Anita said:
I need you to post something on PMS as you get closer to menopause. I am 45, baby boy is 13 months and we are still nursing….he is up WAY too much at night, so I don’t sleep much and then can’t sleep when he does! At certain times of the month things that I can usually deal with just are insurmountable. My husband thinks I am demon-possessed (ok, maybe not really). Just one or two days! You have any tips on handling this time, if this is perimenopause or what ever!!
I’m kinda tickled about Anita asking me for advice on demon-possession menopause and peri-menopause. I certainly don’t hold the key to ease of transition! Frankly, menopause (for me) STINKS! I hope to be on the other side soon!
And we prefer the term Mad Cow Disease instead of demon-possession. ;)
It’s a long road and nobody seems to wanna talk much about it, which is why I talk freely about it here. It’s a HARD, HARD time for women, and consequently marriages. Husbands need to be very understanding and patient and forgiving (and should give backrubs without being asked!).
I don’t recall having huge PMS problems during the peri-menopause stage (Hubs might disagree, loudly). The thing that got my attention, and I’m sure it’s different for each woman (Dave and Perry and any other men or boys reading this should just move along now), was the horribly heavy periods. (I warned you, fellas! You have only yourselves to blame. Go away now!) And this lasted for about 3 years. All the way to the end of my rope! Then they ceased altogether!
Now my worst thing is the foggy-headedness. I remember being smart. Now I can seldom think of a smarter word than smart. And the forgetfulness is rather extreme.
Lots of gals find relief in a tube of progesterone cream. I wish it were so for me, but I don’t notice any difference and the stuff is too stinkin’ expensive to mess with unless it can make me sweet again!
Never in my life have I found it so hard to just be nice on a regular basis. OK, maybe during puberty, but I don’t recall thinking it mattered back then.
I take several herbs to combat the hot-flashes and anxiety. I know that some of them are not recommended for nursing moms, so the best advice I can give you is to read up on the herbs. Look into dong quai (I bet I spelled it wrong), black cohosh, kava-kava (my best friend!), depending on your symptoms. Do the research. We all have our own “worst” symptoms that need to be addressed. I started having hot-flashes before I had my two smallest children. Variables abound!
I love the books Prescription for Nutritional Healing and Prescription for Herbal Healing (watch out for the New Age crap there-in). Another one I’m leaning lots from (although not so much about mad cow disease in this one) is 10 Essential Herbs.
My philosophy on the whole thing is this:
- This is a natural part of a woman’s life. Not a medical “problem” to be treated with scary pharmaceuticals or mutilation surgery.
- Women have the God given ability to get through this part of life without the drugs or the scalpel.
- I can make it through! I’m one tough broad!
- Hubs is my Knight in Shining Armor for loving me and being patient and understanding (and giving the occasional spontaneous back-rub) even though I have Mad Cow Disease!
- Fork over the chocolate and nobody gets hurt!
If you are considering ordering any of these books please, please, please use these links so I can buy a villa in France pay for my internet habit buy a Hershey bar.
Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition
Prescription for Herbal Healing: An Easy-to-Use A-Z Reference to Hundreds of Common Disorders and Their Herbal Remedies
10 Essential Herbs/Everybody’s Handbook to Health: Everybody’s Handbook to Health
Related posts:
16 comments so far