Looking for perimenopausal and menopausal friends!!!

Right there with everyone here! Adding everyone so we can support each other.

Perimeno here and in the gaining bandwagon.
Started yesterday again with MFP and I forgot how good it feels to have something keeping you on track.
First time checking the forums though

gailwarning757 wrote: »

Yep! I started perimenopause 5 years ago. My doctor put me on birth control pills and anti-anxiety (Celexa) as a I started having panic attacks. Thanks to Celexa I put on 30 lbs quickly and CANNOT get them off. My doctor said I'll have to work 3x as hard as most people but I'm so discouraged. I've been dieting since May 1 and have lost 4 lbs. I started MFP 10 days ago, so I am hoping that will help. I'm getting plenty of exercising in. Still. So frustrating!!!

How is your anxiety level? I hope that you are feeling better. I also put on a lot of weight when I went on a similar medication. Only now that I am in a better place emotionally can I address the weight issue. I have been on MFP since March and have been able to lose some weight. Losing 4 pounds is great! Be encouraged! You can do it!

_SKIM_ wrote: »

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/506-near-or-post-menopausal-group

A good groups exists. Just hit join.

Thanks ... I joined it.

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I've been perimenopausal since 2011 (44 yrs old), although some Drs started telling me I might be in perimenopause when I was as young as 36, so who knows ... but definitely since 2011.

In early 2014, I started bleeding 3 weeks out of every 4, and figured it was just more perimenopausal symptoms to add to the list of symptoms I had already been battling with.

Almost a year later in early December 2014, I had enough and finally went to the Dr. She rushed me into an ultrasound, got the results, informed me she was booking me with a gynaecologist, and I was in a special appointment on Dec 23rd where I was told I had a very large polyp in my uterus which had to come out immediately because of the possibility of cancer. Merry Christmas to me! Early January, I was into surgery and it was removed.

The gynaecologist told me that the presence of a polyp was a sign that I was in perimenopause ... and that when they were in there removing it and having a look around, there was evidence I was in perimenopause ... and that I should be finished with it all in about 3 years ...and that I also showed the early signs of cancer. I have to be checked every six months. So far so good.

As for that 3 year prediction, I'm halfway through and no sign of things ending yet, so it may have been a bit optimistic.


Regarding weight ... I slowly gained weight from about mid-2012 until I joined MFP, after that surgery, in February 2015. The weight gain was simply because I was eating more than I was burning, of course, but the background to that was that I had a number of very unsettle years ... lots of travelling and moving. I was exercising less and wasn't focusing on what I was eating.

Nevertheless, I figured that it was highly unlikely I could lose weight. I figured I had reached an age where being slightly overweight was just how it was going to be.

So when I joined MFP, I decided to stick to the calories that MFP gave me absolutely and completely ... and prove to anyone who cared that I could not lose weight. I would stick to it for 5 weeks, and at the end of 5 weeks, when I hadn't lost a single gram, I would resume my normal diet and that would be that.

For 10 days I was right ... not a gram lost.

And then I started losing weight. 5 weeks in, and I had lost 5 kg.

My plan was out the window. Obviously I could lose weight after all. So I kept sticking with it for a full 16 weeks and lost 15 kg, thus reaching my first goal.

I took a 1-month break to decide what to do next, and then resumed the diet for another 16 weeks, and lost another 10 kg, dropping to a weight I haven't seen since 2004 ... the weight I was most of my adult life ... the weight I was in high school.

I've been maintaining since last Christmas. I wouldn't mind losing another 2 or 3 kg, but right now I'm training for long distance cycling events and it is kind of hard to focus on losing weight while trying to get stronger.


Regarding perimenopause ... I'm finding it very annoying! Dizziness in the days leading up to my periods (although that has eased some in recent months), hot flashes when I exert myself, night sweats that have me up in the middle of the night when I need the sleep. Bleeding any old time, which really puts a damper on exercise like swimming. I'm not much of a swimmer, but used to go maybe once a month on average ... I think I've gone swimming only 2 or 3 times in the last couple years. And getting my periods immediately before or during my long distance cycling events, whether I'm due to get one or not ... that "feature" is particularly annoying!!


OK, that was long and wordy ... time to stop now!

I just bought the Dukan diet book and started it 4 days ago. I have lost 8lbs so far and still in the attack phase. I have Been menopausal and been either gaining or struggling for the last year and a half. Have tried juice fasting, Paleo and vegan and nothing brought my weight down more then a couple of pounds. I am thrilled!!

I have menopause , anxiety disorder, major depression., heart problems , Add , chest pains, acid reflex, u name it I have it.. & im going threw treatments ..