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| Author |
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keesan
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Premenopause
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Feb 18 03:12 UTC 1998 |
Is anyone in grex old enough to describe premenopause, such as what are the
symptoms, what age do they start, etc.?
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| 75 responses total. |
keesan
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response 1 of 75:
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Feb 23 05:13 UTC 1998 |
Well, looks like grexers are all under 40 or I have finally found a taboo
subject. According to the books, by age 45 or so, or roughly 5-7 years before
menopause, I should expect periods of increasingly irregular length
(shorter or longer or both) and missed periods, and possibly some of the
symptoms of actual menopause, such as hot flashes and irritability. But it
is supposed to be normal to occasionally miss a period before that. One other
thing I read is that estrogen levels are gradually dropping, but at some point
the ovaries somehow decide to put out more (two eggs instead of one ripen?)
and one's period therefore might get a bit shorter for a few years. I have
not missed a period in at least 30 years (I am 47 now), if anything they are
more regular now than ten years ago (except once when I missed a night's sleep
about mid-cycle it was two weeks late -does that count?) but at 41 the cycle
suddenly shortened from 28-32 days to 26-30 days. Has this happened to anyone
else, and does it get longer again eventually, or what happens next? Am I
doomed to never reach menopause?
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abchan
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response 2 of 75:
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Feb 24 02:46 UTC 1998 |
I know somebody who is 52 and hasn't reached menopause yet. It may run in
the family. Ask your older female relatives when they reached menopause.
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keesan
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response 3 of 75:
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Feb 24 03:34 UTC 1998 |
My mother had radiation in her early fifties which ended things early (and
then she died, can't ask her.)
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scg
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response 4 of 75:
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Feb 24 05:18 UTC 1998 |
(are we still supposed to be wondering if keesan is male or female?)
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valerie
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response 5 of 75:
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Feb 24 06:43 UTC 1998 |
This response has been erased.
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keesan
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response 6 of 75:
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Feb 25 01:14 UTC 1998 |
Could this be an indication that you have found your*special* guy.
Re #4, is this what it feels like to come 'out'? There do seem to be some
things that guys don't write about.
What other sorts of things affect cycle length? Mine always used to be a
week or so late around finals time or if I had the flu.
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orinoco
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response 7 of 75:
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Feb 25 03:37 UTC 1998 |
(Well, there's a dead giveaway if ever I heard one)
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birdlady
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response 8 of 75:
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Feb 25 04:50 UTC 1998 |
Hmmm...I've been on the Pill for almost two years now, so I'm dead-on regular.
Things that used to affect it were a severe change in diet (I was a vegetarian
for about six months), *high* levels of stress (like a breakup), and changing
my exercise schedule.
I never noticed a change if I had bronchitis or another illness. Amoxicillin
would screw with my system something awful, but it never affected my cycle.
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keesan
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response 9 of 75:
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Feb 25 17:01 UTC 1998 |
What sorts of changes in diet and exercise are you talking about? I read that
natural estrogens, as found in soy products, help alleviate such things as
PMS, due to hormonal swings. Have any of the men reading this item noticed
that soy products affect their moods in any way? (Or cause their beards to
fall out or grow thicker....).
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gracel
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response 10 of 75:
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Feb 25 19:14 UTC 1998 |
They call it "perimenopause", prefix meaning "around" instead of "pre" for
"before", and I'm in it, but I have some tax forms to do now, so ....
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keesan
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response 11 of 75:
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Feb 25 23:12 UTC 1998 |
It has been suggested that this is a sensitive subject, possibly because
women don't like to admit they are growing older. Is this true?
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gracel
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response 12 of 75:
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Feb 26 18:23 UTC 1998 |
Not to me. Women of this age in this society tend to be very busy!
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keesan
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response 13 of 75:
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Feb 26 22:10 UTC 1998 |
Good luck with your taxes, especially if you are self-employed or have any
capital gains income this year. It took me at least 10 tries to get it right.
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keesan
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response 14 of 75:
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Feb 27 22:07 UTC 1998 |
Someone suggested I read about St. John's Wort as a treatment for menopausal
problems. There seem to be a lot of herbal medicines that address the various
problems. At www.healthy.net/library/articles/hfh/menopause.htm (l?) I found
a well-written summary. Menopausal symptoms arise because the estrogen levels
fall to about 10% and the progesterone levels to zero, and include insomnia,
depression, stiff joints, bloating, vaginal dryness, sore breasts, and hot
flashes. This does not sound all that different from the couple of days
before menses, when hormone levels also plummet, so perhaps the same types
of herbs would work for both. Has anyone tried any herbal remedies and had
any good effects from them? THe article listed black cohosh, which is a
diuretic (reduces fluid retnetion) and helps with nerves, as well as vitex,
which regulates progesterone levels, thereby reducing bloating, headache and
fatigue. St. John's Wort is a mild antidepressant, and you should avoid
taking it and then going out in the sun because of possible photodermic
reacations (light sensitivity, which is also true for parsnips, by the way).
Dandelion flowers reduce water retention, and ginseng and liquorice are good.
For hot flashes, the suggestion was to improve diet (avoid caffeine
and alcohol) and get more regular exercise. I would also like to hear more
about how diet and exercise have helped with PMS. Soy products?
