Is there an END to Menopause?

Have been in it for about three years now, and believe me ... don't care for it one bit. I do however refuse conventional Dr.'s treatments. Have opted for the 'Blue Cohash' & 'Don Quia' ... herbals. I call it my 'darn quiet' medicine. I don't like the heated mood swings along with the hot flashes, along with the weight gain, along with the thinning hair, along with creeping wrinkles, along with ....

Well, you understand. And, I have been told that I have a light menopause. Whew ... sure am glad!

I've been on the bio-identical hormones for about 5 months and I feel better than I've felt in about 6 years. I realize they may not be for everyone, but it's certainly worth checking out.

Daisygirl

As you get older, the menopause does lighten up a bit. I don't know if it ever really goes away.

OH PLEASE!

Someone tell me this ends. That's ridiculous. I think God & me will have to have a long talk about all this. I cannot understand why we as women ... go thru all this. Sorry, just venting!

Catherine

I say we all send God an email. He's gotta' do something about this.

smile

I think it does end. At least let me say that for the past few months (maybe a year?) I haven't had any flashes or anything else. So I'm GUESSING (notice the caps?) that I'm thru it. I know women who never even go thru it. I think they should be punished.

JJ

My period ceased to exist after May of 1990. I never experienced a hot flash or any of the other inconveniences so many of you speak of so I never could tell when my menopause ended or if it did yet? Lucky me!

LAdies, look at the home page and there is a free test you can order to see where you are with perimenopause and menopause. I ordered mine. I just keep forgetting to do the test first thing in the morning.

The instructions on the test say that once your have had no periods for one year, you're in menopause.

New here - just joined up!
Menopause sure differs from woman to woman, and aside from some common effects, IMO it has alot to do with a person's health habits established well BEFORE menopause, as well as stress levels, for better or worse. It is becoming known that ongoing unresolved stress affects menopause as well as other women's health situations. Since alot of people are stressed-out, lots are also having an awful time with menopause. Some women are not excessively troubled, others are absolutely derailed with the worst of symptoms and depression, etc. At the age of 58(will be 59 next month)I am well on the other side of menopause(at age 51), so I can say from personal experience that I benefited greatly from some Chinese herbs for some hot flashes that were present for a couple of years, and my periods were irregular for about 3-4 years leading up to cessation. No weight gain, no thinning of hair, no mustache, etc. I would not touch hormones with a ten-foot pole, as my mother died of breast cancer when I was 31(she was 58 at the time). I have followed pretty much a natural foods diet with little meat and sugar, and virtually no alcohol since the age of 26. No smoking either, and have little to do with any prescription drugs as I have seldom needed them .
I would also follow up with what I said about health habits prior to menopause that that's when the chickens come home to roost.
Although it is true that metabolism drops with age if one does nothing about it, the good news is that it can often be offset to a good degree with discipline in the exercise(bodybuilding/weight-training for muscle and bone, reasonable cardio and flexibility training come to mind) and diet(natural foods featuring a ton of produce)department.

This makes good common sense to a degree and I never thought about PRIOR to menopause. Hmm...los of food for thought here. Thanks for much for the new point of view. I am mulling it all over.

AND WELCOME TO THE FORUMS! Please do go to the WELCOME section and tell us all about yourself. We do hope you'll make this your home away from home!

JJ