Moments from Menopause

February 21, 2013 Overheard in a Ladies Room: Stall 1: "I went on birth control pills to help get rid of my acne." Stall 2: "Did they help?" Stall 1: "Yeah, a lot. But now I've gained 5 pounds  and my breasts are sore." Stall 2: "I'd rather be a little chubby with sore boobs than have a face like an uncooked pizza." Stall 1: "Amen to that!." SO last time I scratched the surface on skin changes during menopause. Today I'm going to dig a little deeper and catalog some of the other kinds of skin conditions that can occur aside from sagging and wrinkling skin. Which are bad enough by themselves.   In an article I read on DermNet NZ there is a very detailed listing of skin problems that can occur during and after menopause. I'll put the address/link at the end of this talk. Basically, as I said last time, Estrogen appears to affect every system in our bodies, and very much so, the skin - our largest organ/system. E...

February 19, 2012 In our teens we worry about pimples; in our thirties  we start to notice crows feet and laugh lines and become acquainted with terms like antioxidants and SPF levels.  O ur  forties bring the consumer forth and we buy  products with   anti-aging labels in an attempt to stop time cold. Then menopause strikes and our skin turns into some new alien species that terrifies  us and makes us unrecognizable to ourselves. Ever hear the term batwing ? Lift a twenty-something's arm up and check out the tone in the under arm. Now lift your own and flick the skin? I can practically give myself a black eye when I do that, the sagging mass flops back and forth so violently. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a fanatic about skin care. I don't go out in the sun EVER, and if I have to be out in it I always have a hat on. Let's face it ( pun!): freckles are cute when you're 17, but when you try to convince yourself that those brown spots you used to...

February 14, 2013 Happy Valentine's Day! Keeping with the heart theme ( get it?!), today I want to discuss something that can happen after  menopause: Cardiovascular Disease. In doing research for menopause I came a cross a few studies that state a drop in estrogen levels can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in women. Heart problems don't only occur in men. Coronary disease is the main cause of death among both men and women.  According to medical research, it is responsible for  half the deaths of American women over age 50 and heart disease kills 12 times more women than breast cancer. To offset the increased problems that can occur cardiovascular-wise after menopause, women should be proactive in their health. Stopping smoking, taking measures to keep blood pressure stable and low, regular exercise, meditation, decreasing stressors, getting a good nights' rest, and eating a healthy, balanced diet, can all help reduce the risk of having any heart problem...

February 9, 2013 " If science ever finds a cure for menopause, our biggest problem will then be Global Cooling!"  taken from a Menopause Joke website ( I know! They really do exist!) Okay, so back to the lovely discussion of Hot Flashes, or as we call in it my house "how to we save on heating oil." I very briefly discussed HRT in the last blog. This is a really hot button topic, even today, and any menopausal woman MUST have a conversation with her Ob/Gyn to be completely informed on the subject. I can tell you that after talking with my Gyno Guru, I opted   NOT  to take advantage of the HRT program and instead try to treat and quell the annoying symptoms with common sense and old fashion nursing treatments. And there are a lot of these to cul from. A quick Google of cvs.com with the phrase  menopause symptom relief and i n a millisecond of cybertime I got a list of 12 products available at my local CVS. The trade names are: Estroven, I-Cool, I-Cool with D ...

February 7, 2012 Read on a Hallmark Maxine card: " Don't think of it as a hot flash. Consider it your inner child playing with matches!" Yesterday I explored  why our body goes through "the change." Today we discuss more about one of the classic symptoms: Hot Flashes. The above quote from Maxine is accurate in its description of a hot flash. It is   like your body is burning you up from the inside/out. One core thing to remember tho, is that no matter how horrible, disruptive and frustrating they can be, hot flashes are not a serious medical problem to be overtly concerned with. No woman ever died from having a hot flash. She just felt like she was. You can manage them in several ways that may make your life seem more normal. The first and majorly easy way is by life style changes . Drink cold beverages rather than hot coffee or tea throughout the day. Sometimes having a cup of that hot, morning caffeinated coffee can almost precipitate and enhance a ...

February 5, 2013  " It is sad to grow old, but nice to ripen!" Brigitte Bardot That's a nice thought about growing older, but when I think of fruit ripening, I also think about what comes next: rotting! Not a nice thought. So today, the biology of menopause. I'll try to not make it as dry ( pun!) as it is. Two hormones, Estrogen and Progesterone , regulate  monthly menstruation in a females. Estrogen regulates our periods, while progesterone mostly prepares our bodies for the possibility of a pregnancy. With age, the ovaries slow the production of both of these hormones and eventually shut down production completely. Most women notice that sometime  in their forties their periods start to get a little irregular, coming less often and with less blood flow. A small percentage ( the lucky ones) never have a slow down, just a  complete sudden stoppage. Usually when a woman hasn't had a defined period for at least a year, she is said to be in menopause. A quick ...

February 2, 2013 The Medilexicon Medical Dictionary defines MENOPAUSE as: The permanent cessation of the menses due to ovarian failure; termination of the menstrual life. Two words from that definition jump out at you: FAILURE AND TERMINATION . Really? Could you find two words that have more of  a negative connotation? Wouldn't it be nicer and more pleasing to say, oh, I don't, something like "the birth of a new day where your body is your own again!" or even "the time in your life when you never have to worry again about having a tampon or a pad in your  purse just in case? " These sound a little more positive, don't they? From a medical viewpoint tho, where everything is clinical and didactic, this definition is accurate. Menopause is the time in a woman's life when the period begins to ebb, hormones run rampantly like they did in puberty, and many psychological and physical changes occur within a woman's body and psyche. The normal age ...