Hello everyone. I'm new here, and I'm so glad to find a community where my out-of-whack body doesn't make me feel like an oddball!

I had been trying to cope old-school, like my mom and grandmother who just suffered silently, but when the pounds started creeping on after fatigue made it nearly impossible for me to work out, I finally broke down and went to see my gynecologist. In addition to the "normal" symptoms of perimenopause, she also found uterine fibroids, which she said likely account for my heavier than normal periods (which were already much heavier than I was comfortable with). She prescribed a low dose birth control pill, which I am now in my second week of taking, hoping that lessens my most severe symptoms.

If I could just shake the fatigue so I can drag my ever widening butt out of bed an hour earlier to exercise, I would consider it a success. Before the fatigue set in, I had begun weightlifting and lost about 15 lbs (still leaving me about 10 lbs overweight). Of course, I have now put on an additional 10 lbs., so I actually need to lose about 35 lbs.