Can I come join you ?

[AnyFucker]

It has suddenly dawned on me I must be going through the menopause.

I am sat here having hot flush after hot flush and have a shiny sweaty face when the rest of the household are complaining it is draughty and chilly in the house.

Have had abattoir periods every 20-24 days for a year or so.

I suffer killer insomnia. I cry at Coronation Street.

Why have I really only just put those jigsaw pieces together ? I have been in denial

Come on in, lovey, and have a and some chocolate and I'll waft a fan at you. I'm afraid it's not a very exclusive club, and a very long waiting list to get in . The best I can offer is that it doesn't last forever. I'm done with it now .

I'm with you, AF, with various other symptoms to boot, which I'm also in denial about ignoring for now.

Re the hot flushes - I am astounded at how frequent they are. I always assumed they would be maybe one or two per day? How wrong could I have been? Basically, I go around the house opening windows and my family follow me around closing them again. Sigh.

Insomnia, yep. But when I do sleep I am rudely awoken after an hour or two with bastard night sweats.

Is your DH sympathetic? Mine is sadly lacking on that front, which makes me even more tearful than I already would be.

Ho hum. Only a few years and it'll all be over.

I swore blind I was not going to have any hot flushes, and they bloody started two weeks ago! I am boiling mad at them!
Thats on top of the mood swings and weight gain ( though that maybe all the crap I am eating)

There is an end to it QueenStreaky?

I thought I had sailed past the stop, when I was on the pill, but it seems not.

I was expecting some hot flushes, but I am freezing cold all the time, get annoying infections and wet my knickers .

I would say my DH is rather nonplussed but sympathetic. He is used to me being the Ice Queen

Tbh a lot of my symptoms were the same as I have for CFS, just a bit worse, so I didn't notice the menopause creeping up on me . The night sweats were probably the worst bit - I'd wake up most nights (several times actually) in a soggy puddle, which wasn't very nice. I'm extremely stupid now though, which has been a bit of a shock. I find it very hard to stay focused and concentrate when I have to read something. I don't like that bit.

I guess there IS an end to it, but for a lot of women there are some permanent changes (I am hoping my dimwittedness isn't one of them . It's different for everybody, really.

I can't arsed to read things. I can't be arsed to watch things on the television. My brain flutters off when people are talking to me, mid-conversation. I haven't a clue what they are talking about sometimes.

I have been told by someone who was complaining about aching, that my aching will go and I will probably have more energy, before I get to her age and it starts again. I keep waiting

Yep, that all sounds familiar, but to be fair I'd had that for 15 years with CFS anyway . I DO have loads more energy, but that could be because ds has gone to college after seven years of home ed, which was bloody knackering .