Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: elainewin on February 10, 2016, 03:37:01 PM
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With all the ups in downs off the last 12mths and longer....I thought i was well on the way to being in the menopause ,nearly 8mths since a period and low and behold yesterday started a period and quite heavy today , I am 55, and most of my friends haven't had a period in 5yrs and longer,..by the way im not on hrt,any body else my age still going through this please.
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If you look at this thread you will see that Machair is still going through it and posted today.
http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,30751.0.html
Hurdity x
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I am also 55 almost 56 and also in the same position. My friends finished years ago. Have you got hot flashes at all, or any symptoms like increased vaginal mucus or fertility signs? I really have no hot flushes to speak of, and have light periods now, but have had long gaps between from age 53. I also have a lot of days when I know I am producing oestrogen as I have ovulatory type mucus secretions more frequently. When are you 56?
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hello Machair im not 56 till november yes some mths there is a clear mucus mid cycle. Its all been really strange for me and confusing .4yrs ago i went to drs with anxiety feelings insomnia periods then were light and normal, but she convinced me i was depressed and not perimenopause, they done a blood test then and said i was no were near menopause, then 2yrs ago still backwards and forwards at drs they sent me for ultra sound same result no were near menopause which i still didnt believe but had to accept it as i knew very little about menopause ...6 mths ago i started with really bad night sweats and day ones ,so much so i went to drs.she then put me on 1mg of climagest but buy the end of 3mths i was feeling angry couldnt sleep insomnia i decided with drs advice to stop taking it,and was the prescribed fluoxetine ,ive been on that nearl 2mths and feel great no mood swings sleeping well no night sweats or day ones just a bit hot from time to time ,but as i said in my thread ive started a period again after 8mths.just so confused as why my menopause is just holding out so long ,no point asking dr they dont know anything tbh lol. good to know thou its not just me still like this at 55yrs and you just that bit older ..is there anything you know why some women are a bit older into menopause .
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yes Sparkle its all a mystery ,we are all different but share a lot of ailments yes ive had brain fog aching bones,panic attacks insomnia, mood swings but at moment im really well apart from this period starting again which means my hormones are still up and down ,i wish periods would just do one lol .
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TBH Sparkle i dont understand why i feel better either just like i dont understand when i feel like s**t, maybe its the prozac or maybe i just had a good surge of hormones ,who knows but thanks for replys love to hear others opinions x
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im new here but im 55-- 56 in october,still getting periods, cant have hrt,i havent a clue whatts going on my gp isnt any use at all
i get hot flushes on and off everyday and night times i sweat, all my friends have also been through it and finished and think its funny i havent
getting food cravings(ice cream in pouring rain!!) and weight gain, have been looking around on this forum and i see many of you ladies are going through the same, its great to find somewhere where i can ask questions
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So lovely to meet another lady for our late menopause section! I am in the same boat! What are your periods doing are they lighter and different, or less frequent?
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hi last month it was very light, the one before was very heavy overnight then disappeared, i have had a few missed each year i can go 26 days then 48 then 21 then back to 26, last year i missed 2(went 79 days and 89 then they came back normal , im glad to find others at my age still going through it. :)
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Mine are now very light but have been through the stages you describe, even down to skipping several months and then going back to normal again.So lovely to have you on here, there are a few of us in this boat!
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Oh god I hope not as I'm only 50 and the thought of six more years like this would be too much to bear.
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I don't have periods as I had a hysterectomy when I was 38 but I started meno with flushes and sweats at 53. I am now 59 and they are on the way out now although they do pop in for a visit once in a while. I developed hormonal anxiety last year but that is under control most of the time. I am hoping my 60s will be an improvement on my 50s ::)
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If its any comfort, my SIL's gynae told her recently the average age of menopause now is 56.
Also, I've been told several times by various medical people that its better to have a later meno. We're all living longer, so the more years we have with good levels of oestrogen the better.
That cannot be right!
Hurdity!
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56 does seem late.
I had been told by a GP that the average age of menopause was 52.
There was an assumption that 80% of women would have reached menopause by 54.
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im so glad there are several ladies here still going through it
just wish i didnt have to gain weight or have food cravings i find that harder than the monthly?? periods
im keeping a diary in the hope i can work out when im due more or less, and the cravings seem to be 10-15 days into my cycle
i have been taking vitamin b complex and magnesium seems to have helped with the mood swings, mum says im nicer the live with now. last week was embarrassing , i had hot flush in town-- it was freezing cold and raining i was wearing a thick jacket (undone) and i was eating a magnum ice cream ;D
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yeah its hard especially in winter, yeah i keep buying boxes of them and then i sit and eat them all in one go
i have started to buy them one at a time in town and eat it on the way home, if i want anything else frozen i put a tub of yoghurt in for a little while and that tastes like soft scoop ice cream as long as you dont leave it in too long
i have turned off the heating in my room and sleep under a 1 tog duvet but i find it rolled up in a ball some mornings
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Stellajane - the average age of menopause cannot be 56, is what I was referring to! This is wrong!
