To ask if anyone has found menopause just fine?

[ChristmasGutPunch]

Another day another article about how I can expect my brain to fall out my ear any day now. "I forgot how to do my job!" and so forth. I'm sanguine about ageing (saggy jaw aside) but I really don't want to become wrong in the head so young. Please can you reassure me it's ok for some women??

Aged 56 I had the occasional short lived hot flush, nearly always in bed at night. Barely noticeable. I wasn't aware of brain fog and continued working in a high pressure job that required a lot of concentration and mental agility. I did start to put a bit of weight on round my stomach however and I have found that difficult to shift.

Age 53. This is my experience too. It occurred to me about 6 months ago that I hadn't had a period for about a year.

My sleep is terrible, but it has been for 20 years, nothing new there.

I barely noticed my menopause, apart from a few hot flushes over the course of a few months.

I don't actually know when my periods stopped. They just got lighter, and gradually reduced in duration, until one day it occurred to me I actually hadn't had one for ages.

It is certainly possible to have an easy menopause, and I have been lucky.

The pre menopausal night sweats and bad sleep were the worst symptoms for me and I did have some hot flushes occasionally.

My periods didn’t stop until quite late, I was around 60 (I’m 63 now) so I don’t know if that’s connected. Now it’s all over I feel just as before although with belly fat to get rid off and I’m osteopenic.

I don’t know if it’s diet, genes, luck or all in the mind.

I had a lovely menopause

Menopause is amazing for many women who have periods so heavy they are anaemic because of them. My tiredness improved afterwards.
I found it such a relief when they finished at 50, I can swim and run without fear of leaking through. My bed sheets aren't ruined, I can wear lovely underwear everyday.
The joy of not worrying about getting pregnant is liberating too. All of that outweighs any hot flushes. I worry a bit about osteoporosis so make sure I do strength training.

I was fine, I got a bit hot sometimes but no issues. I am 59. A good thing came of it - my migraines have eased massively.

Menopause was fine for me. I just had reeally heavy periods for about a year and then, bang, they stopped. That was it. No other symptoms.

I had (and still have) a headload of mental health problems - anxiety, brain fog, etc - and I'm sure that in today's menopause-obsessed climate there would have been a tendency to force those into being viewed as menopause-related. But fortunately this was ten years ago when there was much more balance.

Interesting reading these as I have to go into medical menopause for 3 months and the consultant has been quite.. firm about how rough it will be

It was fine for me. Periods gradually became less frequent, then stopped. Glad to see the back of all that.

My mother was the same, perhaps there's something genetic.

@buffyslayer that maybe the case because it’s sudden opposed to the gradual peri then meno. Good luck.

That would make sense. Rather than a slow, steady decline in hormones over a period of years, I'd imagine an "overnight" change would be dramatic.

So far all good. My mum and nan (her mum) got through it with no major issues, I really hope this is hereditary!

I am in my early 50s and so far so good here. My periods are lighter but haven't stopped yet. I notice some more mood dips, some more bloating, some more aches and pains, but all entirely manageable. I sleep better than I did when I was younger and I think my general anxiety has generally decreased. I live in a country where the HRT focus that is in the UK doesn't exist, and I don't know of any women who are taking it. Last time I was back in the UK, everyone seemed to be on it, and they were shocked I wasn't. The difference was interesting to observe.

Apart from hot flushes that get worse when the temp rises , I’ve been fine
i wish someone would invent an electric blanket that cools rather than heats
would make a fortune 😆

Definitely OK for some women. I had a slightly enervating perimenopause, with increasingly heavy periods, until they gradually got less and less regular then stopped (hurrah). I also had a bit in the way of hot flushes, but nothing in terms of brain fog, mood issues etc or physical symptoms to speak of.

I think it helps if you're in a posittion to 'indulge' any minor issues - I'm self-employed and work from home, and if I had a hot flush and came over a bit peculiar I could just stop, take clothes off, open windows etc. It must be awful if you have to keep up appearances in a corporate job, or work flat out without breaks like HCPs for instance.

I also think - and I'll probably get flamed for this - that it helps if you're willing to work with the symptoms of your menopause rather than regarding them as the enemy. I feel quite dubious about the claims made for HRT, which seem to me to be a way of anaesthetising women and keeping them cheerful/attractive/compliant. If you're overwhelmed by feelings of anger and depression, before rushing to the GP for pills or patches, I think women would do well to ask themselves whether they've got anything (at all....??) to feel angry and depressed about. If the boards here are anything to go by, I would say most of us have a fucking tonne of grievances by middle age, and imo it's healthier to act on those feelings by making changes instead of medicating them into submission. But I left my long-term partner and confronted a historic sexual abuser, so maybe don't listen to me unless you're up for putting a bomb under your life. No menopause symptoms though, lol.

I am 52 , have a Mirena and no symptoms of menopause whatsoever . Weird. I wonder will it start ?
I used to have monthly spotting on Mirena ( like a one day period ) but that hasn't happened for ages.

Yes good point
I can't have HRT either (it's to make sure endometriosis shrinks for surgery so taking HRT would defeat the purpose!)

Apart from heavy periods and the vary rare hot flush my menopause was fine.

I hear a few women going oh I sailed through it.. then they say they’ve got anxiety and their joint pain and brain fog is not meno but fibro.... the thing is oestrogen that affects so many parts of the body and it’s way more than hot flushes… And a quite few women see hrt as failure when it’s actually got so many health benefits and some of the consequences of low oestrogen aren’t seen til it’s too late. I met a woman in hospital with spine fractures in her early 70s. She’d had an early menopause and never realised the consequences so my advice would be for any woman to notice new symptoms that could be menopause (fibro symptoms are all potential menopause symptoms and I was told I had it but it disappeared totally two weeks after hrt!) and to assess their personal risk v benefit..

I know plenty who seem not to be too troubled with it. Not so much for me unfortunately. I’m about 4 years in from the start of symptoms (night sweats) and 2 years on HRT. I’m on the mini pill so no periods but I’ve had joint pain (better since starting HRT) and recently I was an anxious, insomniac that was waking hourly either freezing cold or boiling hot.

unfortunately my GP hadn’t prescribed the correct HRT medication and because I wasn’t aware I genuinely thought I was losing the plot - I honestly thought I had some early signs of dementia because I was struggling with awful brain fog.
since I’ve had my medication altered I’m sleeping much better which has improved the anxiety and brain fog but the constant hot flushes at night continue
fortunately i work with a small team of mostly menopausal women who totally get it which has really helped

Hrt does not keep women compliant or anesthetize women 😂 quite the opposite - it means we can live and enjoy our health.. it’s when doctors drug women with anti depressants instead of giving them hormones that their body produces - that approach is numbing women and stopping them feeling emotions or enjoying sex (anti depressants affect ability to climax in many women). But I do agree that some anger is justified - mine was to a doctor who tried to drug me when I had low oestrogen! If I had problems, oestrogen wouldn’t make me forget them!

I almost feel bad saying this, but apart from not having periods anymore, I didn't get any other symptoms at all. I realise that I was very lucky in this respect.
Same here, 4 years since my last period. It worries me that the pressure is on women to medicate a normal life stage.

This gives me hope. I have endometriosis and have horrible periods since I was 10. I had the chemical menopause temporarily in the past and it was ok, even the hot flushes were quick and rare.

I really feel I am owed a handy menopause to balance it all out!

I have the occasional hot flush, but otherwise absolutely no different to how I've always been. I don't understand the drama, although acknowledge I may just be lucky.