Menopause question - promise it doesn't involve any gross oversharing...

[solidgoldbrass]

Is it possible to just quietly have a menopause without really noticing? My AF is getting less and less frequent. I don't think I have had any for the last two or three months. I get a bit warm from time to time but no more than manageable. BTW I am 46.

Been my experience for a couple of years. No big deal

my theory is that if you generally had fairly quiet periods (no seriously bad cramps or pms), then chances are menopause won't be hugely difficult.

At least, that was my experience (short-lived and not very frequent hot flashes, minor metabolism changes/weight gain over 2 years or so).

Ok, so I don't actually need to do anything? I have had some gynae issues in the past, though nothing appalling. FWIW one of the reasons I have my lovely DS is that when he was concieved I thought I was sort of pre-menopausal and therefore could take just one risk with contraception .
And I am losing weight, not gaining it, but this has an adequate explanation in the vast amounts of walking I am doing.

I think most people feel the need to 'do something' if they are struggling with menopause. if you're not, consider yourself lucky.

Keep going for a regular smear, regular mammograms, and make sure you get enough calcium and other vitamins.

I'm now 54 and my periods stopped about 6 years ago. Have been very lucky with very few hot flushes or other symptoms (not so lucky with other health issues though). So have never taken anything for the menopause.

I have never had a mammogram (thought you didn't need to till at least 50) and no smears for ages either, I just don't get around to such things.

I had a fairly quiet menopause. I just stopped bleeding one day about 20 months ago and that was that.
I have had hot flushes, but not constantly and am not a candidate for HRT. I have been taking evening primrose old and, despite wanting proper drugs for everything, it has helped I think.
Do go and have your smear, you are daft not to. I loathe it as it is agonisingly painful due to a keloid scar on my cervix, I also have had regular mammograms due to that being the norm in the countries I was living in.
The last one discovered a slug like thing in my right breast, two ultrasounds later, I've been given the all clear.
Do it, not nice but necessary.

I can't tell whether I am going through it or not- (my mum breezed through hers without noticing !) I started taking tamoxifen coming up to 2 years ago and that blocks oestrogen so you do experience menopausal symptoms - hotness (but nothing terrible in my case) and periods a bit few and far between - so am not sure whether this would have happened naturally or is being pushed along by the medication. I need to go for a smear actually and you should too. Routine mammograms happen after 50 and if offered you should really go for those-that's how my breast cancer was discovered !

I'm 50, still regular, if I've had a hot flush I've not noticed. No weight gain. Nothing at all really - very boring. In fact, as I have fibroids and they're supposed to reduce post menopause, I wish it would hurry up!

I am sorry to break the bad news- but what you having is the peri-meno

You don't need do anything, unless you feel really rough and want to consider HRT to maintain some quality of life.

My periods fizzled out over about 18 months, mainly getting lighter, but with very few gaps at all, between 51-53 and I had no meno symptoms at all up to then. I thought I had been one of the lucky ones.

But then the flushes began and I was having them hourly, as well asslpeeing badly.

I am on HRT but cannot stay on it forever- it is mainly to help with my sleeping.

My weight it pretty much the same as it was in my 20s but that is down to sheer will power, exercise and if I do put a few pounds on they take forever to shift- much harder than before.

Thanks everyone. Well as I have no distressing symptoms I will not do anything for the moment (wary of HRT).

p.s. you should have a smear every 3 years at least and some people should have them more often, if you have lifestyle risk factors.

Just to add- any HRT you take before age 50 doesn't count- in terms of risk.

If you want to do any reading this www.menopausematters.co.uk is pretty unbiased and gives sensible advice, as well as showing risks and benefits of HRT and other treatments.

Yes. I had barely any symptoms, although vaginal dryness is a slight problem now, a few years post meno.

At the time, I was just tired and a bit low - but then again, I had my children very late and was knackered from lack of sleep with young ones, so hard to tell!

I was in my 40s and did take HRT for a couple of years, but stopped when I hit 50 last year, with - amazingly - no side effects whatsoever.

anyone else noticed an increase in size of their .... um norkage??

not enough to buy new bra etc but they are so ...... what's the opposite of empty/floppy??

Fullsome?

Yes, but I think thats to do with having had two babies in my 40s more than age per se.

Your boobs only get bigger if you put weight on post meno- otherwise they shrink and look like tennis balls in a sock- so i am told.

I've lost weight, a bit.

But my mother also has bigger boobs now than she did. Again, though, its probably more post-kids than post-meno.