It is approx 51 at the moment and the most common time for it to occur is approx 45-55. Any changes in the average age would be a change in months at a time so eg if it's now 51.3 then it could increase to 51.4 etc. It takes an awful lot of women to be above the average for the average age to show a difference!
As Limpy said, the info on this site states that 80% of women will have reached menopause by age 54. http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/menopause.php
Hurdity x
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Hi Elainewin,
I was 58 last December and still haven,t been through menopause. The gynae said I was an unusual case and must have healthy ovaries.Lol. Don't care just want it to stop.
Kim x
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hi hewitt13 its the same for me its gonna happen i just want it over with,will we still suffer the same as others only we will be older,and more tired than our younger friends thats my worry, I had a scan about a year ago and still showed my ovaries were still ripe ther words lol not mine, but ive had a lot of perimenopause symptoms, hot sweats ,foggy head , insomnia , but it comes and goes , at the moment ive felt good for 3mths ,but im sure symptoms will be back and prob with a vengeance.
Ewin x
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Hi Stellajane
I think its just confusing more than anything and not many people to turn to as all my friends have been through it average 7yrs ago,and they dont really remember things i talk about ,Ive no older female relatives either,so im glad to have this forum to air my woes lol,and i certainly read other peoples worries to ,maybe i will become an expert for when my 24yr old daughter goes through it.
Ewin x
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You know Elainewin we are in exactly the same boat. All my friends finished a long time ago.
I want to know exactly what happens to me so I can be there for my daughters when it is their time. They are 30 and 27 and I know it is far from their minds now. I am keeping records for them for the future, in case I am like my Mum is now- she has dementia and doesn't even know who I am.
It is a lonely road being almost 56 and still going through this, and to be honest it can make you feel panic ridden wondering if things are normal. I would not worry half as much if I was 52 but I was regular as clockwork then!
I don't really have any signs of oestrogen deficiency, was extremely fertile in my youth- 5 pregnancies all conceived the first month of trying, and placentas so large they didn't fit in the kidney dish. Maybe this is part of the reason I am so late- a wash with oestrogens. Mind you it can also be bad news as I had large babies, and that is a diabetes risk factor so I keep my weight down and limit my carb intake.
Average may be 52, but how do they really know? Many of us steer clear of doctors and this age is never recorded.I asked the Gynae on Webmd who has written many books on perimenopause. She told me she has patients up to 60 still battling on so it is fine- just unnerving when we seem to be being told we are in the minority.
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Machair
Thats exactly what I want to do with my daughter my mum died at the age of 52 and had a hysterectomy in her 30s, she was an only child, so as i said ive no female relatives, yes ive looked it up about late menopause, but says its normally overweight people,which im of normal weight, Ive had 3 children and like you i have fallen pregnant within the first month of trying,so perhaps it is more to do with high oestrogens , but i had small babies all in the 6lb range, good to hear of all the different takes on late menopause, hope there is even more idea,s out there thanks
Ewin x
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I started at 9 and 1/2. Had fertility treatment ( endometriosis so took danazol which screwed me up completely) but eventually conceived naturally ( lost two, had one successful birth) - always a had period issues so am not surprised I'm having menopause from hell. Just hoping that it picks up soon. 52 I might survive, any longer and there won't be anything left of me.
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Oh god I hope not as I'm only 50 and the thought of six more years like this would be too much to bear.
Same here, I am fast approaching 50 and was hoping the menopause was looming :)
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I was actually late starting my periods nearly 16, I am a smoker, drink once a week , not a fitness fanatic,fussy eater ..so who knows what the link is .but still good to hear of others comments x
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I was 11 when I started my periods, but my cycle was always 35 days not 28. I am not a smoker - never have been, but it is interesting Elainewin what you say as smoking often causes early menopause. We are all different, but we can help each other through this and come out the other side happy - even if later than the average!
