What’s with this sore breasts & menopause? Why hasn’t anyone mentioned this before? Women & their breasts- they might give pleasure to men but they are often a “pain” to us!
Who would have thought they would still be causing discomfort long after the periods have stopped?
Breast pain & sore nipples have been part of my life, and I have been quite attached to them in some circumstances. As a young girl they would signal a period about to come, so there were never any surprises on that front. As a newly married woman hoping to get pregnant their presence was a hopeful sign of success. And as a young Mum breastfeeding my new baby breast discomfort was par for the course.
Who would have thought though that they would still be causing me angst long after my periods have stopped? I Googled “breast pain and menopause” and there were nearly 780,000 hits! So I am not the only one suffering!
I thought all this would go once my periods stopped but little did I know. As I keep finding out, there is a whole world of “secret women’s business” going on out there that you do not find out about until you too hit the dreaded menopause.
Anyway by searching the Net I did find out some interesting facts. One was that caffeine can make them worse because it dilates blood vessels and stretches nerves- perhaps cutting back on the coffee and coca cola will help me. Taking evening primrose oil was also a suggestion. I will try anything to make this discomfort go away. Perhaps in my 70’s I will finally get some relief- if I can wait another 20 years!
They tell me my fall in Peru was caused by altitude sickness but I know better than all those (non-English speaking!!) doctors. I believe it was caused by menopause vagueness and sweaty feet! Haven’t got time to tell that story on my blog. Though I might just give you some key words- holiday, Peru, tall mountains, not much oxygen, very dizzy and disoriented, lots of coca leaves(!) and bam…big fall out the open door of the mini-bus!!
My story is that it is another example of menopause causing us all types of problems apart from the obvious…hot flashes, insomnia, memory loss…
My story is that I was confused and vague (as usual- menopause) and I slipped out the door on my unusually sweaty feet (because of menopause) and smashed my elbow because my bones are going brittle (because of menopause.)
The moral of the tale is that if you don’t want to spend 4 days in a Peruvian hospital getting your smashed elbow operated on by a non-English speaking doctor, and being tended by non-English speaking nurses & people (including the plumber) who show an inordinate interest in your naked, overweight, white flabby body, then don’t go to Peru on a holiday between the ages of 50 and 55!! And bring your own (sterile) thermometer!!!
To HRT, or not to HRT: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of menopause,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To HRT; to HRT….
Couldn’t resist plagiarizing a bit of Shakespeare & doesn’t he put it in context? The dilemma of the modern woman…..succinctly summarised by a 16th century man!! I had to use HRT though…To “hormone replacement therapy” just doesn’t read as well!
Ina nutshell HRT provides women with the hormones estrogen & progesterone, the hormones that decrease as you age. It can relieve the symptoms of menopause, and its use is associated with lower rates of bowel cancer & osteoporosis. Sounds good so far….but…..its use is controversial.
So just what is the story with HRT? (or Hormone Replacement Therapy for those readers who have been living in a cave somewhere away from modern civilization!) Is it safe to take or not?
Guess what- the answer depends on who you ask! And most people play safe & say things like…”As with most drugs, there are some risks associated with HRT”, and then go on to mention risks like “breast cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke and blood clots”. I mean we are not talking about minor risks here like “you might feel sleepy” or “do not operate machinery while taking this anti-histamine” type of side effects.
Then other people say that in healthy women the risks “of an adverse event” are extremely low. Then they give you numbers to illustrate this like:
In 10,000 women who have had menopause and do not use HRT, about 30 will get breast cancer.
If the same 10,000 women did use HRT, 38 women (i.e. 8 more) would get breast cancer.
This finding is from the US Women’s Health Initiative study, “a large trial investigating the major health risks and benefits of taking HRT for post-menopausal women aged 50to 79 years.”
(http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/)
The study was stopped early because to was found that the women on HRT had a statistically greater risk of breast cancer and heart disease.
So what to do? The consensus seems to be that HRT should no longer be used long term. It should not be prescribed to prevent osteoporosis or heart disease. The risk, though small, is considered significant. There is lots of information about to help you with your decision. For example I found this web site useful: Menopausal Women’s Hard Decisions (http://bcendocrineresearch.com/newsletter/v06/n02/Menopausal_Women_s_Hard_Decisions_s01.php
If you think you just have to relieve the symptoms with HRT you are advised to only take for the minimum amount of time, do it under doctor supervision & continually reevaluate your need to take it.
