I never thought someone who was forty one could start going through menopause. Most women aren’t getting pregnant till their forty now days. I started just feeling bad.

I ached all over, so naturally I thought I had a cold or the flu. I began to sweat all the time. It was like I had stepped out of sauna. Sweat would just start running out every pore in my body and it would be 20 degrees outside.

I had headaches all the times. My nerves were shot, and I felt awful. I would get the shakes and get dizzy spells. I wasn’t sleeping hardly any. I would just lay awake all night.

I didn’t feel like eating and would not eat sometimes all day long until I forced myself. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I went to the doctor two times for them to say everything was fine.

I went through this for about five months until I had to go in for my pap smear. I told him I had been sick for a while, so I hadn’t had my period. He took all kind of notes and ask was I pregnant.

I just laughed and thought he was crazy. We did the test. It was negative – thank God. I’m too old for a baby. Finally, he took a bunch more tests. I was going through menopause.

Hello, I’m too young I screamed, but I wasn’t. He actually put me on some hormone medicines. We tried three or four before they he actually got exactly what I needed to help me.

I had to make several trips. But in the end, it was well worth it. I feel much better today. I also had to change my diet and exercise. This helped greatly. I sleep well at night, my diet and appetite has gotten much better, no more shakes, and I’m a much happier person.

I talked to my doctor, family, and friends about what was going on. They helped out a lot. I read and did my homework. Knowing what is going on and what can treat it has done wonders for me.

I had hot flashes.

I would wake up sweating and I would have to change clothes.

I was moody and I found that exercises helped me a lot to get rid of that added emotional state.

I also drank chamomile tea and that calmed me down a lot.

I also took up reading a relaxing self-help book at night.

I really didn’t have any symptoms at that time, just the irregular periods, but the dr put me on prescription medicine which totally made symptoms appear.

I was getting hot flashes, irritable, craving chocolate one minute, then something salty the next, just nasty.

I refused to take the prescription as it just made things worse, so after some discussion.

After talking to some friends of mine, who were going thru the same menopause symptoms, one of them had a dr who was a holistic dr, who treated her menopause with all natural injections, that he made himself.

I decided to give it a try, and I am totally symptom free, and happy, and healthy. I get a shot every month, I call it my happy shot, and I am fine.

My periods were horrible, very heavy and I was miserable. My periods lasted 2 weeks.

I did not go to the doctor because I wanted to try and deal with it naturally. I started taking Estroven Extra Strength at that time to deal with the hot flashes and it worked okay.

It lessoned the sweats and it also has ingredients that are healthy, like B vitamins, calcium, and cranberry extract.

In the summer of my 48th year, I stopped having my period and didn’t have it for 4 months. I started again, but my periods didn’t seem as bad, even though they still lasted 10 days.

This past summer I stopped again and haven’t started back. It’s FANTASTIC!!! I hope this time it doesn’t return.

I have not had a bad time of it at all with menopause. Neither did my mother, so I am expecting to be done with perimenopause this year.

I will be 50 in August. I still have random hot flashes but the Estroven helps a lot.

I do not want to take any prescription meds that might affect me adversely. I think what I am doing for myself is healthy and adequate to deal with my symptoms.

I did have, what I believe, was peri menopause for about 10 years prior to this. With that came, extreme mood swings, tiredness, and heavy menstrual flow with cramping.

Menopause brought me relief from these things, however, my hormones did go wacky and I became involved in an extramarital affair.

I do believe these raging hormones were mostly responsible for this as an affair was totally out of character for me. I was like a girl having sex for the first time.

I had some hot flashes but, they were not enough to make me too uncomfortable. I was probably bothered more with night sweats, but the mood swings were gone.

My doctor put me on a low dose of Premarin and I stayed on that for about a year. However my breasts contained fibroids and were very tender.

The doctor told me the tenderness was a side affect of the medication and that he had me on the lowest possible dosage.

I stopped taking the Premarin on my own because I didn‘t feel it was that beneficial to me and it was costly. I then began an over the counter herbal treatment which I believe was call Estroven.

Whether or not that helped any I really couldn’t say. I took that for a few months and then stopped all treatment.

I am 58 years now and on a very rare occasion I may experience a hot flash. Unfortunately the aftermath of menopause has left me with extreme dryness. I am not just speaking of the vaginal area but, my skin is always so dry and I developed chronic dry eye.

The eyes are so dry that I need to apply an ointment every night before bed. I don’t need to shave my legs anymore because I don’t have any more hair growth there. Unfortunately I have hardly any eyebrows left either.

