplement.

[DottieBlue]

Hot flashes are horrible.  I wanted to buy a freezer chest, drill a few air holes in it, crank it up and sleep in it!

All cotton bedding - sheets, blankets, quilts, etc., and cotton nightwear, greatly reduced night sweats.

My doctor wouldn't put me on hormones so I had to just muddle through.  Couldn't sleep, (wish I knew about taking magnesium), and gained a horrible amount of weight that absolutely will not come off.  

It lasted more than 15 years for me.  Finally is subsiding.  

I hope your discomfort subsides soon.

[iwrite]

symptoms

in the beginning, i was way too busy to realize why i was sweating all the time. looking back, i think it was best that i was so busy.

after about 5 years, the hot flashes decreased and the hot, then cold thing, has stopped . . . at least for the time being.

thank goodness for my dyson fan/heater! won't be without one. i've had the first one for over 5 years and bought one as a back up, a week or so ago, when it was a tsv.

i have a friend that is 70, and she still has hot flashes. i don't know if being on what i call life long meds, contributes to her hot flashes or not.

i'm not on any meds.

i don't have a problem going to sleep, could be because i'm up doing something for close to 20 hours a day, so by the time i lay down, i'm sleep or as my mother would say, 'i'm in a coma'.

like your mom, my mother didn't complain either, but she was also the person that would have eye surgery, then drive herself to work, eye patch and all, so i learned a long time ago, that i was not made of what she was.

i haven't complained about it either. i just bought more light weight clothes to wear <smile>. there have been more days then i want to remember, that i would change cloths 4 or 5 times a day. i don't know how women that have a lot of hot flashes make it through the day at work sitting in the same clothes all day. fortunately, i work from home, so i can change clothes whenever i want. but that was a plan i had for years.

i think the fact that i am busy the entire time that i am awake, helps because i don't have the time to sit around and think about how annoying the hot flashes can be.

it's a rare day, where i will even just sit and watch and hour of tv. the tv is on, but i am doing something else at the same time.

i know some people have a hard time getting their day started. i haven't had that happen either.

how long does menopause last? hmmm, until it stops. i don't think that there is a general cut off date. you may have some symptoms, for lack of a better word now, then those go away and you get different  ones down the road.

i think a key thing is to eat and be healthy and do what you need to do to take care of your immune system. if that goes bonkers, i suspect more issues will appear. by that i mean, don't become deficient in vitamin d for example. your insides start to slow down and not produce things on their own, like they use to.