<p>“How can I feel so decrepit when I haven’t hit menopause yet?”
-Because you haven’t hit heaven yet. Complete freedom, yeyeye!!</p>
<p>I’m not sure i understand Miami, are you saying i will feel * better * after I go through menopause?</p>
<p>I’m 54, and I have decided that menopause is a mythical joke, not something real, as apparently I’m nowhere near it. I can wait.</p>
<p>As for falling apart: two dental implants several years ago, a hiatal hernia which causes reflux which seems to have manifested as a permanent sore throat, even with a stupid wedge pillow and cutting my coffee to life-threatening lows and now medication too, joint deterioration in my feet, and the usual achy joints–knees especially showing the effects of a serious car accident a bunch of years ago.</p>
<p>My aim is to stay off blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes medicine, but since the rest of my birth family is on at least two of those each, I worry. (except for my father, of course, who died of cancer at 47…)</p>
<p>Time to hit the weights and take a walk!</p>
<p>Menopause isn’t always a bad thing! For me, while I ended up having a D and C for some heavy bleeding before 45, menopause was basically non eventful. Minor “hot” flashes - nothing much to speak of. Periods faded then stopped. No hormonal problems. A little round the middle weight gain, but luckily (and happily) it just “happened”. Thankful!</p>
<p>It’s not so much the going through–it’s some of the skin, hair, weight gain ,etc kind of stuff I’d like to avoid.</p>
<p>I didn’t even consider falling apart physically from the title. My first thought was mentally, as in my quadruple decker sandwich generation issues. I am so used to being full of physical aches and pains that I no longer think of it as falling apart.</p>
<p>I used to make jokes that my mother lived to see her state of physical decay catch up with her age. By the time she died at 85, she was a better specimen than many of her contemporaries, who had predeceased her. My MIL also outlived many of her contemporaries, but she did not have a good last 20 years, and the last couple with alzheimer’s were really awful.</p>
<p>I hope you feel better soon.</p>
<p>I’m the youngest in book group & only one who hasn’t gone through menopause. Oldest is probably 15-18 yrs older. ( & she is in relatively great shape!)
They all mention the difficulty with weight around the middle, & lack of sex drive.</p>
<p>I already have difficulty with weight around the middle, more so now than when I was more mobile, but can’t bear the thought of diminished sex drive- some days that’s all the exercise i get!
;)</p>
<p>"I’m not sure i understand Miami, are you saying i will feel better after I go through menopause? "
-Yes, definitely, free as a bird…free of chains that hold you down. Others might feel differently, but some around me feel the same as me.</p>
<p>I lost a friend, not all that old, to multiple myeloma yesterday. In comparison, our aging, whether we feel like we are falling apart or not, seems like a minor inconvenience.</p>
<p>True story. ^^^ So sorry Jym…</p>
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<p>Yes, I think that’s what Miami is saying. I agree with it, anyway. It’s my experience that in some ways you feel better when menopause is over. The decrease in hot flashes is very welcome. And it’s nice to be able to wear white pants again.</p>
<p>But you’re still getting older. There will be more annoying symptoms to deal with, more dental work from decades ago that’s now falling apart, and more test results that lead to endless follow-up, with doctor’s appointments, tests, and prescriptions.</p>
<p>jym, I’m so sorry. My mother died of multiple myeloma - it’s a nasty cancer, and very difficult to treat.</p>
<p>“The decrease in hot flashes is very welcome”
-If you had them to begin with. I cannot comment on that. I was told by one lady that if you exercise regularly, you do not have them any way. It seems to be true based on my experience. Weight wise it is also awesome, you are never as hungry as you are used to be having higher levels of certain hormones in a body. If you are hungry, it is kind of subdued filling. So, my weight came off, not much, few lbs, but I did not have to diet. I am not up to diet any more. One thing I have noticed was a drastic change in attitude. Most things just got way too boring, I actually had to find a brand new activity, but it also could have to do with the fact that the youngest one left for college.</p>
<p>I have time to devote to falling apart as I am finally finished finished with 7 YEARS of 5-10 times around the clock Hot Flashes.I am very fair complected ,and overweight,which makes me a prime candidate .I exercise regularly,and eat mostly a plant based diet-don’t smoke or drink. Today I am going for some tests at 2 PM ,which require total fasting for 8 hours prior .I think I have an ulcer, gall bladder problem, or both . Feeling rather light headed at the moment.</p>
<p>^Good luck on your tests!
You are probably not overweight at all if you are mostly consuming palnt food and exercise regularly. I am surprise to read about your condition. Maybe regular exercise is not so regular? Cannot think of anything else. as it seems that you are doing everything that you could to have a healthy life style. I do not think I an as stringent, I consume some junk food, my downfall are sweets. I just had a big blood test, I was fasting for close to 24 hrs, not for test, it just happened to be on my fasting day. My test was good, the only thing in abnormal column was HDL because it was way higher than a range. I could not find any info on HDL being too high, everybldy is concerned with it being too low, so, i decided not to worry about it.</p>
<p>(1) Menopause sucks.</p>
<p>(2) I only feel like I’m falling apart when I exercise. :(</p>
<p>I hate fasting for tests.
I was scheduled for a VAP cholesterol test, and looked online to find out more about it. My appt wasnt until 10am & from what I read it looked like it was ok to have coffee.
So I had some.
When I arrived, the lab tech told me that to be safe. I should reschedule. Sigh. So I did for that Friday, but earlier, 8am. Then Thurs afternoon, I was stung by nine yellowjackets, ouch! I’m allergic. I started going into shock at about 3 am so H took me to the ER. After getting pumped full of steriods & antihistamines, I started to feel better & was released about 7am. Just in time for my VAP test, and because of the steroids I didn’t even want any coffee! Success!</p>
<p>MyLB – Agreed – although, I think, really it is peri-menopause that sucks for some of us. Transitions have never been good for me. Menopause itself (pause is a funny word, really, for this) is so much better than the years leading up to it. </p>
<p>Took a couple of yoga classes recently for the first time in awhile. I am so much stiffer and less flexible than I have ever been. It was painful. But you know, it helped with some of the back/hip/leg issues. I have to find ways to motivate myself to go back to do some more, because it is pretty torturous trying to stretch out these stiff muscles.</p>
<p>I had the awful bleeding (a D&C helped enormously) until I finally stopped completely about two years go (I’m 54). I’ve been in the hot flash phase since then, but they’ve been mild/moderate - worse in the evenings, very manageable or non-existent during the day. I’ve found no correlation at all between my hot flashes and diet, exercise or any OTC meds, but of course everyone’s physiology is different.</p>
<p>I have no problem fasting at all. I never adjust my schedule, still do all my exercises. Fasting for 24 hrs is OK (with water though). I do not think I can do without water.
Exercising is only entertaining if you do what you love, otherwise it is a boring chore that will stress you out. It could be your time together with spouse/friend(s), it could be moments that you will never forget. It could be something that you are looking forward to at the end of every working day…or if you did not try different things and just stick to the very first activity that you ever tried, it might be very boring and mandane and the question is why to even do it. I am sure that every person can find somthing that they love or a variety of intense activities so that they can alternate.</p>