To replace or not replace,
That is the question…
If you want to find out more there are lots of books on this topic. Books I have found helpful include:
HRT: The Answers - A Concise Guide for Solving the Hormone Replacement Therapy Puzzle
The HRT Solution : Optimizing Your Hormone Potential
If all this information about HRT has scared you off and you want to try and explore alternative therapies one of the best selling books at amazon on this topic is:
And finally, if you want to read more about the use of natural hormones, Erike Scwartz has written a best selling book about re-energising yourself with natural hormones called:
The 30-Day Natural Hormone Plan: Look and Feel Young Again–Without Synthetic HRT
Is it a season of Light?
I have reread my first few blogs and realised I have been extremely negative about this whole experience. Sorry about that but, hang on, I am negative about the whole experience! So a change in attitude is called for- there are lots of positive things about menopause….I just can’t think of any right at this moment because of my aforementioned memory lapses and inability to concentrate.
Okay perhaps a quote from Charles Dickens will get the creative juices flowing (apparently lack of juices of all sorts is another menopause symptom!)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times……
It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness..
Okay, I’ve written a lot of words about the Season of Darkness …Let’s look at menopause as the Season of Light.
How can menopause be the best of times?
Well, der….no more bloody (!) periods!!! Forgive the corniness, I just had to use that adjective! How can that not be good? The cramps, the rummaging through your bag…those days of having to say “Excuse me, you wouldn’t happen to have a spare tampon on you would you?” to complete strangers in bathrooms are over. Thank goodness!
And those times when our period was late…and we waited for the smallest sign it was on its way and we weren’t…wait for it…pregnant. That feeling of impending dread in the pit of your stomach…… Of course there were times when we wanted it to be late too…. “Yes, darling, we’re going to be a Mom (Mum in Aussie land) and Dad!!”
And all that money you save not having to buy sanitary products- you can but an extra coffee and even throw in a big slice of some creamy cake!! Which brings me to my pet grievance…why are sanitary products considered a “luxury item” and taxed as such? Only male politicians would dream that up…Or is that only an Aussie tax?
As usual I am feeling confused. But this time it’s not just because of the muddled state that I often get into with menopause; its because I am being bombarded with information that I as a layperson find hard to decipher. As they say, just when you thought it was safe to go into the water…….As I am sure you know, black cohosh is a herbal remedy available around the world for the treatment of the symptoms of menopause, particularly hot flashes. It is actually a member of the buttercup family, (known scientifically as Actaea racemosa) and is native to North America.
Black cohosh is often recommended on menopause sites and in books as a natural way of combating the symptoms of menopause. However as usual when it comes to medications that might actually help women when they go through menopause there is controversy about its use. Whether it is HRT or black cohosh, look hard enough and you will find scary stories about possible side effects from use. Where does this leave the poor sweaty, hot women just looking for some relief? Confused is where!
Today our national newspaper today carried a report from the Medical Journal of Australia about the use of black cohosh to treat menopausal symptoms. It stated that the report showed that there was evidence of liver failure associated with the use of black cohosh, with eight reports of hepatotoxicity in patients associated with black cohosh being published over the last decade, with six requiring liver transplants. Apparently none of the patients had a clinical history making liver damage a possibility through other causes, with none showing any signs of excessive alcohol intake, injecting drug use, prior blood transfusions, a family history of liver disease, or a past history of liver disease. Scary stuff.
But then if you look further you get reports refuting this suggestion of a connection between the herb and liver damage. In fact the The National Herbalists Association of Australia web site seems to imply it is a big conspiracy trying to prevent women from getting access to a safe, effective and naural alternatives to the traditional methods used to relieve menopausal symptoms. Now that I find a bit hard to believe. I am not into conspiracy theories! They say that black cohosh has been administered to many women in clinical studies during the last 40 years, and no association has been found!
So where does that leave us, the poor consumer? As I said earlier- confused and worried! Who is right? Who should I believe? Is black cohosh safe or not? Should I take HRT? I am sure I am not the only menopausal women facing this dilemma. And they say life was meant to be easy!
Apparently there is a parallel universe inhabited by menopausal women that I neither knew nor cared about…..until I became one. Who knew there was such a market out there for menopausal products? Particularly natural menopause relief products that give natural relief to menopause symptoms. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised - after all menopause is natural!! I was expecting to see specific herbs for menopause - I mean there are herbs for every medicinal problem but no, there was more….
The ones I really liked were the advertisements trying to sell you “natural lubricants to combat menopausal vaginal dryness” Products like coconut oil, vitamin E, acidophilus, comfrey ointment, honey, or olive oil!! I’m not too sure whether you are supposed to eat some of them or use them to lubricate your passage…
It’s true a lot of women do experience vaginal dryness as a menopause symptom. The physical signs of this are pretty obvious but the symptoms are spelt out in case you are not sure what “vaginal dryness” might feel like? Huh?? So they tell you about the dryness, itchiness, irritation, burning and say it might cause some discomfort. Talk about the self-evident.