I always had very light hair growth. I understand this can be a very difficult time for many women but, honestly for me it was not that bad. Aside from the problems, I mentioned, I feel better mentally and am glad I have menstruation behind me.

When I got up, the toilet would be full of glistening black-red feces. I know this sounds unpleasant. It was very unpleasant. I married at nineteen and became pregnant almost immediately.

To my astonishment, after the baby was born, my periods became painless. After about two and a half years the pain returned, and I at once decided it was time to become pregnant again.

But unfortunately, my husband wanted only two children. I wanted four, so we compromised on three. After that third was born, the doctor inserted an IUD to prevent further pregnancies. That was a nightmare.

I was an identification clerk at a police department, and my periods were so heavy I was constantly running to the restroom to change supplies. One day, I inserted three super-size tampons and put on two super-size pads.

As soon as I was out of the restroom, I was called to process a prisoner. This consisted of taking down information about his name, address, and so forth; fingerprinting him; and photographing him face on and profile.

By the time I got through, I had bled through everything including my skirt, and had to go home and change clothes. In a few months the IUD was removed.

After that, my periods were normal for me: three days of heavy bleeding and intense pain, and four days of light bleeding. But then I hit the age of 48.

All of a sudden my periods consisted of 11 days of heavy bleeding, 12 days of light bleeding, and 5 days of spotting. There was no day at all when I wasn’t having some bleeding. I went to my doctor, and he told me I’d just have to live with it until I completed menopause.

I left his office simmering with rage and called a gynecologist from the first pay phone I reached. The gynecologist ordered me into his office at once: my situation was symptomatic of cancer.

He did a thorough examination in which he filled my uterus and ovaries with gas so that he could see everything. Abruptly he asked, “How many miscarriages have you had?” I said, “None, that I know of.” He said, “But you’ve had no live births.” I said, “Yes, I’ve given birth to three children, and they’re all just fine.”

He then told me that I had two uteri, and a woman with that condition was almost never able to carry a pregnancy past three months. I was able to determine from that and memories of ovulation, which I always felt, that my 9#2oz and 9#14oz babies came from my right uterus and my 7#4oz baby came from my left uterus.

I did not have cancer, but he prescribed a hormone that at once put my periods back to normal. After a year and a half, I experimentally discontinued the hormone, and my periods stopped.

Two months went by, and no period. We keep a whiteboard in the hall, to track appointments, grocery lists, and so forth. Triumphantly, I drew a large fish on the whiteboard and wrote under it, “My minnow had paused!”

When I returned to the gynecologist, he said, “Now, some women don’t feel right if they’re not having periods. I can provide some medications that will let you–” “Are you crazy?” I asked.

I’m 65 now. The joy of not bleeding and hurting one fourth of every month remains–well, let’s say I still don’t want any medicines that would cause me to resume having periods. Oh, and I changed to a different usual doctor.

I was crying over nothing, angry most of the time and would vision evil things, like wanting to castrate my husband when he didn’t agree with me. These symptoms got worse over time from age 45-49.

I also started getting panic attacks while driving a car and riding in elevators. This was terrible because I would have to wait until someone was also going to take an elevator before I got in. It curtailed my driving – I would only drive withing a 20 mile radius of my home and never, ever get on a freeway.

During this time I went to my doctor and she prescribed Zoloft and that did help. She put me on the lowest dose and that seemed to take the edge off. I was on Zoloft for 2 years (age 47-49).

I never took any replacement hormone therapy, even though the doctor told me she could prescribe it, because it was during the time that the findings came out that HRT can cause more bad symptoms that what it cures. I never had any hot flashes and only occasional night sweats.

It seemed I only got night sweats if I drank a glass or 2 of wine before I went to bed. Once I figured that out I stopped drinking wine. During this time I also would meet with my girlfriends who were the same age and we would discuss what was going on with menopause.

Because some of my friends were past menopause, they would assure me that what I was feeling was normal and that I wasn’t crazy. Some of them did and still do suffer terribly with night sweats and hot flashes.

One of my friends is now 8 years past menopause and she is still suffering with occasional hot flashes. All I can say is I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that, especially this far post menopause. When actual menopause came and my periods stopped at age 49 my mood swings went away.

I stopped crying at the drop of a hat and my evil thoughts, for the most part have vanished. I still get panic attacks occasionally while driving but it’s only when I’m in very heavy traffic in an area I’m unfamiliar with. I can now ride in elevators by myself. I would suggest to anyone going through this time to talk frankly with your doctor about anxiety, mood swings and any other thing that makes you feel as if you’re not yourself.

Don’t be afraid of taking an antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication. Most of all remember that this time is temporary and you will eventually be back to your old, much improved self.