Hi ladies! I've been contacted by a reporter from a Chicago newspaper who is doing a story for their women's pages about menopause and how women today are dealing with everything. If you have experienced anything menopausal, please answer the following questions. I need your answers by 10am Pacific time on Wednesday 2-21. Thanks!

1. What symptoms are you experiencing with menopause?

2. What steps have you taken to deal with these symptoms?

3. Do you trust your doctor to give you the best info, or do you see other sources on your own?

4. If you use other sources to learn about menopause and make decisions that might be different than what your doctor recommends, what are those sources?

5. What do you think is different about YOUR menopausal years as compared to your mother or grandmother?

6. What is the one worst thing you can think of with menopause?

7. Are there any good things that come with menopause?

8. How do you mentally handle all the things your body is going through?

Thanks ladies! Hope you have time to answer some of these questions for me. I'll let you know when/if/where this story runs. The reporter found me through my website and was intriguied that I had built a business around my experiences with menopause.

Kathy

1. What symptoms are you experiencing with menopause?

Sleepless nights and hot flashes

2. What steps have you taken to deal with these symptoms?

I've taken natural herb medicine for the hot flashes, and occasionally I take a sleeping pill. Sometimes a glass of red wine helps before I go to bed.

3. Do you trust your doctor to give you the best info, or do you see other sources on your own?

I always check other sources on my own.

4. If you use other sources to learn about menopause and make decisions that might be different than what your doctor recommends, what are those sources?

Internet and magazine articles

5. What do you think is different about YOUR menopausal years as compared to your mother or grandmother?

My mother had a hormone patch after her hysterectomy. Therefore her menopause symptoms were almost non-existent.

6. What is the one worst thing you can think of with menopause?

sweating and getting flushed

7. Are there any good things that come with menopause?

The period stops

8. How do you mentally handle all the things your body is going through?

Great. Up to now I have enjoyed every stage of my life. This stage is good too, because it's the first time that I can concentrate on doing what I want to do.

1. What symptoms are you experiencing with menopause?

Mild flushing and flashing, insomnia

2. What steps have you taken to deal with these symptoms?

Balanced diet and supplements high in calcium and Omega3

3. Do you trust your doctor to give you the best info, or do you see other sources on your own?

I trust my daughter. She's a doctor.

4. If you use other sources to learn about menopause and make decisions that might be different than what your doctor recommends, what are those sources?

Medical journals of which I have amassed since my hsyterectomy


5. What do you think is different about YOUR menopausal years as compared to your mother or grandmother?

I don't recall my Mom suffering from menopause. If she did, she probably just bore up with it.

6. What is the one worst thing you can think of with menopause?

insomnia

7. Are there any good things that come with menopause?

No more hassle with feminine products.

8. How do you mentally handle all the things your body is going through?

Just a stage. It will pass. And soon, I hope.

I should say that I am post menopausal (6 years) so I am not sure that I apply.

1. What symptoms are you experiencing with menopause?

Flushing, flashing and weight gain, especially in the belly.

2. What steps have you taken to deal with these symptoms?

Exercise more often, fans and less covers at night. No wool sweaters anymore!

3. Do you trust your doctor to give you the best info, or do you see other sources on your own?

I do my own research on all health related topics. Doctors have a narrow view point and not enough time to listen and answer questions. When I do see a doctor, I have already done research and know the exact questions that I feel she can best answer for me.


4. If you use other sources to learn about menopause and make decisions that might be different than what your doctor recommends, what are those sources?

Websites, books, friends, BWS friends, alternative medicine magazines.

5. What do you think is different about YOUR menopausal years as compared to your mother or grandmother?

My life is just beginning, they were told life was over (although I know my mother did not believe this, not sure about my grandmother)
6. What is the one worst thing you can think of with menopause?

Nothing

7. Are there any good things that come with menopause?

No more periods, no more cramps, no more feminine products.

8. How do you mentally handle all the things your body is going through?

Bodies change all the time. This was a heck of lot easier than the changes that happened in puberty. It is not a big deal.

I sent you a PM with my answers.

I've already passed through the MEN-O-PAUSE thang and can only say that in regards to #6, is it got harder and harder to hide the dead bodies.

I am post-men over 15 years (started at age 35, which is common with the women in my family), so I don't know if my answers apply, either. But, I oh so remember those years!!! I had a rough time of it - approx. 10 years of symptoms.

1. What symptoms are you experiencing with menopause?
hot flashes - surprisingly, mostly at work
severe mood changes
aches
unable to sleep

2. What steps have you taken to deal with these symptoms?
Took HRT for awhile, but after 1 1/2 years, decided to quit, due to fear of side effects, plus HRT periods were not regular as predicted. The remainder of the time I toughed it out. I had occasion to consult with a psychologist, my mental health was being effected (more to that story, but it has nothing to do with this questionaire).

3. Do you trust your doctor to give you the best info, or do you see other sources on your own?
I trusted gyno at first, but decided after awhile to learn what I could and learn to deal with symptoms on my own, as nature took its on good time getting me through it.

4. If you use other sources to learn about menopause and make decisions that might be different than what your doctor recommends, what are those sources?
Family and friends
Herbalist
Chiropractor
Articles
Resource library
*computer, if I was still experiencing the change

5. What do you think is different about YOUR menopausal years as compared to your mother or grandmother?
I could talk about mine more freely and seek help openly.
There was more shared and readily available knowledge on the subject.
Society doesn't stigmatize it as they did in my mom's day.

6. What is the one worst thing you can think of with menopause?
I have 2 very important "worst things":
Mood swings - depression marked my life severely during that time.
Also, other changes in my body - thinning of hair and lack of libido & lubrication, if I might be so bold, being the worst.

7. Are there any good things that come with menopause?
A freedom from the monthly visitor and getting pregnant.

8. How do you mentally handle all the things your body is going through?
Spiritual connections
Exercise and good diet
Talking about it

Why wasn't a question like this posited:
What one thing do you think would help you most through this time in your life?

When I hit menopause, I was mostly worried about depression. My physical symptoms were not that bad, but I was hit with a major sense of 'lost time', a feeling that I had wasted my life. (I hadn't!!) Since several female family members had gone through depression during menopause, I was really aware it could be devastating.

I went on St. John's Wort (300 mg daily) and frankly, that was all I needed. I found a creative outlet that transformed my life (writing fiction) and was able to deal with many difficult events in the time during and after menopause (family members ill), thanks to the mood-leveling that St. John's Wort gave me. It allowed me to feel like myself.

I never took hormone therapy, since I'd had a previous problem with blood clots, but I really didn't have severe physical symptoms anyway. Hot flashes that passed quickly, a bit of mild hair loss, that was about it.

I also have to add, there was actually one GOOD thing about menopause - rather than a lack of libido, I experienced a serious upswing in sexual appetite. My husband was quite pleased! And the benefits have continued...

I find that I'm wearing a middle-aged spread...I just keep wearing it! That's about it...I take an Estroven or the equivalent sporadically...I'll take it for a couple of months, run out and forget to buy any...could that be a symptom? LOL

I do trust my doctor...I've been with him since I was in nursing school...delivered my babies...worked for him...wouldn't trust anybody else as much!