Ladies of the lounge who have been through or are going through "the change"

[lunatica]

116. You remind me of what I went through

Let's see. Your skin looks like shit. Your hair has lost all its luster. You've gained weight yet you can barely eat a meal because one moment you're hungry and the next moment the very thought of food makes you want to throw up. You now know when you're getting a hot flash and there's not a damn thing you can do for the next half hour because it has it's cycle to go through. And this fucking pattern now happens on a timetable. Towards the end of mine it happened every half hour, so that like clockwork I was having a twenty to thirty minute hot flash a half hour after the last one. At night when you have a hot flash it wakes you up instantly from even the most profound sleep. And it's gotten or is getting to the point that you don't care if you're becoming a total bitch because you're life has turned into a living hell.

I went through it for ten years because there were no doctors who specialized in it so no one was there to help. At the end I was ready to grab a doctor by the lapels and threaten their lives in order to force one to help me. I had gone for months with hot flashes that came every half hour, day and night, with all the above symptoms. I ended up with a doctor who specialized in difficult pregnancies who examined me and took blood. When the results of the lab came back he told me I was actually finished with menopause. He gave me hormones and when I took the fist pill my hot flashes went from dozens to one in one day. Then I never got another one again. The relief was immense!

I took estrogen and progesterone for about six months but decided to try stopping the hormones because I didn't want to keep having those fake periods. I was able to get off them and have been perfectly OK for the last dozen years.

My life is better than it ever was before menopause. I was finished a dozen years ago and it's been the best part of my life.

If you can find a way of getting treatment it will be well worth your time. You'll become human again the moment you start taking hormones. You'll become one of those wise old ladies you admire.