60 and still suffering
Posted , 16 users are following.
Hi I am nearly 60 and still suffering with hot flushes ,low mood just wondering if any ladies my age are still suffering I really have had enough
3 likes, 20 replies
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Notes on 60 and still suffering
robby07741 carol52673
Posted
I am post menopause at 56 yrs old (menopause at 51) and can relate Carol. I had the hot flushes, depression, etc during menopause and coped with it because I believed the symptoms would dissipate as I became post-menopausal. I don't get as sudden an onset of hot flushes anymore but experience it as a slower onset - it's as if I'm over-sensitive to feeling hot or cold (and many other things!). And if I put on weight prior to menopause it would be more evenly on my body but since menopause it accumulates at least three times more only my stomach area than elsewhere (it's like being six months pregnant again which is so unfair!). But what I'm struggling with most that hasn't dissipated post menopause is my mood/tolerance - I feel like I'm not as resilient a person as I used to be, that I can't tolerate things as well as I used to, whether it be physical discomfort, other people and situations, etc. I think the medical industry puts it mostly down to the life circumstances that occur to many women in their 50s, rather than the effect of hormone changes which can cause us to react differently from experiencing a greater degree in our emotions. I've tried to find more information regarding post-menopause symptoms but everything is about peri-meno. or meno. I wonder if I'm experiencing probably what a teenage boy goes through with testosterone level increases with regard to feeling a greater degree of frustration/annoyance/impatience at things I never before would have been this bothered with. I do think feeling down/depression is in direct response to not understanding why I'm not feeling like the person I used to be (much like the hormone-induced feelings all teenagers experience and some women in pregnancy) ... so I'm just believing it's due to hormonal changes that remain present post menopause because there doesn't seem to be any medical research being done in this area. I almost feel like I've become more like a man emotionally than the person I used to be. I have noticed if I exercise it "turns the dial down" on my symptoms, but my symptoms make the motivation to do things such as exercise feel like an enormous challenge (whereas prior to menopause everyday challenges weren't such a big deal). Can anyone else relate to what I'm struggling to describe?
debra16694 robby07741
Posted
Oh man, oh man Robby...you hit the nail on the head...Bingo! The littlest things can put me into a tailspin, my demented cat with his crazy shrill meows drive me nuts, I over react to everything. I feel like I am in crisis panic mode half the time etc. I stopped watching or reading the news because I can either get so nervous or completely emotionally drained. I seem to let everything affect me now. It’s really crazy nuts.
I know exercise would probably make me feel better, but half the time I feel like I have been dragged by a Mack Truck thru the night, only to realize It was just my multiple hot flashes working overtime. So, I am not super motivated to go expend more energy after thrashing around like a fish out of water all night. Bad excuse I know -
It’s comforting to know that you & I are experiencing similar feelings emotionally...I have thought that maybe I was clinically depressed or something...nothing seems to make me happy these days except a foot massage a baguette, wheel of Brie & a glass of Pinot...wait! I can’t eat the bread...gluten sensitive, can’t eat the Brie...need to cut out dairy & wine...well, that has sugar...Ai yi yi! It just all sucks!
mauiblue robby07741
Posted
completely relate to what you are saying Robby
Post menopause life continues with hormone fluctuations and this is why we feel like we continue to feel.
It doesnt really ever go away, i think that we need to simply work with what we have, our hormones, our moods our bodies, exercise, everything we have to do to be 'ok'.
This sounds negative i know but ive realized now that im post meno..it isnt going to magically be all better like many women are secretly hoping. It just doesnt work that way. And you are spot on in that there is very little information on post menopause and we ARE dealing with hormones still long after menopause. The hormones dont disappear, its a very slow process. They fade away over a long period of time.
We dont get to be who we were prior because that was the past,now is the present.
sjuppor and hugs to you, i get it. im 54 going through post meno 18 months..day to day for me. moods and anxiety is the worst...
xoxox
robby07741 carol52673
Posted
Thank you & such a relief to know I'm not the only one debra16694 & mauiblue ...
In general, I feel a fairly constant "sense of uneasiness" but for no logical reason! The degree of uneasiness doesn't "fit" any circumstance I'm dealing with. Not realising it's caused by hormones (which I assumed from medical info. would've stabilised by now post menopause), I think I began to pay more attention to negativity around me to try explain and make how I felt "fit" - so I can feel there's a logical explanation for how I feel (cos it's sooo weird to feel uneasy for absolutely no reason!). And it's this very symptom that I didn't read or hear about or understand more from the medical info on menopause.
Most women (including me) have had to deal with some extremely challenging circumstances prior to reaching menopause. By that time we're all so much stronger/resilient to deal with whatever life can throw at us and we know our minds and bodies so well. This was my attitude (& I don't doubt most womens) on entering menopause. The reason it's so debilitating is because I wasn't aware for me it's main symptom would be to "rock the very core" of that part of myself I would normally be drawing from in order to deal with it! When that is a symptom constant over years, it can feel more challenging due to the endurance of it.
50% of the population will experience menopause so you'd think they'd mention this aspect of it (I guess we'll have to wait until there's enough women holding exec. positions in medical research also experiencing menopause. lol).