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[Mia C]

 Good evening everyone. I am completely new to forums so bear with me. 

Having had a very early puberty at 8 years old I appeared to hit menopause around 48. I am now just 51 and no periods for 18/12 - yippee.

Some hot flushes but manageable and about 10lb weight gain in total. OK methinks I can do this and then it hit me.

Last 6 months or so hot flushes 10+ per day and night sweats every 1.5 to 2 hrs - oh joy. Another 20lb weight gain, mostly around my abdomen, flat hair, facial hair and get up and go has got up and gone.

Now in the interest of full disclosure I had put some weight gain down to steroid drugs and a autoimmune condition. I also had a severe spinal injury a few years back and it was 4 years being rebuilt to get mobility back but some of the drugs I take to control rogue nerves make it difficult to lose weight. I have always been a size 10 - 12 with boobs but am now a generous 14 which as the weight is not distributed evenly I hate.

Mood wise I resemble Cruella de ville after the Dalmatians escaped. Again lots going on with my father dying suddenly ( found by police when unable to contact, he lived away), and 3 close family members with cancer of various prognosis. Plus had to have one of our family pets put to sleep recently, expected but horrid.

I am constantly tired, if the hot sweats don't wake me back & leg spasm does. I average 6 hours in bed with 2 - 4 periods of wakening. During the week more sleep is not an option as I leave for work around 0630 and get home 1800 - 2000hrs. I work in a senior role at a large hospital so work is also somewhat challenging.

Gosh I've just read this ramble - sorry. The reason I joined today was having had enough I spoke to my GP today who recommended I try Kliovance 1/0.5 which I started today. I am hopeful I shall wake in the morning a trim size 12, bouncy hair and sans beard and wondered how any of you have got on with this. 

[babyjane]

well Mia C, welcome to the forun and I see your sense of humour has not got up and gone too so that's good. .  You must feel like you are in one of those awful game shows where a big bucket of gloop gets poured all over you when you are least expecting it!  There are many ladies here who will commiserate and share with you and I think you will  be glad you joined.

I can still remember taking 2 hours to go to sleep and then waking up every 90 minutes and taking another hour to drop off again.  I think I averaged about 4 hours of broken sleep a night.  I felt awful and I didn't have to get up and go out to work like you.  Looking back I thought the hot sweats would never stop but they did, and they have.

Hang in there, you are no longer going through all this on your own now. 

[Mia C]

Hello. Thank you for your replies and kind words. I think just writing it down was cathartic.
The sense of humour has to remain, if that goes I'm really in trouble. x

[CLKD]

You'll fit right in  and we do have a 'funny' room at the bottom of the Forum ;-).   

There is a group called 'CRUISE' [I think] for people bereaved who need to talk about what happened. 

We also have a thread 'My Chin!' and details of vaginal atrophy on here of which we become experts quite fast    ..... read round, make notes, ask - nothing is taboo and nothing is rambling - there's usually someone on here to listen who has been there and knitted the T-shirt ;-).

[Mia C]

Good morning.
Thank you CLKD, there is you are correct. I think like many health professionals  (and women generally) I am very bad at accepting help, too busy dishing it out.

Sparkle - I think a good trawl through here will be a great help and plan to do so on my next day off. Now though I am off to apply the contents of my make-up case before work 👯
Have a good day everyone. x

[Hurdity]

Hi Mia C

  from me too.

I don't know what your specialism is - but I am sure you will soon become an expert on menopause and HRT if you are a health professional!

Sorry to hear about your father's death and the illness of your family members (as well as your pet). This is bound to take its toll on you moodwise as I expect you realise.

re the HRT - Kliofem: there are mixed opinions on this - some gyanes and several of us feel it is better to start with sequential HRT (the cyclical type that gives a withdrawal bleed) at first, so that you can distinguish between side effects caused either by mode of delivery, the oestrogen, or more likely if there are going to be any, the progestogen. The downside is that you have to have a withdrawal bleed, and also there is often a couple of days of adjustment each month due to the progestogen withdrawal as you switch from the combi tabs to the oestrogen ( and sometimes at the start of the combi tabs).

Other docs feel that bleeds are an unnecessary evil and of course there is less chance of any endometrial thickening on the continuous combined HRT.

There are many women happily taking the various types of HRT on offer so here's hoping this works for you first time! The advice is also to give it three months to decide if this is the one for you, as your body has been without a decent level of oestrogen for a while, and you will need to adjust to this and the progestogen. if this one doesn't suit you there are plenty of others out there!

I presume you have had various blood tests etc re the weight gain - not rule out thyroid problems? I am not sure what else you can do about it if the gain is down to the drugs you need to take, apart from keeping as fit and active as you can, and making sure your diet is low carb and not too high fat/processed foods - which I expect you already know (and special apologies if you are a nutrition advisor!!)!

