A season for everything
(På norsk lenger nede)
It's rather fascinating being a woman. Of course, I have no idea how fascinating it is to be a man, but here I am, with a body that is meant to house another human being and all the attendant organs and hormones to that end.
"To that end". Hah, I crack me up. Because it does end, in a process that is called menopause. The highs and low and upsets that a woman experiences during this phase of life is not actually menopause. "Menopause" is just the moment when you've had your last menstrual period, and that a woman usually doesn't know until at least a year after the fact. The hormonal changes that lead up to menopause are part of a time of life called perimenopause. And that is the time of life I am in now. No, I'm not too young at 46 (as of 2007). First symptoms can start showing up at age 38/39.
My first symptom was the end of the regular period. For over 25 years my periods had been showing up every 28 days (with the exception of when I moved countries; two intercontinental moves each led to 6 months of adjustment). I was 39 years old and spending a weekend with friends in their cabin on an island in the mouth of the Sognefjord. Summers being what they are in this part of the country, it was wet and windy. I was also expecting my period, but not until Sunday. It showed up Saturday morning. I actually willingly got into a 14-foot boat and crossed a choppy body of water in howling wind and driving rain so I could get to some godforsaken country store to buy sanitary pads. It really is puberty in reverse!
Some wonderful ladies on the Usenet group alt.support.menopause have been my main source of information and comfort and camaraderie in this process. Because this time of life is like that other time of life - i.e. confusing, messy, unpredictable and mean to pretty underwear - you don't need a doctor to walk you through that (I hear doctors sighing with relief ;-) ). That said, you need to be sure you really are going through perimenopause and not something else, like hypothyroidism, which has a lot of symptoms that mimic perimenopause.
There is a list of 33 (or 35) symptoms of perimenopause and I've had a number of those symptoms but never all at once and never for long. It's like my body is trying this process on, testing out one or two different symptoms at a time for a few months at a time. "Let's check out chicken liver clots, shall we?" or "Here. Have a panic attack and heart palpitations. Yes, it's hormonal. Expecting your period, aren't you?" Those symptoms scared me good, but the chicken liver clot thing sent me looking for information, so I learned what was happening to me. I also stopped drinking soy milk. It gave me a progesterone allergy (!), so it's not necessarily helpful during perimenopause. You can find the list of symptoms here and here.
There has been some discussion about whether or not women need to be medicated with hormones at this stage of her life. A huge study - the Women's Health Intitiative - found that there were too many unfortunate side-effects associated with taking estrogen, side-effects like increased risk of heart attack and breast cancer. And most women find that the symptoms return full force when they go off the hormones. In other words, the hormones don't cure; they just postpone.
My personal philosophy is to go as drugless as possible, but I am also blessed with a body that has always functioned well in the "female" department, even when I first started to menstruate. I'm assuming that I will remain friends with my body through this process, too, in spite of (current symptoms of) disrupted sleep, increase in PMS, feeling unusually anxious, a shortened and somewhat unreliable cycle (but reliable enough to let me know that my symptoms relate to it), and weight gain, which is not easy to accept. But all in all, it is an adventure and an exciting one. :-)
Some links for English-speaking women:
Pages made by alt.support.menopause "alumni": Land o' links and Menopause and Beyond and Celebrating this time of life (paint your toenails gold)
Aromatherapy for the Reproductive System
Yoga for Menopause
Downward-facing Dog (a yoga pose for menopause)
An article about yoga and menopause
Menopause-Metamorphosis - alternative approaches (a page of links and articles)
Noen lenker for norske kvinner
Jeg trodde jeg ville mye nøytral informasjon, men endte opp nedslått over den informasjon jeg (ikke) fant på norsk. Enten er sidene kommersielle (og derfor ønsker å selge noe), eller informasjonen er mer overfladisk enn min side her, eller sidene fokuserer på østrogenbehandling; studier har vist at slikt kun utsetter symptomene. Når en kvinne slutter med hormontilskuddet kommer plagene tilbake; derfor kan det være like greit å "ri stormen av" først som sist. Noen sider har også feil: F.eks. stod det på en side at perimenopause (som betyr tiden med hormonsvingninger før menopause (klimakteriet)) varer i kun 6 måneder. Min har vart i 6 år hittil (pr. 2007)! Og det er faktisk normalt.
Det mest informative nettstedet jeg har funnet på norsk er kommersielle Novo Nordisk. Her er også et aktivt diskusjonsforum på norsk.
Det å få informasjon har hjulpet meg. Det er mye lettere å takle en pussig kløe under haken eller en eiendommelig hodepine når man vet at slikt kan være hormonelt og derfor en av symptomene. De færreste av oss vil oppleve symptomer som er så kraftige at vi må ha medisinsk hjelp, men samtidig er det de færreste som opplever null plager med denne fasen av liet. Da kan det være kjekt å vite om kjerringråd o.l. hvis plagene blir, vel, plagsomme. (F.eks. har en av damene på alt.support.menopause oppdaget at å drikke et glass vann med en spiseskje eplesidereddik et par ganger for dagen har redusert hennes hetetokter).
Danske og svenske lenker:
Denne danske siden tar for seg en kvinnes holdning til henne selv i denne fasen av livet.
Jeg kan ikke gå god for de alternative behandlingene tilbudt på denne danske siden, men oppramsingen av symptomene er god.
Gode råd fra et svensk apotek og produktene finnes også i Norge.
Råd fra svensk sjukvårdsrådgivningen
Klimakteriet.nu (på svensk) har en del informasjon uten å ha noe å selge (såvidt jeg kan se)