Menopause Misery

[jlb664]

Just come down from the spare bedroom having been lying in there with the hairdryer on cool blow and playing with my tablet (electronic!) for the last four hours - all just to take my mind off not being able to sleep and feeling low for no good reason. My last period was New Year's Day this year and I am just SO fed up with menopausal symptoms - I have horrendous hot flushes mainly in the early evening when my whole upper body feels like a furnace, I have two fans angled on me every night to try and keep the heat off and I have put on nearly a stone over the last year without ANY lifestyle changes - I still exercise regularly and eat healthily - and I have absolutely no interest in sex or desire to be touched! Every night I am awake between 2 and 5 a.m. and this is just doing my head in! I am thinking I should go and see a doctor this week to discuss my options but I would be extremely grateful for any advice anyone on here may be able to offer? I turned 51 in June! Thanks so much :)

It's an interesting time for sure OP! That sounds very miserable for you. I'm about the same stage as you. 51, and the last period I had was earlier this year as well.

I get the night sweats as well, and they seem to have gathered momentum. But unlike you I don't mind them. I tried to explain it to Dh as a bit like having flu, I'd imagine, hot and sweaty one minute, cold the next, but without the other headachy lethargy symptoms.

My libido has remained the same more or less the same as well, I still enjoy sex and being touched etc.

So I'd say it' so different experience for all,of us, but if I was finding the whole process very difficult and hard to manage I'd definitely see my GP for help. At the moment I'm managing ok, but maybe that won't always tbe the case.

Hopefully we'll be through it sooner rather than later.

I just noticed you are awake at night; I am as well but I put that down to worry, and Dh keeping me awake because he is stressed. I hadn't thought of that as a menopause symptom. Hmm, interesting.

Not sleeping is a menopause symptom. One that makes all the others seem worse because you are so bloody knackered. Check whether your symptoms are acceptable or not. IMHO you sound like you are suffering more than is necessary.
Go and have a chat with your GP or women's nurse.
HRT is better than AD (which some docs recommend).

Hmm thanks ThroughThickAndThin01 and penny 13610 - think I'll make an appointment tomorrow :)

HRT for you, my girl! Get yourself sorted!
Might be a good idea to read up on it on this site so you have some idea of what to expect. Meno is one of those things that GPs tend to know not too much about in the main, so it's up to you often to take the lead, research things and go along saying what you'd like to try.

Definitely HRT is the way to go jlb664! No need to suffer unnecessarily. Also ask for your thyroid to be tested re weight gain - you say you have put it on without any lifestyle changes.

However many of us find we have to drastically reduce the amount we eat when reaching menopause - as well as exercising more just to keep the same weight - but sounds like you are doing that already ie that is a liefstyle change that needs to be made. Perhaps look at portion size, carbs and fat content? (apologies if this is what you mean by healthy diet!).

Thanks everyone again - I have made an appointment with a female doctor - earliest one is in four weeks apparently....the other thing that is driving me mad is that I wake up with a really loud heartbeat in my ears and a really fast pulse - that is part of the reason I need to put on a hairdryer, the other is that I get a night time wheeze when I exhale - so the hairdryer drowns out the heartbeat and the wheeze....aargh I am cracking up!! I am mildly asthmatic and use inhalers but I try to avoid trips to the doctor at all costs but I think my body is going to the dogs!!

Hot flushes, palpitations and anxiety attacks; one after the other, like some sick game of rock, paper, scissors seems to be pretty normal. Must be hell with asthma.
Have you thought of getting a chocolate advent calendar and counting down to your appointment?