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Hurdity x

[Mia C]

Hi Hurdity

No I'm not a nutrition advisor ( just a keen foodlover). Fairly good on the healthy eating front, I have an avid dislike of faddie diets and tend to follow an 80/20 rule. My gran was a professional cook so I cook from scratch the majority of the time and don't have a sweet tooth.

I think there is a combination of blame factors, steroids, inability to participate in high energy sports - pre accident Ashtanga yoga, horse riding and tennis made up my week.
Also my residual disability meant a change in my working life ( my speciality was the Emergency Department & ITU so my gynae knowledge is minamal) after 25 years on the front line I moved to the dark side of management  so though busy the role is less physical.
My thyroid function is borderline but monitored so sadly I can't blame that.

I am expecting marvellous things from this blooming hrt, weight loss, no hot flushes, flashes and skin of my 20 year old self.

Decided to stress less and buy clothes that don't cut me in half, luckily I like the scandi linen summer look.
Off to make a healthy (ish) supper of coq au vin with a harricott bean and white truffle oil mash.

Nice to talk to you, have a great weekend. x
 

[Hurdity]

Hi there Mia C

Sounds great! Please let me know what you mean by the 80/20 rule re diets? I haven't come across this one.

Just one thing - you say your thyroid is borderline but monitored? How borderline? As I am sure you know, the reference range provided a cut-off point above which treatment is deemed appropriate but is not necessarily an absolute all or nothing state. Many women do not do well with thyroid functioning sub-optimally and it could be that some of your symptoms/weight gain is due to this? You mention an auto-immune condition which you may not want to reveal - but the most common thyroid condition in middle-aged women is Hashimoto's thyroiditis, also auto-immune. I really know very little about thyroid and the values of the different hormones T3 and T4 in various stages of Hashimoto's - but countrybumpkin is an expert on this. Again apologies I expect you know all this already!

Anyway - yes good clothes, stand tall, chest out, shoulders back, tummy in and your stomach will appear flatter! Good luck with the HRT and let us know how it all goes

Hurdity x

[fedupDonna]

[quote[/quote]
Hi Mia C this site will certainly help to keep you sane(ish)!!! I've found it great after reaching breaking point. I started Kliovance 1/0.5 just under a month now as an alternative after I was hoping to have a new merina fitted (previous one had expired and didn't realise) and then start on some estrogen, don't go to plan and I just broke down at the Drs. I had been experiencing awful flushes upto 20 a day, then night sweats and freezing 3 or more times a night. Get up and go had legged it. Everything aches unbelievable, headaches, moods, dizziness etc. I have underactive thyroid too.  Well so far no side effects and within 3 days flushes, sweats etc all stopped!! Feel normal again (am 49). I know it's early days but so glad I started on hrt. Hope you too feel back to yourself soon. Xxx

[Mia C]

Hello. Sorry no responses, the madness of work.
Re the 80/20 diet Hurdity it's not a diet as such just I feel a healthyish way to eat. 80% of the time a good mix of healthy foods and the other 20% more indulgent choices. Speaking of which home alone tonight so  planning long bath, Mac n cheese with garlic bread and a glass or two of wine in front of a movie - bliss.
 Thyroid wise T4 normal but T3 slightly low,  no Hashimotos but a comet mass which has a tendency to bleed periodically. The autoimmune is fairly new but likely to be Lupus.
HRT wise only ten days in but hot flashes do appear to be reducing so heres hoping ( dearly beloved wants to know why complaining of hot flushes whilst perusing log burner brochure - will keep windows open ).
I hope you continue on the up Donna.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.

[CLKD]

I'm pretty much 80/20 then  .  Himself cooks mostly from scratch and if we buy supermarket pizza will add bits and pieces that are needing to be used from the fridge.  We buy meat and veg. in bulk so he can quickly knock up a stir-fry or curry, apparently later he will be putting mince with garlic, ginger, veg., salt, pepper with either rice or pasta  - apparently ;-).

I need quick food stuffs ....... so try to have mixed fruits and nuts, grapes, bananas to hand ........ what is today's question ? 

[Mia C]

There are definitely days though when 20/80 is much more appealing!
At the risk of putting everyone off their supper do I blame the menopause for my ever encroaching bikini line? I can't make up my mind whether to wax it for hols or just add coloured beads and wear it as dreadlocks........

[CLKD]

Oh go for the dreadlocks ?  .......... [My Chin!] fortunately no problems below the waist line ;-)

[Mia C]

Dreadlocks it is then

[CLKD]

Photos.?