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[KarineT]

Hello Everyone,

Do you find that the menopause has affected the way you think?  Do you have recurrent hypothetical negative thoughts? does this cause anxiety and low mood?  I can't work out if's psychological and due to the menopause because it used to happen during or around my monthly cycle.  If you are in the same situation, I'd like to hear about your experience.

Thanks

Karine

[Gnatty]

Absolutely! Huge anxiety, I was put on Sertraline for three years  (should probably have been given HRT ) and then came off this April, went on HRT this June. Bit of a learning curve getting dosage right but the anxiety is gone! There have been threads before I think on women being given antidepressants when really they needed HRT. Have a look at menopause doctor website, there are really useful podcasts on there, under 'resources' which I think you will find very helpful.

[KarineT]

Gnatty, thanks for your reply.   What stage of the menopause are you at?

[Gnatty]

I'm still peri, unfortunately!

[KarineT]

I turned 50 in October last but I haven't had a period since January this year.  I don't know where I'm at.

[Uptick]

Hi KarineT, I had extreme episodes of negative thoughts during my last perimenopause months, but they have stopped once I've reached menopause. Not that I don't have them any more (I'm a half empty glass type) but they're just normal negative thoughts, nothing like the ones that could totally blur my rationality.

Fingers crossed you won't have any more periods. We can have a menoparty next Jan   

[KarineT]

Thanks Upstick.  It's so complicated this thing.  I can tell you that I never thought the menopause could cause all this.  I always thought it was just hot flushes and  no periods.  How wrong I was!  We don't realise what it does until we get there.

[Uptick]

It's a recent trend to talk openly about menopause and female ageing. Women's 'issues' have always been treated with some degree of aversion, even by women.

It's not all doom and gloom though. Despite all troubles I had/have due to 'The Change', I feel more empowered and in control of my body and mind now that I know what's going on. I don't think about my 'older me' any more, I like who I am now. It's quite liberating.

[Lyncola]

Yes it has.

At age 44 I had a hysterectomy but still kept my ovaries. But 4 months later started the virginal atrophy, back pain etc. just about to start my third year.

I found myself last year being negative about my childhood. And getting angry and more angry and blaming my parents (I didn’t say anything to them, I did try to talk to them but the didn’t seem to hear me?) for being molested as a child. I blame them for not being there, maybe if they weren’t so busy drinking. It made me super angry and I stop seeing them to often and running away if I saw them at the shops.

This went on for about a year, I’ve finally moved on. So I found I don’t get mood swings but peri menopause did bring this out of me. Plus my sister telling me my menopausal symptoms were cancer (even though she menopausal herself) made me get depressed (January this year). After crying when my doctor as me how I was she put me on antidepressants for 6 months. I now take Remifemin a menopausal herbal tablets and it keeps me happy.

[Uptick]

I'm sorry to hear that, we don't choose our family... I have lots of family issues as well.

I think this is definitely a positive side of peri/menopause. It's a turning point and it makes us rethink (not in the rational sense, unfortunately) our lives. I don't miss my 'old me', I might miss my young body, but that's just being in denial, ageing is inevitable. You can change diet, physical activity, hobbies, and you must definitely change old concepts. Embrace the whole mess, that's my motto.

[KarineT]

Well, Lyncola, I too had a terrible childhood.  I wasn't molested but I was brought up in an alcohol environment, I don't know who my father is and my mother couldn't care less about us .  I'm not too sure if the menopause has the capacity to bring things out from the past but it can cause emotional issues, even in some ladies who never had any problems with low mood and anxiety before.

[KarineT]

Uptick, are you on HRT?

[Uptick]

Nope.

[KarineT]

Have you ever been on it before.  I've never been on it and I'm hoping that I won't have to resort to it.

[Uptick]

Only for 3 months, had nasty side effects (migraines, progesterone intolerance) and decided to wait for menopause. Not HRT fault, I had the most horrendous peri with extreme fluctuations, no standard HRT would have fixed that. Feeling much better now. Hopefully you will have a smooth transition and won't need it. What are your main symptoms?