any other ladies in menopause out there?

I'm 45 as well and yes I've been post menopausal for over 9 years! My doctor finally made me take iron pills because I was tired all the time so, now I'm diagnosed with anemia. When I starting feeling hungry all of the time I had carrot stick and other healthy snacks available! Good Luck! Feel free to add me !

Howdy from hot flash central!

I'm 41 and hit perimenopause at age 40, less than a year after having my daughter. Go figure! I get bad cravings sometimes too. Once I eat something "bad", I just want more! The only advice I have is to just keep all junk foods out of your house. I won't eat it if it isn't there. But I did do some damage to a bag of olive oil and rosemary chips over the weekend...:sick:

I'm dealing with the hot flashes as best I can. I've heard that soy isoflavones or dong quai are supposed to be good supplements. i just started using dong quai (soy apparently messes with your thyroid, so I couldn't take them). Hopefully it will help. My doctor suggested I take birth control pills to replace the hormones I'm losing, but I'm resistant to go that route. Those middle-of-the-night sweats are the WORST! Its funny, I'm one of those people who is always cold. And now this.

Maybe we can create a virtual "menopause snack bar" where we can pretend that we're face-down in a bowl of Ben & Jerry's.

absolutely bumping this

Yup, 49 and been having terrible hot flashes for the past 6 months.

I discussed HRT with my doctor, but am unwilling to go that route - she suggested that soy is nearly as effective, so that's what I'm trying. I take a soy multi-vit tablet every day, and also drink soy milk and yoghurt, soy desserts (boy they're good!) linseeds, and roast soy beans. Oh and I also wear a magnet in my knickers

I've recently changed my attitude: it's not life-threatening or dangerous, just very very uncomfortable. So why don't I take steps to deal with the discomfort. I ordered myself some gorgeous special nightgowns that wick away sweat, and those really help me to get a better nights sleep. I keep a facecloth under my pillow to wipe around my face and head if I wake up, and keep a bottle of cold water beside my bed.

During the day, I always carry a little mini fan in my handbag, and have a bottle of water on hand to press against my wrist or cheeks when a flush starts. Deep breathing during a flush helps to minimise it too.

Always on the lookout for more tips!

bump

Sweet potatoes, really? hadn't heard that one - but any excuse to make fabulous sweet potato mash (nuke for 5 minutes, mash with olive oil and black pepper, I know what I'm having for dinner tonight!)

I started p-menop. 2 years ago (at age 45), my heat flashes are mostly during the day andgives me headaches for the rest of the day. Heavy exercise really do help keeping away... most of the time. I gained weight too ugh, thighs and stomach.... never had a stomach before.... wondering if it is possible to get the chubbies of the stomach off again (it is like a fat layer). I have lost weight but not in the stomach area it seems....

Hi had to go thru this at 25. I had full on e ndometrios iv been ok off and on for a while now at 49 its starting again only have one. ovarie doctor told me to use black koulish(spelled wrong) can be found in Estroven it helps me hope it helps we should start a group friend me if you want

I had a total hysterectomy at 39 and went on HRT immediately. I'd already been overweight for several years at that point and it didn't seem to me the HRT made a difference in my weight. Interestingly, I'd always suffered terrible mood swings before the hysterectomy and they smoothed out a lot afterwards! I know of another woman who had the same experience. I think having a steady dose of estrogen in my system, as opposed to the normal monthly highs and lows, really helped me maintain a steady mood. I do notice that on day 6 or 7 of my patch (I change it weekly) I start to have hot flashes.

Forgot to say also, that do any of you get a strange feeling come over you just before you are going to get a hot flash, I get this awful feeling, it reminds me `home sickness` like I used to get when I was a kid, just a really weird feeling hard to describe

I know exactly what you are going through! I had to have both of my ovaries removed last year because they started malfunctioning and producing testosterone in massive amounts. The only solution was to remove them and yes, immediate menopause. (Still have my uterus.) I dealt with a number of menopausal issues as a result and upon the advice of my doctor (who is a woman BTW) I am using a low dose Combipatch to control my symptoms. While I could handle the other stuff that comes with menopause and the weight gain, I absolutely could not deal with the awful (REALLY AWFUL) mood swings due to the hormone changes in my body. So that's why I use it. I'd been having hot flashes and night sweating and all that other stuff way back before I had the ovaries removed.

I am 50 and when I reach 52 or 53, she is going to try and see if I can come off of it. I'm going to try and get off but she said I needed to wait a bit longer till I was closer to menopausal age. However, if the over the top mood swings come back to the point that I can''t handle them, I'll slap that puppy right back on and take my chances I guess. It makes everything in my world right. Without it........whoa buddy!!! Its bad. REAL bad.

I did gain weight in my middle FAST after my surgery. Then to further complicate things, I had to have another surgery on a hernia and yet another one on something else. I had 3 surgeries in one year. That put me off my feet for nearly a year and I went down fast physically from a formerly very active lifestyle. But I'm all healed up now, and feeling better than I ever have. I've lost 14 lbs since starting MFP 50 days ago and am doing great. Sure, its harder to lose the weight now (especially around my middle) but it IS coming off so I'm very encouraged by that!

I can say it gets better but it took a bit longer than I thought it would. Good Luck!

My wife exercises a lot and she surrounds herself with fans maybe 3' from her when she is working out.
Seems to work and she looks great.

Forgot to say also, that do any of you get a strange feeling come over you just before you are going to get a hot flash, I get this awful feeling, it reminds me `home sickness` like I used to get when I was a kid, just a really weird feeling hard to describe

I know that feeling but it has nothing to do with my hot flashes. I've had it off and on my whole adult life, it's like a really sad, empty feeling, but takes the form of a physical "ache". I literally feel like I'm "empty". It is very hard to describe, but thankfully only lasts a few seconds. I used to think it was related to depression but I don't anymore. I never thought of it as having a physical cause, like hormone fluctuations, but that makes sense.

Hi--Surgical menopause here too. I had my surgery at the end of March. In addition to this website I found hystersisters website to have a lot of useful information and a forum of very supportive women going through the same sort of things. Nice to see/hear from other women at this interesting stage of life.

Hystersisters was very helpful for me as well. haven't been on that site in years, but at the time it was a great resource.

Making HRT cake this evening!