General Chat

but it does go on forever, reading this.

1-25 years -- sounds like a prison sentence :-( and I hate being to hot the sweat gets into my scar and.................... ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

People make me eat spicy food, I don't eat it by choice. I don't have alcohol but I do drink tea. :-S

No Rocky, it DOES go!!
The worst thing I found was getting sweaty legs :-S
I was suffering from work related stress, too, so not sure I the 'fogginess' was that or the menopause.
Mine stated at about 47, slowly at first. By the time I'd reached 50, it was all over - no sweats, no periods - GREAT, and I was fortunate enough not to need HRT to get me through it. :-D :-D

My sister's husband was dying when she started the menopause, so she took HRT, in the end, for about 6 years, until she started getting migraines.
All this did for her, was delay the inevitable, so, despite being younger than her, I'd gone through it, she still had it to go. :-)

Mind you, I put on over a stone in weight :-|

Sorry to say Rocky,
I started around the age of 45.
I'll be 58 next week and although it's not too often. I still get the sweats.
It's going but, not yet gone!

I had how flushes and still do. A friend told me they only last a year so I cant still be having them. They happen a lot less than they did. I still get to hot when trying to sleep but when I did get them bad I used to sleep on a bath sheet, now I just have a hand towel to put on my pillow. I chose not to take HRT because I have had cancer a few times. Yes memory was also bad, actually it still is lol.

I started when I was 46 had a real bad time with hot sweats, cramps and a few floods, but then I had my 2nd child at the age of 48 (a menopause baby)

That was 8 years ago, about 2 years ago I just stopped and never had any more symptoms.

I didn't suffer much with sweats but I did have aches and pains for no reason, particularly in feet and ankles, but don't get that now. Almost overnight my waistbands felt tight and, like Maggie, I put on a bit of weight. However the 'mid-life fat cell' does stop grossing out eventually and I now find it easier to lose or maintain weight. Your shape does change though!

Family Whispers.

How lovely , a much loved unexpected baby. x

Sylvia,

Yes she is a joy and keeps me young.

I had my 1st daughter when I was 18 so there is 30 years between them, My granddaughter will be 19 next month.

Daughter now aged 8 had a family history assignment last week, boy did she confuse the teacher or what. :-D

Family Whispers
I would have loved to see the teachers face reading that assignment :-D

Family Whispers ................

how lovely, and how confusing for the teacher :-)

RMS ................

I started getting irregular periods at about 47, hot flushes about a year later.

It was all over by age 51, except for the few flushes now (see below)


Annx .......... I was working, not a "lady of leisure" at home with no need to worry.

In fact, remembering what some of the people on here have posted in the past, I think most of us were working at the time.

BUT there are hot flushes and hot flushes, mine were not anywhere near as bad as some of the descriptions on here. I never sweated so much that I wet the bed or my clothes, nor needed to hide the stains.

The ones I get now are also quite slight ................ if I wake up in the morning and start feeling hot, I know that I will not get back to sleep no matter the time



we are scaring RMS ........

.......... rather like listening to mothers relating pregnancy and childbirth stories to a newly pregnant woman. I had to laugh a few years back listening to my daughter doing just that to her cousin-by-marriage.

Somehow, we never relate the good stories, just the ones that caused problems.


I think of the freedom ................. no more special products to buy and wear every month, no having to check the calendar, no having to carry supplies with you, etc etc.

The same sort of freedom that I have felt for the last 5 years of not having to wear a bra because of the second mastectomy :-)

I could go into the throes of "why me", "woe is me" .................. but the freedom is what I prefer to dwell on :-)

Absolutely SylviainC -

No more hormonal based mood-swings.
No more 'fat days' clothes
No more trying to work out the best time to go on holiday (swim wear etc)
*For the nocturnally active with a life-partner - no more concerns about contraception.

*As Family Whispers © ™ points out, whilst going through menopause, it is still possible to conceive.

No more spending a fortune every month on apparently 'luxury' goods :-D

....though I still have a selection in my bathroom cabinet, as I have 2 daughters and a 13 year old grand daughter, (none of whom live with me) so sometimes buy 'products' to keep it of use.
This means, if they unexpectedly 'come on' whilst here,there's no worry.
My eldest has dropped in a couple of times whilst at work (she visits women who have recently given birth) as she has a need!!

Actually, I believe having these things in the bathroom means my grand daughter finds talking to me about 'womanly' things much easier - she could talk to her mum, who works in maternity, so is very open, but grand daughter was asking me about the menopause the other week - something I'd never talk to my gran - or mum about!!

You can wear white trousers whenever you like - not that I've ever worn them, but you know what I mean.

All my clothes are now 'fat day' clothes, as I put on weight during the process :-(

The only worry about coughing, is whether you'll pee yourself, not 'flood' :-D

I find that the hormones still try to muster sometimes but don't have the strength to achieve much these days.

When it was more frequent and they made me feel a bit PMTish I would called it the whores moaning again but I put that on here once and somebody, who evidently had not bothered to read what I had written, took umbrage and said they hoped I wasn't referreing to anybody on here.

(James Joyce walked into a bar.....)

I thought it stopped 2 years ago .............. but surprised everybody when it came back and been regular ever since :-( :-( :-(

it would be nice to not be 'messy' every month.

Well!!!! i am 79 next month and still wake up dripping some nights ..

i sleep ah la Monroe cos its more comfy . but even then I can wake up all slimy around the lower neck and chest . I take a 1500mg Starflower oil cap too which helps to stop the left boob aches . this was always the problem pre menstrual and was the first boob to protest when i tried to breastfeed .

So it never really goes for me !!

I didn't mean to infer whether anyone on here was working or not, I just remember how much easier it was for my mum who wasn't working and was at home all day when she went through the menopause. I doubt I would have gone on HRT if I had been at home, but I just couldn't cope with my job without. One work colleague's hands would literally drip with sweat. It was before we had computers so all our work was handwritten too.

I can remember having a lot of trouble with hip pain too at the time and thought I was starting with osteoarthritis. Fast forward to now and I don't get any hip trouble at all. The good thing is that the symptoms do gradually decrease but I'm not sure they go altogether for all of us. I still tend to overheat easily, but maybe the extra padding round the waist has something to do with that!!

Somebody I worked with thought I was a lot younger than I am (behaviour rather than appearance methinks) and when I said I really didn't feel I had anything to contribute to conversations about the menopause, she said it was because I wasn't there yet.

Please! I had the beard and everything!

That is the bit they don't tell you about, the beard and the fact that male animals find you irresistable when your hormones are all over the place. I had a dog try to jump in through a window at me once, and a five legged horse come hammering across a fiels after me.

Aside from about a year of sweaty nights and (as Lady Scozz said) 'formication' on my arms, I didn't have any problems.

Wear cotton not man made material, it helps, and if someone is 'making' you eat spicy food you don't want...tell them politely, or otherwise, to 'go away' :-)

Sharron!!!!!!! :-0 :-0 :-0 :-0

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Horses never found me THAT attractive - beard or no beard :-D