Menopause and Weight Loss

[Paleofornow]

Aw, thanks, Trina. Might as well enjoy this as much as we can, right?

Alice

[tiashanty]

Alice: I'm not doing too badly right now. I'm upping my medication by 1/2 pill every two weeks and I have to say the hot flushes are not as extreme. I'm still not sleeping great but every third or forth night I just crash from exhaustion and sleep much better, then back to waking up every couple of hours. At least the bed isn't soaking wet anymore. So, I think this is probably the way I will be going. I don't like taking pills but after trying HRT for 3 years and hating it, and then getting to the point where you think you are going to crack, this is the best alternative for me. But, thanks for asking. It helps to know I'm not the only one going through this. If I could get hold of the person who said "these are the best years of your life", I would string them from their feet and alternately blow hot, then cold air at them for the next 6 years.

[cheftrina]

LOL@Donna!!

[teelbee]

Well, ladies - it ~does~ get better! I had a prolonged perimenopause - maybe 5 to 7 years. I think I'm finally through menopause (I've not had a period for about 2 years). Although.... I recently started having very mild hot flashes again, so maybe there's a surprise or two lurking out there.

It seemed to be much easier to lose weight and keep it off once my periods stopped for good.

I still have to keep tweaking my diet though. What worked last year didn't work so well this year (the hormones are still changing!) It's just a process of constant re-assessment, I guess.

[Paleofornow]

Good news here - I have mysteriously lost the five pounds that I mysteriously gained in May! I'm really thinking it has to do with the progress of my menopause. Maybe I've turned a corner.

On a more general note, here are two ideas that have really helped me think about menopause.

In Susun Weed's menopause book, she recommends taking what she calls a crone's year away. When I first read this a couple years before starting with menopause symptoms I thought she was nuts! How could I, or anyone else, just take off for a year? I imagined going off to live in the wilderness. Well, when I got to it myself, I found my first menopausal syptom was the strong urge to get rid of my volunteer commitments. I have scaled back my obligations to leave time for nurturing myself. I know this is harder for folks with outside jobs. For myself, just thinking that this is my crone's year (or two or three) away helps me to say "no" to extra obligations.

The other helpful idea came from one of Susan Love's books. She gives a history of different ideas about menopause, and concludes with her own. She believes that the strong estrogen influence that begins at puberty causes women to be "domesticized," to care for others first and put their own needs last. This is a good thing in the reproductive years since it helps insure we take care of our babies and children. She thinks that the hormonal changes of menopause give us back the same sense of self that we had when we were eleven! (fix your own sandwich, I'm reading)

Alice

[Mona]

I'm really happy to find this thread. I answered a lot of questions, about why I stopped losing weight.

I'm 50, had a "surgical menopause" 5 years ago. At that time I was prescribed Premarin. I felt terrific...better than I had felt in years. Then after 4 years , the doc took me off. OK........ after everything we read, and hear on the news I thought it was a good idea. I felt awful...... night sweats, hours of lying awake, tossing, turning, and the mood swings were dreadful. I could cry one minute or be screaming the next, forgetfulness, and even off balance. Finally found a doctor that prescribed bio identical hormones. They are not a very common thing here in Canada. Took a while before he tweaked it just right, but I feel back to my old self again.......

I found Alic'e post interesting about the crone's year off...... that is exactly what I am doing... quit my job of 17 years to stay home with my grand daughter for a year, and then after this who knows...... isn't it interesting that this is almost a primal urge?

This may explain , why I have not been losing and have even put back a little of the 60 I originally lost, however, it just makes me even more determined to start losing again! I really like this thread!

[cheftrina]

Mona,

I started this thread because I knew, from all that I had read and what I had been experiencing, that menopause can really whack you around. It's so much more than the end of menstuation and a hot flash or two. When I had been sailing along, losing weight and feeling terrific for over a year, then it all came crashing to a halt, and all sorts of things started happening, well, I knew, too that others must be going through this as well, and sharing our experiences would be helpful. I gotta say, it does make me feel better knowing I'm not the only one, though I wish none of us were having problems. I guess it's just part of life, but even so...

Alice, that theory is fascinating! It all makes sense; I used to say "yeah, right!" when I heard that women past menopause develop a whole new sense of self, but now I can understand why.

[Paleofornow]

Mona - that's interesting about the bioidentical hormones. I've just been reading "Sex, Lies, and Menopause" by T.S. Wiley. She strongly recommends bioidentical hormones, taken on a schedule that mimics a natural menstrual cycle, including going back to having periods. Diana Schwarzbein recommends the same thing in her books. I'd really be interested to hear more about your experience. Wiley's book gives a lot of advice on how to get the doctors and pharmacists to give you the stuff (U.S. system advice, I'm sure).

Primal urge is right - I am enjoying the changes in my "sense of self" very much. I sure don't want to go back. My physical symptoms are pretty minor. The one that bugs me the most is the glacial slowdown in losing weight, but I'm managing to hold steady and even go down a bit, so even that's not so bad.

I'm so glad you started this thread Trina! It's great to be able to talk about this stuff with lce friends.

Mona, I love when you said "after this, who knows?" I love that feeling of new beginnings and an open future. It's good that the hormones you're taking didn't take away that feeling. I guess it's part of being in our 50's, and not just hormonal.

Alice