adventures in olditude
Dec. 4th, 2014 03:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanThere was a point at the pigroast last summer where I was talking to somebody about how I'm trying out that menopause trend that is just so popular these days. I looked around to suddenly realize that there was a small group of women clustered around me listening. "You're the first one to go through it," one of them explained. "So we want to know what to expect when it's our turn."
Well I'm here to tell you that it fucking hurts.
I just assumed it was the arthritis because that's such a day at the circus when it decides to poke it's metaphorical head above ground. But my last doctor visit included bloodwork that came back well within normal limits and she assured me that joint pain is very much a part of the process. Fortunately that seems to be normalizing, because holy shit I was ready to stab somebody some mornings. You ever get those hot twinges in your knee from going down stairs when maybe you just land wrong or something? Imagine those in every single joint resulting from every single motion. For months. It made me cranky.
The hot flashes appear to be done with too but I don't think I really ever suffered too badly from those. I got them 3-4 times a day for about four months. They were mostly just weird, a sudden wave of heat that felt it like unfurled up from the ground to turn my face red and leave me fanning myself with whatever I had sitting on my desk at the time. Most of what effect I did get was just not being able to cool off if I ever got even a little bit too warm - wearing an ill-advised sweater on my way to work meant I spent the whole day feeling like there was a balloon of hot stuffy air encasing my body. I think that's starting to normalize too, although yesterday I was walking across the company parking lot with my coat swinging open while my co-workers were huddling inside their scarves and rushing to the door.
Doc warned me that the hormone changes can affect the entire pelvic area (I forget the actual term she used) so women can experience incontinence and diarrhea. I did not get those, thank fuck. I keep getting mental images of the cat and me sitting side by side and yowling our misery in unison.
What I did get, and what was probably my first warning sign that what was left of the baby factory was shutting off the production line, was when I lost my ability to lubricate during sex. Not really a big deal since I can buy it at any drug store. What's interesting is that there has also been a definite and pronounced decrease in my sex drive. I thought I was hitting a depressive period at first, but no I actually feel ok. And yet I'm probably only thinking about sex as much as, say, a normal person, ie. not every waking minute. How weird.
This unfortunately does not preclude me developing an enormous crush on somebody who is completely inappropriate and a dozen years younger than me. So that hasn't changed.
Also my skin is even dryer, if that's possible. I'm pretty much used to that though, I already have to sleep next to a humidifier if I even want to have a hope of making it through the winter with a face.
(True story; I tend to get really vicious cracks in my feet, and I bought some stuff called "Crack Cream" to see if it helps. The boyfriend stumbled across the tube when he was digging through the bedside drawer for lube and he must have laughed for about 20 minutes.)
Back when the brain issues were really bad I found it useful to record what was going on so I could look back and identify trends. This is me pretty much saying, "that was mildly sucky but it seems like the worst of it is over" and crossing my fingers.
Also, vertigo is letting up a lot compared to where I was last year. So I am very hopeful I'm done with that shit soon too. A friend had pointed me at some papers that suggested vertigo was common in menopausal women because estrogen is involved in how the body handles & stores calcium. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was a factor in how long it took to get sorted. Either way, I'll be glad to see the back of it.
Well I'm here to tell you that it fucking hurts.
I just assumed it was the arthritis because that's such a day at the circus when it decides to poke it's metaphorical head above ground. But my last doctor visit included bloodwork that came back well within normal limits and she assured me that joint pain is very much a part of the process. Fortunately that seems to be normalizing, because holy shit I was ready to stab somebody some mornings. You ever get those hot twinges in your knee from going down stairs when maybe you just land wrong or something? Imagine those in every single joint resulting from every single motion. For months. It made me cranky.
The hot flashes appear to be done with too but I don't think I really ever suffered too badly from those. I got them 3-4 times a day for about four months. They were mostly just weird, a sudden wave of heat that felt it like unfurled up from the ground to turn my face red and leave me fanning myself with whatever I had sitting on my desk at the time. Most of what effect I did get was just not being able to cool off if I ever got even a little bit too warm - wearing an ill-advised sweater on my way to work meant I spent the whole day feeling like there was a balloon of hot stuffy air encasing my body. I think that's starting to normalize too, although yesterday I was walking across the company parking lot with my coat swinging open while my co-workers were huddling inside their scarves and rushing to the door.
Doc warned me that the hormone changes can affect the entire pelvic area (I forget the actual term she used) so women can experience incontinence and diarrhea. I did not get those, thank fuck. I keep getting mental images of the cat and me sitting side by side and yowling our misery in unison.
What I did get, and what was probably my first warning sign that what was left of the baby factory was shutting off the production line, was when I lost my ability to lubricate during sex. Not really a big deal since I can buy it at any drug store. What's interesting is that there has also been a definite and pronounced decrease in my sex drive. I thought I was hitting a depressive period at first, but no I actually feel ok. And yet I'm probably only thinking about sex as much as, say, a normal person, ie. not every waking minute. How weird.
This unfortunately does not preclude me developing an enormous crush on somebody who is completely inappropriate and a dozen years younger than me. So that hasn't changed.
Also my skin is even dryer, if that's possible. I'm pretty much used to that though, I already have to sleep next to a humidifier if I even want to have a hope of making it through the winter with a face.
(True story; I tend to get really vicious cracks in my feet, and I bought some stuff called "Crack Cream" to see if it helps. The boyfriend stumbled across the tube when he was digging through the bedside drawer for lube and he must have laughed for about 20 minutes.)
Back when the brain issues were really bad I found it useful to record what was going on so I could look back and identify trends. This is me pretty much saying, "that was mildly sucky but it seems like the worst of it is over" and crossing my fingers.
Also, vertigo is letting up a lot compared to where I was last year. So I am very hopeful I'm done with that shit soon too. A friend had pointed me at some papers that suggested vertigo was common in menopausal women because estrogen is involved in how the body handles & stores calcium. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was a factor in how long it took to get sorted. Either way, I'll be glad to see the back of it.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-12-10 02:02 pm (UTC)