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orinoco
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response 15 of 75:
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Feb 27 22:51 UTC 1998 |
It seems to me like St. John's Wort is being proposed as a remedy for
everything these days. If it's still being reccomended for menopause in a
few months, when the crase has died down, you might give it a try...
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keesan
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response 16 of 75:
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Feb 28 00:06 UTC 1998 |
Yes, I also noticed it in a document about attention deficit disorder. What
else are they recommending it for. (It grows wild around here.)
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valerie
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response 17 of 75:
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Feb 28 14:04 UTC 1998 |
This response has been erased.
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keesan
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response 18 of 75:
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Feb 28 17:08 UTC 1998 |
What is the active ingredient in raspberry leaf tea? I thought it was just
the tannin, or maybe the vitamin C.
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orinoco
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response 19 of 75:
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Mar 1 03:45 UTC 1998 |
Evidently not, or regular tea would work just as well.
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keesan
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response 20 of 75:
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Mar 1 04:14 UTC 1998 |
I should try to find the answer on the internet. I found a list of foods that
help alleviate PMS because of their content of B vitamins and magnesium;
nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans)
green leafy vegetables and cabbage
whole wheat, buckwheat, millet
bananas (very high B6), avocadoes (essential fatty acids), egg yolks, liver,
cantaloupe, brewer's yeast (all the B vitamins)
soy products (tofu, tempeh, soy milk, which also have natural plant estrogens)
The relative amounts of estrogen and progesterone fluctuate, which can
cause PMS and menopausal symptoms, so progesterone cream is also being used
to treat both. Diosgenin, a natural progesterone, is found in soy.
Progesterone levels plummet a couple of days before menses, I will try eating
more tofu and tempeh then and during the first few days of menses.
Reduce or eliminate consumption of sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, and red
meat, and eat twice as often to reduce PMS.
Men's hormone levels are also affected by diet. A high-fiber low-meat diet
helps to bind testosterone in the feces thereby lowering blood levels. High
blood levels are a risk factor for prostate cancer. One article said to take
zinc, B6 and soy oil. (Or eat properly I would think). Men's prolactin
levels drop with age, leading to more uptake of testosterone (from where,
foods, such as red meat?) Chinese men have 1/120 the mortality from prostate
cancer as black men in San Francisco, due to diet and maybe genetics?
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keesan
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response 21 of 75:
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Mar 1 04:25 UTC 1998 |
Red raspberry leaf tea contains vitamins A, B complex, C and E, and minerals
calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium and phosphorus. (I had heard of it as
a source only of C). It also contains the alkaloid fragrine, given during
pregnancy to strengthen uterine and pelvic muscles, and relax opposing
muscles, and it also reduces postpartum bleeding. (I can see how it might
have useful effects during menses, possibly reducing cramps.)
I read that high testosterone levels also predispose towards high blood
pressure and baldness. Men at the top of the ladder tend to have higher
levels, also higher stress.
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keesan
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response 22 of 75:
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Mar 1 22:05 UTC 1998 |
St. John's Wort (www.lifelink.com/hyper.html) showed up when I was checking
on the effects of electromagnetic radiation on melatonin production (Agora
66, dowsing). The plant was named because it blooms around St. John's Day
June 24. It is Hypericum perforatum. Contains hypericin and pseudohypericin,
which raise serotonin level and therefore have an antidepressant effect
something like Prozac but without the side effects or reactions. It is used
to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (a disturbance in serotonin production
due to reduced amount of daylight, which also acts on melatonin, which is
formed from serotonin, which is formed from the amino acid tryptophan found
in all proteins, which enters the brain more after eating carbohydrates, which
is why a glass of milk makes you sleep - sugar and protein). More recently,
there has been research on its anti-viral properties. One study showed that
it eliminated hepatitis virus (study was not cited, though) and it is being
studied for use against AIDS. The tea is nowhere near as active as the
extract. Some species of St. John's Wort grows around here. (So this has
nothing to do with estrogen or progesterone effects, just mood directly).
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gracel
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response 23 of 75:
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Mar 2 18:51 UTC 1998 |
I read two books about menopause last year. From these I remember two
allegations: 1. Perimenopause can be four to ten years long. 2. For most
women, what causes symptoms is not *low* hormone levels, but *falling*
hormone levels -- and during perimenopause, they fluctuate a lot.
I had my first warm flashes over a year ago, I think, when I was 46.
They went away if I regularly took a vitamin E supplement. Now they are
hotter, and come despite E. Other than that, I can't say
definitely that any particular symptom is only hormone-related,
especially since I've always been a low-energy person and the last year
and a half has been quite stressful. (My periods stopped for several
months, started again when I increased calcium intake -- was it
menopause-related? Was I depressed because our cat died, because my
father died, because of menopause, or something else?)
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keesan
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response 24 of 75:
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Mar 2 20:25 UTC 1998 |
In my teens, my periods used to skip summers. Is that when yours stopped for
a few months? The heat can be stressful, or maybe the longer day length
affects estrogen production? Hormone levels also fall during the week before
menses, and the symptoms sound similar. I feel warm a day or two before, when
both estrogen and progesterone are lowest, after feeling cold for a few days
before that. Are there also cold spells during perimenopause? I will check
out vitamin E and calcium for their relation to hormone levels.
What causes other people's periods to be late or missed?
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