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Thanks Machair means a lot x
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im overweight so that could explain it.
my mum had hysterrectomy at 42 so cant tell me anything
and i dont have any female relatives to ask
all my friends had it years ago, but one of them said it might be cos i never had children
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Hello elainediva.....seems like we all quiet different i am normal weight but had 3 kids, same as you my mother had aearly hysterectomy ...what age are you elainediva x
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im 55, 56 end of year
wish it would hurry up and go, it drives me mad not knowing each month
i was 10.5 when i had first show but my actual periods started at 12
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Enjoying this thread ladies - here was me thinking i was unusual still having periods at 53+ ??? I started at 12 and a half, my cycle was 34 days and had 2 babies quite light birth weights. Never had bad periods, did have pmt and breast pain. Longest i gave gone without is 4 months then had one in January, waiting to see when next will be. Putting on weight and craving chocolate all the time ::)
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Lily- me too gaining weight and craving choc all the time, its awful isnt it
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Hi elainediva
I've always loved chocolate, but am getting worse - one is not enough! Had 2 cream eggs today, can't understand people who say they are too sickly ;D
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The funny thing is I was never really a chocolate lover but now i also crave it ,elainediva seems we got same first name im 55 56 november, just thought i would mention the coincidence lol x
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elainewin hehe that is funny, i always loved chocolate but it seems to be worse now
lily, i know what you mean i always liked them, im hooked on choc with nuts in it at the moment
i have found a really dark choc- 90% hardly any sugar its ok if you like it that strong
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It could be you are magnesium deficient.
There is a theory that women crave chocolate when they are deficient, because chocolate is a source of magnesium.
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blossom60
i take magnesium tablets, they seem to help with the mood swings
so maybe the extra from the choc is helping too
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Think i will try magnesium. Today's chocolate intake has been a cream egg, 2 choc digestives, a ripple and some wee mini eggs :o
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Why not Lily for all we go through a little bit of what you fancy hey , but on a serious note i think i to will try some magnesium supplements but for now everyone enjoy a HAPPY EASTER :P
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I don't think it is necessary to take magnesium - in the sense that you are unlikely to be deficient in it, but it's a different matter if there are medicinal uses eg like Milk of Magnesia. There is information about Mabnesium in the diet here:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vitamins-minerals/Pages/Other-vitamins-minerals.aspx#magnesium
However eating choc is a different matter ::) - I haven't had any for ages but I love it - especially the dark 80 - 90%!
Hurdity x
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I found this information on magnesium and the best foods to eat to achieve sufficient. However, it also indicated that most people do not get enough from their diets. Admittedly this is an American article but I doubt if there is much difference this side of the pond. It's a thoroughly bona fide academic piece so is well worth a read.
Dietary surveys of people in the United States consistently show that intakes of magnesium are lower than recommended amounts. An analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) of 2005–2006 found that a majority of Americans of all ages ingest less magnesium from food than their respective EARs; adult men aged 71 years and older and adolescent females are most likely to have low intakes [21]. In a study using data from NHANES 2003–2006 to assess mineral intakes among adults, average intakes of magnesium from food alone were higher among users of dietary supplements (350 mg for men and 267 mg for women, equal to or slightly exceeding their respective EARs) than among nonusers (268 mg for men and 234 for women) [22]. When supplements were included, average total intakes of magnesium were 449 mg for men and 387 mg for women, well above EAR levels.
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
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I don't want to sidetrack Elaine's thread too much but you mentioned magnesium deficiency blossom and I want to comment further.
All that extract (taken from the website you quoted, not the paper itself) shows is that in those populations at those particular times a sample of Americans ate a very unhealthy diet that did not contain sufficient magnesium - which doesn't surprise me! – Also yes I do think the results would be different for the UK because diet for many Americans has been ('still is) notoriously poor – hence a lot of them are fat and unhealthy due to eating junk/fast/fatty/sweet food. OK we are not brilliant in UK but I doubt we are as bad.
Even if we were (as bad - not eating the right foods to get sufficient magnesium in our diet) – it still does not show – nor does anything I read in the web link - that we cannot get sufficient magnesium from our diet (with the exception of a few groups eg those with specific conditions such as Crohn's disease). Just to re-iterate I am not talking about the use of magnesium for medicinal purposes which is not what the article and your comment was about.
I stand by the NHS recommendation and the advice from this website – that we need to eat a diet containing a wide range of fresh ingredients, and get out in the sunshine as much as we can - and we should be able to get sufficient nutrients, minerals and vitamins that we need. The occasional use of certain well chosen supplements may be advised eg iron and Vit D for certain groups of people and in certain circumstances.
Hurdity x
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Really can't agree with you Hurdity, but that is what this forum is about, sharing information and opinions.
I think if you take another look at the article, you will see it is written for health professionals. Also the references given are excellent.
We'll just have to agree to differ on this one ;)