If you look up the symptoms of perimenopause, you will see that sleep disturbance is one of them. Sleep disturbance is too a nice a phrase for what’s going on with me. It’s more like sleep twister. Or maybe sleep turbulence. If I am lucky enough to get to sleep, I wake up in the middle of the night then toss and turn until the clock goes off. Last night (I woke up at 3:02 am) was better than the night before (I woke up at 1:14 am). For the first time in my life, I am having trouble getting … Continue reading →

Well, now I am just confused! I mentioned that I went to a menopause seminar here at the health science center where I worked. It was conducted by a nurse who was very pro-hormone therapy. Even years ago, I remember hearing bad stuff about hormone therapy (HT) (or as they used to call it hormone replacement therapy). A fifteen-year study called the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) began in 1991. It looked at 160,000 post-menopausal women using HT. What they found was that HT didn’t exactly do what they had hoped (prevent chronic illnesses such as heart disease) and it also … Continue reading →

About a year ago, I got out of the shower. I was surprised to looked down and see my grandmother’s legs. No, my beloved, dearly departed grandmother hadn’t come into the bathroom. But, I noticed my legs had started to look like hers. Before you ask how I knew so much about my grandmother’s legs, let me explain. I lived with my grandmother for almost twenty years after the death of my mother when I was 19. My grandfather had died about five years before that. With my father remarrying, I decided to spend my 20’s and most of my … Continue reading →

I work at a health science center and a few weeks, they had a nurse conducting a seminar on menopause. I am not in full blown menopause, but experiencing the “joys” of perimenopause. But, I figured I would go to check out the seminar anyhow. What I did was pretty much waste my lunch hour. It might have helped some people there, but nurse mainly talked about hormone replacement therapy. Oh no wait, it’s called hormone therapy now. The study that was done years ago that showed that HRT could cause problems has been revisited by many and there were … Continue reading →

If you have suffered from hot flashes, you know you would give almost anything for a cure. Some say soy is the answer while others say no. I know when I first started experiencing hot flashes, I tried soy milk. Actually, it didn’t taste that bad, but then the hot flashes subsided a bit and I quit drinking it. But, did it work? One study at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine said that soy isoflavone supplements didn’t work. Researchers spent $3 million and two years following women ages 45 to 60 within five years of menopause. The … Continue reading →

I had always heard a woman can judge when menopause will occur based on when her mother went through it. I, however, don’t have that luxury because my mother died before going through menopause. And, I also think I have read that that’s an old wives tale anyhow. So what can we know about menopause and when it will hit us? If a new study is correct, the lifestyle we lead in our early years can dictate when menopause occurs. The study was conducted at the Institute of Cancer Research in the United Kingdom by Dr. Danielle Morris and colleagues. … Continue reading →

My best friend and I both turn 49 this year. After discussing our various aches and pains, our phone conversations often turn to “Do you ever feel like you are losing your mind?” We usually discuss how we can see a word in our mind, but can’t say it or we just can’t remember someone’s name that we know we know. We discuss whether we need some type of testing, and then write it off to menopause. As it turns out, we may be right. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago finished up a study recently that shows … Continue reading →

As if those of us staring menopause in the face need any more bad news… A recent study may show a connection between menopause, a decline in work, and an increase in sick days. The study was conducted by researchers at the Nij Smellinghe Hospital in Drachten, the Netherlands. Approximately 200 women between the ages of 44 and 60 who either worked at the hospital or a close by home-care organization were included in the study. The study tested something called “work ability.” That is, how one’s job demands correlate with her abilities and how that may predict her job … Continue reading →

Menopause can be a troublesome time for many women, but this week, a study showed that a hormone called dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) may offer relief. DHEA is naturally secreted by the adrenal glands. A study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pisa in Italy, found that small doses of DHEA may help ease menopausal symptoms while also helping increase a women’s interest in sex. The results of the study were published in the December issue of Climacteric. In the study, 48 postmenopausal women were divided into four groups: 12 that took vitamin D and calcium (to ward off osteoporosis), 12 … Continue reading →