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?

My blood pressure meds mean I lose iron so need Floradix for a start. I think a pound a day for quality of life is well worth it. Conventional meds can mean you lose vitamins and I have to take two tablets which is why I try to avoid needing a third.

I had severe pelvic pain related to hormones. Was surprised after meno that it lessened, as there was a fair chance it wouldn't. Am keen to not reignite it.

When I went of the Pill, very late in life (it was used to manage an area of the pain), I was not expecting to be in less pain, but I was.

But my joints ached all over, ankles, hips, just really marked. I found increasing the fish oil I was already taking helped that, as I said, in a month or so.

The increase in joint pain during peri/ meno is due to lower levels oestrogen, it is hooked up to receptors in every tissue of our bodies.

Yes, even in the gums. But the body adjusts to the lower levels of oestrogen. It can be a bumpy ride. (Everybody's body is different, after all.) After a while all your blood vessels have adapted, which is why it is not recommended to suddenly start it up over 60 without good reason, my old GP said, or words to that effect. Also, the fat cells and the adrenals and even the ovaries continue to produce a small amount of estrogen, after menopause.

Ah OK- 2 different conditions.

Fair enough if it works for you, personally I prefer to tackle the cause which is lack of oestrogen.
I feel like vitamins and supplements are a sticking plaster when our joints and bones really need oestrogen.
I should add that I'm a HCP and seeing women with severe osteo and dementia is what really swayed me.

I think the symptoms subside but the health effects of lack of oestrogen are still there.
I really don't think anyone can deny the rapid aging that occurs when oestrogen is lost?

I'm not talking about hair or skin, although there's that as well but the effects on the heart, brain and bones.
Life is short !

I thought the jury was out or mixed re the positive effects on heart health for women and also the role in dementia. But I really don't have a horse in this race; if people want to use HRT for their future health or to get some sleep or relief from hot flushes or for their sanity, good; if they have a risk of osteoporosis, probably very well worth it. After being in severe pelvic pain for so many years, then not, I decided it wasn't worth it for me. Nothing has fallen apart! And my skin is looking good, too. I am also less depressed, postmenopause.

But the body adjusts to the lower levels of oestrogen

It doesn't, except in some women they no longer have flushes and sweats and mood swings.

It's like saying a man's body adjusts to loss of testosterone if he had his balls removed. I guess they would get used to it in the end.

Our bones don't adjust to loss of estrogen. Within the first 5 years, post-meno- they can lose 5% a year and then continue to thin.

Our heart and arteries don't adjust. Women's risk of CVD increases to the same as men's.

Our brains don't which is possibly why most dementia is in women.

Bladders get tetchy as the lining in them thins, and pelvic floors can collapse.

A lot of women accept all of the above as 'ageing' when they don't realise it's the loss of estrogen causing it.

HRT doesn't put back the levels women lose, but it goes a bit of the way.

Not saying at all that HRT is for everyone, or that all women should use it, but it's worth accepting that even if supplements can help, but they aren't estrogen.

@milkyaqua The evidence is there 100%for heart health. I don't have time now to post links in detail but if you just google HRT/ heart health you will find all the research. That's why HRT needs to be used within 10 years of the menopause starting so that the arteries are not already furrd up.

Dementia- the case is slowly building as more research and evidence comes to light. many specialists believe estrogen helps.

I am 59 so not much point starting HRT now then lol.

Ref pelvic floor I do dr Kegel every morning which has worked wonders for my weak bladder.

Well, good luck all. I am not interested in debating something that is a done deal for me. Dare I drop this info here, for those who are interested?

www.bbc.com/news/health-40655566

It's concerning - gasp! - lifestyle factors in brain health. What is good for the brain is good for the heart, and vv. Good luck everyone.

I have read that the brain re-wires during menopause as it does at puberty. That is what causes the "brain fog". On the otherside we are less nurturing, more ambitious and self interested. TBH I am quite looking forward to no longer being a hostage to my hormones.

Goodness no need for snark maybe HRT might help😂
I understand completely why you can't take it.
That doesn't mean that the health issues long-term just disappear
I've seen first hand a ward full of women with hip fractures and dementia.
Women not men
The ratio was 90% women, the men generally were there as they had fallen off things or RTA.
Women's health is changing,looking longterm not just at symptoms.
Of course lifestyle factors are valid for everyone but there's clear evidence HRT has multiple protective effects longterm.

I've had a bone scan 16 years after menopause and my bones are fine, one area where it was OK but not optimal so I take vitamin D for that, I had unexplained chest pains and then what they decided was a faulty ecg as they did an angiogram and I passed with flying colours. I've literally seen far to much of the inside of my body but much too interesting to turn away from the screen.

I will admit no one has looked at my brain but as I'm holding down a senior job at 70 (well couple of weeks to go) I think it is OK.

So I would deny the rapid aging in everyone. It might happen to lots, might happen to most but I don't think it happens to everyone.

