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[Badger]

Anyone else reading this article today? https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/16/it-feels-impossible-to-beat-how-i-was-floored-by-menopause
I thought I was the only one who has sat beneath office desk amid perimenopausal anxiety and depression. T

[Mustard1]

Just read this from your link.  In a coffee shop and crying - such a powerful article and one that I s sure many women in this web site relate too.  I am confident that the world is changing with regards to this - it may be too late for me but st least my girls may not have to go through this hell. C

[Robin]

Thank you Daisydot. Your post makes me feel less mad and hopeless. I wouldn't wish this on anyone but it makes such a difference to know I'm not the only one.

Robin😘

[Robin]

Thanks Badger I think many of will empathise with this article x

[Robin]

Daisydot, that's such a lovely thing to say and perfect timing. It opened the floodgates which is needed today I think. It can be so difficult trying to hide everything away. Being able to read experiences like yours on this forum without judgement makes such a difference. Id like to think I will be brave enough one day to do the same.

😘

[racjen]

This could be me, it describes so closely what my life is like at the moment. Thankyou for posting it Badger; it really helps to have reinforcement that we're not alone, not that I want anyone else to be suffering this hell but you know what I mean. I'm going to share the hell out of it now in the hope that people will understand a bit more...x

[Annie0710]

Brilliant article

It was reassuring to read of her 2nd menopause as I have had 2, first after my womb removal where the blood supply was accidentally severed to the ovaries and then 13 years later a ‘natural' menopause where it wrecked me, and my life. I joined this forum on my 2nd menopause and was met with questioning of going through menopause twice, it made me question my own experiences and did me no favours in my search to feel better, but I came back and was determined to sort my sorry self out

I've tried tablets, patches and now gel in desperation.  I'm not at my best but I'd never swap to how I was so I feel grateful. 

I lost my career to menopause, my brain wouldn't work, I couldn't face colleagues let alone the bank manager or accaountants that I once regularly lunched with with my boss

I went from a fun loving, party going, sexual woman to an old, shrivelled, scared witless old girl and I didn't even recognise myself so removed myself from society.  How my partner of 2 years at the time stood by me I'll never know, not even to this day but he did and although he admitted he didn't understand, my god he stood by me.  We couldn't do a big wedding, as lots of people terrified me (most had stopped bothering with me anyway) so we ended up just us 2 going alone but on the day I realised I could've managed bigger, but also realised it because a few months earlier I had started a new regime, oestrogen gel and that amazing testosterone gel.

Both those gels have given me another stab at life and I don't ever want that to change.  I had to change surgeries due to house move and this current surgery removed my hrt , I argued with the gp for one hour saying he's wrecking my life.  He made me see a gynae who agrees with me and so now my battles are getting surgery to start letting me have my regime back to how it was

My saviours has been this forum, I was inundated with messages of offers of help to send me hrt until I can get mine reinstated.  The only one no one could offer me was vagifem and lo and behold being on their twice weekly insertions I've just recovered from a nasty kidney infection, using vagifem daily for over a year now has eliminated all previous uti's.  So dr treating kidney infection said I should go back to daily use

I'm getting there with this surgery but my god it's been a battle

So sorry, I realised just now how much I've babbled on

Yes depression and anxiety is real in menopause and destructive xxxx

[JaneL]

Fantastic to see real-world experiences being widely publicised, hopefully will lead to more understanding and acceptance.

I felt she was being very honest about it all, not an easy thing to do.

[Robin]

Absolutely! Not easy at all!

[Annie0710]

Yes Annie you did have a crap run in with those new gps but your back now strong and coping well you didn't let them beat you and you were an inspiration to others on here,that's very much what's needed,support and positivity it all helps,well done Annie 😘

It's still not back properly on my repeats though Daisydot, and I won't shut up until it is.  I had to order more vagifem (repeats say do not prescribe until October !!!!) so I named the dr that agreed on my custom request, I'll try getting it tomorrow and see if they're listening to me x

[SueLW]

I don't know if it's me, with my largely non-functional menopause brain, or just the way the article is written, but I found it hard to follow that.  It seemed jumbled and muddled and at no point did I know what dose of HRT related to which bad days. 

I could understand the awful drift of it only too well.  But the piece needed sorting out a bit.  Making some clearer links. 

The medical establishment really aught to do more research into menopause because it's not acceptable that half the population are at risk of that kind of suffering.

[racjen]

I must admit I felt that the slightly chaotic, unconnected nature of the article mirrored the experience of extreme menopause really well. I'm still often struggling to work out why a particular mood has happened at a particular time, it often seems pretty random as my reactions to drugs and hormones seem to be very unpredictable and also change over time.

[AgathaC]

Thank you for directing us to this article. I was prepared for puberty and for pregnancy - by others, by books, by the health service, by the media. These times are talked about and celebrated. At the other end of the womanly/fertility journey, I have been completely unprepared. So much so, in fact, that it took me two years to realise that I was and am perimenopausal. Reading anything like this article makes me feel less alone and more normal.

[Ladybt28]

OMG - that's what I wish I have been able to say! Wow, relate!  Funny enough I was just banging on in another thread talking with CLKD that it is just downright wicked that some of us exist like this everyday for years and it certainly needs publicising that this is not "just nature" or "just getting older" or "perfectly normal" or all those other trite things people say.

Annie0710 - don't shut up about it all - none of us should ever be quiet.

I think much has changed in the way we live.  I told my GP that we don't live in a world where we are little old ladies at 50 and dead by 65! and I am expected to work until I am 70 - a competent responsible business women - not someone existing on 4 hours sleep - and who cant work out what to put on in the morning. Also I think that the symptoms we suffer are far worse now than years ago - you may think I'm barmy but I think that there are excess hormones in our water, soil and food and they are getting into our bodies.  We feed our animals hormones and antibiotics supposedly to keep them healthy but really to make them grow more quickly and make farmers more money.  They pee on the ground and the chemicals get in the soil.  We invented the pill in the 60's and I think that is in our water too however much we try to treat it.

My husband agrees but he says "but remember society used to put "hysterical women" or "those who suffered with nerves" in asylums" and he says "think how many women were addicted to Valium in the 60's"  - he's right too - they just used to shut us away now they are still trying to shut us up

Things are shifting but it is exceedingly slow and help is hit and miss - or miss unfortunately.  I am praying that should my daughters have "womens problems" that they will never suffer like the stories here.

I wish there was some way of getting this stuff out all the time in places like the Guardian or on TV.  Kirsty Wark did a TV program but it wasnt very hard hitting.  Bearing in mind every women in the world is going to be menopausal the research done is pretty rubbish!

[Anglichanka]

I wrote the article. Sorry if it was confusing: it's actually a miracle I wrote it at all. I wrote in the piece what my HRT regime is, and that applies to bad and good days, but here it is again: 200mcg estradot patches, 100mg Utrogestan for 10 days a month, taken vaginally, 2 pea-sized blobs of testosterone daily. Anyway thanks for reading it.