Please help- hot flushes shivering palpitations night sweats

[Wordsaremything]

i feel as if I've aged 15 years in the last three months. Just turned 49. Bloods done a while ago to rule out anything else. All that fine.

Symptoms are really ramping up. Cycle irregular ( can cope with that) but the hot flushes seemingly provoked by the tiniest stressor have been miserable in the hot weather esp at work where the air con is broken and a long commute on packed trains.

Now getting night sweats and palpitations alternating with a strange creepy/ shivery feeling all over my upper body.

So tired, largely due to constant nights of broken sleep.

Not keen on hrt. Just paid a fortune for goose down duvet and high thread count cotton bedding - do I need to rethink and get a wool duvet? I sleep naked (alone thankfully can't bear the thought of another body in there with me!) with windows open around house to try and get a draught - but then end up freezing with the sweating.

I had another terrible night last night and I could cry! This is not like me at all. Normally power on through physical discomfort but this is fast becoming intolerable.

Advice, sympathy? Please???

The age of menopause has been the same for thousands of years- there is reference to it in Egyptian history. Life expectancy was very low for women (and men) for many 1000s of years and indeed many women died in childbirth. I think it's more likely that women's quota of eggs are determined by lifespan rather than something societal which is more of a recent construct. In the past - way back- and in third world countries today- women become mothers at a young age- ie early teens- so their mothers - the grandmothers- will still be menstruating for decades . In that sense the theory doesn't stack up. Even in the UK we have grandmothers who are 32 (child at 16, their child has a child at 16) with 20 years of fertile life left.

I don't understand the point of analysing this because the fact is that in the west, women are working into their 60s and even their 70s ( Hilary Clinton running for president at 69) and they want to be able to function. They aren't all sitting at home knitting or looking after the grandchildren. It may be that in several thousands of years' time, menopause will become later, in the same way that puberty has started earlier compared to 100 years ago.

Yeodletrout- I don't really understand your comment although it's got a smiley face at the end of it Are you saying insomnia doesn't happen or that women should just put up with it?

I'm saying that menopause by itself can't possible be a worse cause of sleep deprivation than my children already are (for me).

Oh, and the sodding cats. omg, pet cats are sleep wreckers too.

You can choose to have children and cats though; you can't choose whether or not to be menopausal :)

The age of menopause has been the same for thousands of years- there is reference to it in Egyptian history. Life expectancy was very low for women (and men) for many 1000s of years
we don't have 1000's of years worth of data for life expectancy or menopause

sorry but we do. Have you not heard of DNA on bones? Science throws up a huge amount of information about how long people lived and how they died.

only the bones we find, ie small sample size

There is something in the diet thing, definitely. Its also It's instructive to see how even those on optimum healthy living regimes still suffered debilitating symptoms.

Earlier this year I had building work done and had to survive without proper cooking facilities for months. I love cooking. So I started relying on ready made stuff whereas normally I cook from scratch with fresh stuff. . I gained masses of weight and it was at that point things started getting dire.

However this whole thing kicked off last year when I gradually lost about a stone. That's when the flushes started.

I have generally felt better in the past for reducing simple carbs and increasing veg - so will try that too.

I too have been caught unawares by the severity of these symptoms. Yesterday morning I was desparate.

There is definitely an omertà around meno, as people have said up thread.

I so appreciate all the responses, and the discussion. Hopefully it will assist people lurking too.

The problem with the life expectancy figures is that they include the 25%+ who died by age 5. Those who got to adulthood often made it to 60+ (Egyptians were spectacularly good at dying young, fair enough, but even some of their numbers made it to 60).

Anyway So what if they died young or not.
Taking a pill is a hassle.
Plenty of women do manage fine without HRT.
Maybe can't take HRT or simply don't want their ordinary expected phase of life to be medicalised.
So it's worthwhile to explore alternatives.
Whichever choice suits you is fine.

I mean there is so much discussion and mainstream help out there about other aspects of women's health. Why not this?

