What's it like on the other side?

[crackofdoom]

I've never seen this question asked, yet surely it's the most important one of all. What's it like once you've been through the menopause? Does it get better- ever?

I'm on HRT, but still get symptoms- the one which bothers me most is the tiredness, but also aching joints and weight gain. Is this the new normal, or can I look forward to a future in which I get my energy back?

I wonder if it's easier if go through it younger. I was about 30 and had pretty much no symptoms

I'm much cheerier, clearer headed, in some ways closer to my pre puberty sense of self I suppose. I like not being on the PMT roller coaster that's for sure.

This post I like. Not so much the earlier ones...

The thought of there being an "other side" is keeping me going, barely...

@JinglingSpringbells my Dr keeps banging on about how "you can only be on this for 5years or the cancer risks will increase"

gentleness yeah, me too! I only want to hear positive stories, lalalala 😆

HerbalTea unless you have some specific issues, your GP is working to outdated information and needs a bop on the nose with a copy of the NICE guidelines!

God I bloody hope so!

Of course there is such a thing as the "other side"! Obviously that doesn't mean you go back to exactly how you were pre-menopause, that's not possible, besides which you'll be quite a few years older and that often makes a difference to energy levels and general health.

But life for some women is so much better post-menopause. I'm 56 and had my last period almost six years ago. I never had a terrible time with menstruation but am now so relieved to be without the hormonal fluctuations. I didn't appreciate just how much they had influenced my life.

I've had most of the classic menopause symptoms, anxiety and fatigue being the worst. I didn't take HRT. But once peri-menopause hit, my skin and hair improved - they were previously both so oily. It did take a few years for the anxiety and flushes to subside and my energy to return, but they did and I'd honestly never want to go back to how I was before. I also have more enthusiasm for things that interest me, instead of feeling so frazzled all the time.

You've probably heard the phrase, "Menopause takes the blinkers off". That helped me too as it finally made me realise just how unpleasant my partner was and to quit that relationship.

I'm definitely on the other side and feel a billion times better than I did when I was in my 40s. Sex life amazing and I look loads better than I did ten years ago, it's not all glooom and dooom.

PS In the last year or so, the extra weight I put on during menopause has also gone, with very little effort. It wasn't a large amount, but it's as if my body has now reset itself. It was probably the fatigue that led to the gain in the first place, as for some time I didn't have the energy to exercise like I used to.

Your dr clearly doesn't appreciate it's your choice. As stated in NICE in 2015 and by the British Menopause Society.

The risk is tiny and far less than for being overweight, inactive and drinking more than 2 units a day.

I bet they don't bang on about that with their female patients.

Its brilliant, the best time of my life. Freedom like no other time, no periods, PMT, no obligations, targets, "growth mindset" etc, I love being in my 50s, I am the finished product, take it or leave it, as another poster said, no more people pleasing, no more trying to improve, progress, develop, or whatever, and NO PERIODS!

It is the best

I am on HRT and may be peri or full on menopausal, who knows. I am 52.

I can't think that you get through it as such so intend to stay or HRT forever in order to remain sane! Just as my lovely mum did!

I'm post menopausal. On HRT with added testosterone and plan to take it with me to my grave

@crackofdoom, did you move onto Evorel 75 from 50? How did you/your GP make that decision?

I am 58 and have been on HRT for 10 years - currently on Evorel 50 and Utrogestan, but am having v slight blood loss and wonder if I might need a higher dose of Oestrogen.

Can you start HRT post menopause? I didnt have a bad time of it but I am wondering if I could still benefit from it nonetheless

I was starting to feel a bit crap again. And, just as I do now, I kind of trialled it by using a patch and a half, which seemed to make me feel OK again. For a while.....🙄

PointersPlease Yes, you can start HRT post menopause. Most women take it for horrible symptoms, but there are also the invisible health benefits it has for bone & heart health, etc. As far as I know, they haven't found a link between HRT and protection against dementia yet, although you'd hope there might be one.

There are suggestions of a link and a causal mechanism identified

• although the latter suggests that hrt may not reduce dementia in people who don't get hot flushes

Postmenopause is brilliant. Am using Ovestin, that's it. I take fish oil and evening primrose oil, eat well, and walk regularly. I love being postmenopause as much as I loved being premenarche. It is the best time in my adult life.

Sad to say it’s a general run down hill to old age.

Bollocks.

There must be another side. I'm 52 and so tired. I just want to stay at home all the time, but 60 something women are all walking the camino and climbing machu pichu so obviously there is some kind of rebalancing.

Oh, and if joints and ligaments and so on are aching, worth trying as well as the fish oil some daily turmeric - aka curcumin capsules. I get them plain and grind a bit of black pepper in to my food that I take them with to aid absorption, as I don't like the idea of piperine.

I am much better now though I never had night swea ts nor hot flushes. Left with ultra dry mouth past 18 months and the oil capsules purported to help give me diarrhoea. Nothing helps and the nurse just looks at me blankly on annual check.

Four wees a night not the best either need to sip water every two hours.

migraines if I do not st ick to high dose magnesium oxide

Swings and roundabouts: horrible menopause, a real tempest. Now pluses and minuses. Here's an unexpected bonus - horrible constant hormone related acne from age 15 (all treatments failed) melted away. That was a real gift. Sex drive declined a lot, which has its challenges but is also curiously liberating (being chained to a madwoman type thing, now free). Feel mostly much happier actually. Nothing to prove.

Look we’re basically aging. You’ve only got to look at animals to see what happens. They get grey muzzles, start to spend more time sleeping, find it difficult to jump onto things, look confused. It’s happening to all of us and hormones are one part of this NOT the whole picture.

You need to find a way to mitigate some of your issues as best you can and some of it will be i lifestyle choices. First things you can do that will help immediately is cut out alcohol and sugar/refined foods and move more. Diet is such a key factor when it comes to lethargy and aches and pains. Try it for a couple of weeks and see how you feel.

There is a long way form being through the menopause to being decrepit!
(And dogs get old without the menopause)

More than half as much life again if my family history is a clue - my mother is mid 80s and just starting to slow

Personally I am happier this side than before