We're not only HOT!!!!

“Don’t mind me.  I’m having my own personal summer here.”  Haven’t more than a few of us heard this (or said it!) before?  It’s like someone just turned a burner on high.  Beads of perspiration are followed by an overwhelming need for air, preferably cool air directly on the skin.  For some of us this is also accompanied by a sensation of nausea,dizziness, or giddiness.  For others this overheating is followed with the opposite sensation of being dunked in an icy pond.  Chills and actual shivering result. 

As much as there has been a lot of light hearted joking about it lately, it really can be unpleasant as well as inconvenient.  But this essay is about some of the other experiences we have in our middle years before, during, and after menopause. 

I’ll bet many of us can relate to the fuzzy thinking syndrome often associated with the hormonal shifts that accompany menopause.  The “Am I losing my mind?” sense that you can’t hold a thought or that “thoughts” seem to escape your brain too readily. 

And then there’s the heightened sensitivity; that ever eminent tearfulness at the least emotional provocation.  There’s the quick temper, that snappiness that makes everyone want to be away from you and makes you want to avoid people too.  What’s that all about?
 
Could it be the fact that you haven’t had a decent night sleep in a week?  Yeah.  That wide eyed, staring at the ceiling, not in the least bit sleepy feeling that grips you until about 5:30 in the morning just before you need to get up anyway!  No wonder you feel out of sorts during the day.  You’re sleep deprived!  You feel irritable and indeed you are chronically tired. 

Notice those achy joints?  Does it feel like your body aged twenty years virtually over night?   Getting up after a sleepless night becomes an even greater chore with painful hips, knees, shoulders, hands, and feet sometimes getting involved.

Then there are the migraine headaches.  Many women are sufferers already.   For some, this unpleasant malady first appears during the menopausal years.  These can be unbelievably painful and so represent a need for medical evaluation at the time of first onset to be certain of the diagnosis.

Notice a new tendency to bloating and constipation?  Everything just seems to sit in your lower abdomen and treat you to an extra five pounds of weight.  Thanks.