Is it because as someone suggested( I think- sorry sieve - like brain) it's at the less sexy end of medicine? (Ie not about making babies)

Such a shame Suzanne that you have to resort to sarcasm / insults.
I do know a lot about HRT- made it my business to for myself. Not apologising for that but there are others around on the forum who know as much or more.

YeOlde- not sure if you are thinking of HRT- but pills are not the only route- and not the safest. You're clearly anti HRT, and keep referring to it as 'medicalised' which is a bit loaded, as a criticism, so hope you find something that works for you when you need it.

... but HRT is medicalised! Whether or not you choose to take HRT is up to you, but let's not pretend it isn't medicine/medical/medicalised.

The inference behind the word 'medicalised' is that it's treating an illness and somehow people who use HRT are somehow inferior to women who struggle on with 'natural' treatments' I'd prefer to think of oestrogen therapy as a supplement - because the abbreviation means Hormone Replacement Therapy. In the US it's sometimes called ERT (and they miss out the Hormone bit). It's a moot point whether this is any ore medicalising it compared with taking sage, EPO or a range of herbs, especially as bio-identical HRT is made from plants anyway. It's prescription only due to possible side effects but then herbs etc have lots of side effects too. Black cohosh is linked to liver disease and soya is not advised for women who have had breast cancer. I don't care what it's called really but I just think it's a bit odd that people get worked up over someone maybe sharing advice and a so-far positive account of HRT and give the impression that they want to argue over it. Odd.

It's called putting forward another perspective, pinkfrocks! Or is it all about your word only?!

suzanne- I've reported your post. This is not AIBU where you spend a lot of your time. I give my time here sharing experiences - if you don't like that then that is your problem. Not sure why you have to be nasty just because another poster happens to disagree with you.

BIWI- of course you can give another perspective. It's not all about my word- and neither is it all about yours! We can all post our views.

Come on everyone. There are clearly lots of perspectives on this and one size doesn't fit all.

It has been very helpful for me in that it's made clear I need to get back to a healthier diet for a start. I'm still dubious about hrt although realise that this may be illogical. I will go to doc if I see no improvement or God forbid it gets worse.

Again had a better night . Microfibre duvet and cotton bedding has made a big improvement. I also seem to have more energy today. Even managed to hoover pet hair off both sets of stairs.first time in weeks

Please keep sharing your views.

I have views alright but the view that menopause is a deficiency disease seems to prevail and those who espouse it quash dissenters as heretics

Eh? It is indisputable that the post-menopausal years constitute a hypo-oestrogenic state, and evidence shows that this can have adverse health consequences. Deficiency yes, disease no.

it's a process that women go through, a shift in hormone levels, as with puberty.
Yes there is a correlation with negative health consequences but these may be caused by other aspects of modern lifestyles which have adverse health consequences.

Human evolution has not 'programmed' us to become obsolete once we stop menstruating

many women do not feel the need for hormone supplements.
Men's hormones also decline as they get older, some have androgen supplementation, most dont.

We have evolved bodies which adjust to a decline in sex hormones as we age, it may well be that this is a trade off, higher levels of hormones are associated with higher levels of cancer.
As I said there are many other aspects of modern life which disrupt hormone levels so that we cannot function optimally

words as a long time sufferer of night sweats and a veteran of many duvets, I too found a microfiber duvet to be good. It was a 'feels like silk' one from a supermarket and cost £45. It is thin, light, warm from getting into bed and drapes round without leaving draughty channels down ysides or between me and DH.

The feather and down one I purchased at great expense before, used to be too cold to start with, and then too hot

I also wear a cotton nightdress which is absorbent enough to cope with dampness, and allows one to stick bits out of bed to cool down. Bed socks help, because they allow blood to flow round your extremities and lower your core temperature, which does not work well with cold feet. I slip them off when I am falling asleep.

A glass of water by the bed helps cool you if you are hot in the night and replace some to the fluid you have lost sweating (then you can make some more

I also used to find that a damp flannel by the side of the bed was great for immediate relief.