Hormones, Menopause, and Periods Thread

Well, at least we’re all still being really active, and very few women our age can do what we do in the gym. That feels pretty good. I mostly feel great, aside from these few complaints which I realize are fairly minor in comparison. I’ve had friends with terrible endometriosis or PCOS. And I haven’t noticed any real decline in my strength or muscle mass, so there’s that.

1 Like

We are actually all pretty lucky, we are in shape at an older age which will make it a bit easier as the years go on. It is so much harder to get in shape in your 40’s if you are not already!!! We all work hard to lift, maintain muscle, and stay healthy…I take all the compliments I can get!

3 Likes

@EmilyQ, tagging you here. I was trying to tag all the women close in age to me and I forgot ya.

Did I miss anyone else?

Anyone else following, please know you’re more than welcome.

I got compliment from my peep’s PT today! And yes, I took it! To the point she even asked my age. I proudly told her.

2 Likes

I finally figured it out. Stress any high stress is bad, job or family (my family live next door too). And I can’t have a desk job. I did a 3 years degree and can’t use it for that reason.

Ovarian cyst are very painful, at one point I had to take a med leave because I needed 5 days off every month. As soon as I was on med leave I started to walk more and do stuff. The cyst stop, one month back to work and BAM they were back.

1 Like

Ive also noticed Sugar does nothing good for me in terms of how raggedy my period is going to be or not. Too much sugar makes everything all the more difficult, and I get ridiculous amount of acne.

1 Like

Yeah…that feels great, right?! My girls’ Jujitsu instructor was chatting with me a couple of weeks ago and asked me what I do. I replied, “Medical billing and coding.” He said, “No…what do you do?” while he directly looked at my arms. That felt awesome. I’ve been working out in some form or fashion most of my life and I’m stronger and look better now than I ever have. And now the compliments!

@ChickenLittle Wow…I thought my cycles were bad! Maybe a year ago I had one menstrual cycle (damn near daily flooding) that lasted 6 weeks. I actually came out of that episode convinced that I am immortal. Who could bleed that heavily for that long and still be alive?! I haven’t had one so bad since but each one has days of two super plus tampons every 45 mins and a change of clothes. I tried going down the route of progesterone cream, but it did nothing. I really don’t know what part of my routine helps or hurts. It just seems like since I started supplementing with the curcumin/bioperine, magnesium, and zinc, that so many things are falling back into line.

@anon71262119 - thanks for the subthread!

1 Like

Glad you found something that is helping. I have tried all kinds of supplements. The one that seemed to help me was Maca.
A lot of herbalist recommended Dong Quai. That works really well to make me ANGRY!!! I’m talking kill you with my bare hands rage.

Sweet!

2 Likes

You’re welcome. And it’s very nice to see you. @progesterone cream, it’s subtle but I think I’ve had less problems with nausea since I started using it so maybe there’s that. It’s hard to say. Maybe that’s just improving on it’s own. I’ve not tried curcumin, or any of the supplements people often try. Maca, black cohosh, ginseng… so there are things to try.

1 Like

I wanted to say, I supplement vitamins, minerals, fish oil, and for joints glucosamine, MSM and chondroitin. It’s been a long time now, but I definitely noticed more energy after I started supplementing B vitamins, and at one time I had a lot more issues with sleep, insomnia and I believe Mg helped. This was years ago now, so probably not related to pre-menopause symptoms. Back when I was entering everything into fitday, I noticed that I’d never hit the recommended amount of magnesium with diet alone. I think that’s everybody. It’s very hard to get enough Mg.

As I look at the symptoms of low E, low T, and low P I seem to be mostly in the low P list. Mostly. None of the low T symptoms, and only a few of the low E so far. The list of herbal supplements is a bit confusing, but is looks like a lot of people like vitex, also known as chasteberry for increasing P. I’m going to try that and see.

A couple of links I’ve found with info related to herbs. I have never had any reason to know all of this, or to get into problem solving around a health issue before. It’s been two years since I had a physical so I think I’ll do a bit more research and then go talk to my physician about it. I’m hesitant to start introducing a bunch of things at once.

Thanks all.

https://www.drnorthrup.com/traditional-herbs-or-bioidentical-hormones-which-is-better/

Any body fair well with heating pads? Those are my saving grace too.

I feel for you. I had a friend in high school who would miss a couple of days of school every month. Be home with a heating pad, or in a bathtub with very painful cramps. She also had hormone-related migraines. Throwing up with those. Awful. I can’t recall if you mentioned it. Do you get headaches like that?

1 Like

I’ll stop hogging this thread. Maybe!

Just another thought for those of us who are in our 40s and training. I’m never going to drop my weight, lean out to the place where I start to loose my period again. I’m hoping to slow this down, or at least not do anything to speed it up. For me, cutting below 112 not only makes my face look gaunt, but I’m likely to loose my period if I’m any lighter than that. I think I look better at 115 or a little above now. I know people come back from competing at my age, but I think it’s risky. Besides, the articles about metabolic slowing in female competitors should give any of us serious pause.

I’ve read about this happening in other women. From the Christine Northrup article I posted. Emphasis mine.

Premature Menopause

The second type of menopause is premature menopause, which is diagnosed when a woman goes through menopause in her 30s or early 40s. It’s usually secondary to autoimmune disease, nutritional deficiency, or some form of chronic stress (including excessive athletic conditioning) that has adversely affected hormone-related reproductive functions. Premature menopause occurs not only earlier but also faster than normal menopause, often necessitating supplemental hormones to maintain physical comfort during the transition.

Well yeah! Regardless if he wanted to crawl under a rock…lol
You are so beautiful how could they not notice?

Thank you, CL.

1 Like

for sure my face lean out first then my boobs followed by the little behind I have :wink: after that my period will be missing.

And yes my heat pad is in heavy use when I am not active aka desk job and no physical activity.

1 Like

Not from hormones.

I do have a muscle strain under my right shoulder blade that causes tension headaches a lot though. But non related to hormones.

1 Like

Still just glad it’s over…lol I am scared to try ANYthing because I am afraid it may come back! I looked at some supplements at the local shop, but she was against trying anything without a doctor’s recommendation.
I am 100% convinced though, that my diet contributed greatly to my misery. Two words … soy and plastic. It’s everywhere! I cut 90% of soy out of my diet, dirched all plastic and think that helped greatly. Only in the last few months have I loosed the strings on eating.

2 Likes

Oh, no doubt! If I had that situation going on, I’d be doing whatever I could to bring an end to it. If you went through it early, it was probably a blessing in your case. Miserable and maybe setting you up for anemia and fatigue. I can’t imagine you could have felt good, recovered from exercise.

I’ve always had very light, short periods with no pain so I’m just sad to have the low P side effects now. I hate to see that my body is shutting down.

EDITED: The other thing that worries me is that apparently this could go on for a decade. I could deal with being nauseated, or even the personality change if I knew it was only for a couple of months and then I’d feel better. Not wait for more stuff like hot flashes and insomnia, or the dreaded low T symptoms and have it be forever, the new normal.

1 Like

Fatigue was definitely an issue. I had a real job back then. A great job, but very physically demanding. I was strong then.

Let’s just hope your’s passes quickly. Nausea is not something I would want live with for a decade… ugh!

1 Like