Fat gain and muscle loss during peri and menopause are certainly not a myth! Just look, the story was so darn rare a newspaper published it.
I'm sorry, this is usually a supportive place. We don't need to be told that all we have to do is stop eating and exercise for 18 hours a day, because look, with woman in the paper did it
. Most of us are working our asses off with employment, elderly parents and sometimes still children at home. We are miserable and exhausted. It's great that some women get off lightly with menopause and can gloat about it. But many, many don't have that chance. I know women in both camps and I have found those that are not too badly affected have absolutely no concept of what the rest are going through. Empathy stops with menopause it seems.
Hypothyroidism hits thousands of women during the rundown of hormones. Often those that were fit and able and active are struck down when their entire hormonal cascade deteriorates. Our GP's are as bad at diagnosing and treating hypothyroidism as they are at menopause. The two together can be catastrophic. And women are left under treated and lectured about exercise in both cases. Hypothyroidism shuts the metabolism down to survival levels. You try exercising like that and see how long it is before you find yourself in A&E.
I know just what CLKD means. It happened to me. From a little mounded belly to a flopped and drooped apron of skin and fat in a few days. It wasn't there, then it was. My form of exercise, which I did every day because I loved it, was hoop dancing. Hooping. hula hooping. My waist and legs were rocks of muscle. My torso was never shapely, I'm straight up and down, but it was firm and muscular and my legs were regularly complimented for their shape. And still it happened. I bloated up for about 2 weeks and then over a few days it flopped. Now I'm so weak muscularly that I can no longer hoop. I used to hoop younger people off the floor.
Let's be kind to each other. No lectures about people who have got off lightly and preserved themselves. We don't know what hormones they are taking or how much money they have to throw at the situation. We don't know what other medical conditions they may or may not have.
If we are fat at this time of life, exhausted, miserable and our confidence left the house years ago, we are NOT failures. We are unwell and need to look after ourselves and be loved regardless.
Sorry for the rant. It just got to me.