My main aging symptom is eyesight not what it was. Not sure if that is the menopause or a family thing as it seems to happen to all of us.

Here we go, yet more weeping and wailing about menopause and how it wrecks lives. Rather than racing to the doctors to ask for HRT, how about trying really looking after yourselves? Eating properly and embarking on a sustainable programme of exercise (and I don't mean walking round the block). Yes, your body changes in that you put on weight but that can be addressed by eating less and doing more exercise. I am weary by the amount of posts I read on SM about the devastating effects of menopause with no apparent willingness to deal with it by changing lifestyles. It is a natural part of aging. Getting older is a privilege that not everyone will get to experience.

Here we go, yet more patronising posts by people who haven't RTFT 🙄

I can relate to that! To me it feels like a new chapter in life

maybe try reading the thread @Mojoj ?

Who said anyone had raced to the doctor?

Who said the OP or any woman has not already tried all those lifestyle things you mention?

All your post shows is a complete lack of knowledge.

@ancientgran .

You had a bone scan and you were fine. Was there a reason for that scan or did you pay for it? (They are not done as routine unless someone has a fracture.)
Vitamin D as a supplement doesn't build bones. It's a lot more complicated than that, as a bone specialist will tell you.

1:2 women over 50 will develop osteoporosis.

100,000 a year die from the complications of it.

More than cancer and heart disease.

I was a gym bunny when menopause hit me. BMI was 20. Ate a good diet. Didn’t drink much.

I couldn’t sleep and was drenched every night. Couldn’t work because of brain fog. Weird joint pain made it hard to do my usual weights at the gym.

I certainly wasn’t a wreck and was managing to handle some difficult stuff—parents dying and getting incurable cancer, work challenges.no way was I going to to handle all that on poor sleep and feeling less than on the ball.

So yeah, I was obviously going to try HRT as none of the lifestyle choices had stopped me feeling as if the tank was running low.

OP my lovely older friend keeps telling me 'it comes back' as in you may feel a bit loopy (poor memory, brain fog etc) around the menopause but things recover somewhat. I'm 55 and still declining despite hrt (memory of a goldfish sadly, it's becoming embarrassing) so I can't confirm yet.

Have been bumped up from 75mcg patches to 100 (of course they're out of stock everywhere) and meno doc says they'll do bloods in three months to make sure I'm absorbing the oestrogen and if my bp is ok they'll carry on with the higher dose and add in some testosterone.

I found the aching joints and hot flushes so unexpectedly awful I couldn't just get on with things and hrt improved my sleep as well. I cook from scratch, eat my own weight in green veg, love Pilates, healthy weight etc so already doing a lot of the recommended stuff.

Like pp I'm (occasionally) using cannabis (gummies) and it's good for sleep but I wonder if, rather than improving mood, it's actually making me feel a bit depressed? My plan is to try microdosing with home grown mushrooms next.

In the nicest ossible way do you think k the gumming may be not helping with the memory thing ?

OMG soon many typos. In the nicest possible way do think the gumming might not be helping with the memory issues ?

My thoughts exactly, if I had known what life was like free of pmt I would of had an hysterectomy after my last child .

My GP referred me for the scan because I asked him to. I'd had a bad fall, top to bottom on the stairs without touching a step on the way down, and broke my arm when I landed on it, I think I'd have got high points in the Olympics if I'd done it into a pool. Never had a fracture before and it worried me, I know it sounds strange but I have very bad claustrophobia and the plaster cast gave me panic attacks so I was anxious about fractures and my doctor was happy to refer me.

Well the clinic I attended at the local hospital for my scan did a questionnaire with me. I'm a red head and burn at the first sight of sun so I always wear factor 50 so the doctor told me I should take vitamin D because I wasn't getting the benefit of sunlight which you need to absorb calcium. I probably should have been taking it for years, nothing to do with age or menopause. I think it is more widely recommended now than it was. The Royal Osteoporosis Society recommends that we should all be taking vitamin D supplements from September till April but hey what do they know.

I have a prediction somewhere of how likely it is I'd fracture a bone in the next ten years and it was very low, single figures, but of course if I do another high dive it might be an issue. The good news is that at 65 and 16 years post menopause they were confident that I was fine and had no issues with osteoporosis. I also have no family history of it, unfortunately I can't say the same for cancer as the family carries the BRCA1 gene.

People just vary don't they. I never had PMT but was crippled with migraines linked to my periods, I had easy pregnancies but I know other people who had terrible PMT, one who stabbed her husband in a PMT rage, I know other people who have had terrible sickness in pregnancy and not just for the first trimester. It seems pretty obvious that the same thing happens with the menopause, some of us have a terrible time, some have a bad time and then it's great, some sail through it and then it's great.

I think the thing that can be irritating for people who haven't had any problems is some people seem to be wishing problems on us, we are just so stupid we can't see we have brain fog/osteoporosis/collapsing pelvic floors. On the other hand people who are struggling might feel irritated that some of us aren't struggling.