Don’t you love the way medical people say “this might cause discomfort, or “this may be a little uncomfortable” e.g. when you are having your breast squashed flat between two metal plates during a mammogram or your aforementioned vagina being jacked open when having a PAP smear. Tell the truth- this is going to be excruciating (referring to the mammogram) but hopefully won’t last long and then you can go out and have a stiff brandy to recover!
Back to description of vaginal dryness – they remind you that it is caused by a decrease in the level of estrogen (or oestrogen). Estrogens keep your passages lubricated (sounds like a car engine additive) & elastic (nothing better than a bouncy vaginal passage) so if the levels fall guess what? Vaginal lubrication and elasticity decreases, and the vagina becomes thinner and more fragile (alternatively they could say the car engine splutters and your passage gets less bouncy!).
And guess what? As in so many cases, the cure is often worse than the complaint. Why do so many natural suggestions sound so boring? I’d love to read “A cure for your problem is a prawn cocktail, followed by a lamb roast and then apple pie- with a couple of glasses of wine”. But no, the cure is always lots of water, a low fat, high fibre diet (often vegetarian), lots of soy products & plenty of water. Booorrrrring!! They might be natural cures for menopause claiming natural menopause relief, but then so is wine…and much more enjoyable! Of course you could go the artificial estrogen route and look at creams, rings & tablets, or even HRT. But that’s for another blog…
If you want to read more about how to treat menopause naturally I found this book very helpful
It’s hard to find anything worthwhile to read about menopause. Some books take the clinical approach, as if the menopause symptoms and you as a person are two separate things!! Hang on, there is a person here who is feelings these things- I am not a robot! Others are too “alternative” for me, full of “developing your inner …” insert what it is you want to develop!
However I was given a copy of a spiral bound book/journal by Christine Northrup called “The Wisdom of Menopause Journal: Your Guide to Creating Vibrant Health and Happiness in the Second Half of Your Life” by one of my friends as a birthday present. My friends love me despite my obsession with menopause at the moment- most of them are going through the same thing! Anyway, back to the journal, it was the best present I have received in a long time. I have devoured it from cover to cover. Not only is it full of useful facts and stories, because it is spiral bound it opens up flat so you can write in it too, and as you all know, I love writing about menopause. I now have a place to record my thoughts before I hit the keyboard and add to my blog.
The book discusses both medical and alternative (are they mutually exclusive I wonder?) cures for the symptoms of menopause and best of all, the author is positive about menopause!! In fact she says that “lifting of the veil of hormones” makes us free and activates our brains so that the next stage of our life can be the most influential, exciting and imaginative yet. Now that’s what I want to hear!
In fact I wish I had read this book before I started to feel the symptoms of menopause. I am sure I would have been better equipped to deal with what was in front of me. Maybe I wouldn’t have accepted the “its just menopause” response at every doctor’s visit, and might have been more empowered during these visits. Apparently she has written another book that is not in journal form that is really good too and has been a best seller for several years. It is called “The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change”. I intend to buy that too so I can really be informed and empowered- you go girl!
You’ve probably read enough about hot sweats in my previous posts – its making me feel hot and sweaty just writing about them! Let’s look at some of the other menopause symptoms we are already, or could in the future suffer.
You go to a book or web site on menopause and whoa, and it will blame everything including your bad breath and grumpy moods on menopause. You have an excuse for any type of bad behaviour- sorry dear, its just menopause and beyond my control….
There are myriads of possible symptoms mentioned including:
- fatigue
- flatulence
- loss of libido
- incontinence
- panic attacks
- decreased fertility
- vaginal dryness
- hot flushes (or hot flashes as they say is some countries!-Aussies say “flushes”!)
- sleep disturbances
- mood swings
- increased abdominal fat or weight gain everywhere
- thinning hair
- loss of breast fullness
- digestive problems including flatulence
- headaches
Even things like change in body smell? Itchy crawling skin, sweaty feet, farting and bad breath! Yikes! I wondered while people were avoiding me when I went shopping….of course the farting and bad breath could have nothing to do with menopause but isn’t it great to have something to blame?
They mention vagueness, memory lapses and inability to concentrate…what was I saying again…?! And panic attacks and obsessions- yes, they’re right, I am obsessing about what this process is doing to my mind and body and even having the occasional panic attack as a result…but then again I’ve been suffering from these all my life so why blame menopause?
Doctors love middle aged women – it doesn’t matter what your complaint is they put everything down to menopause:
Having headaches? Yes, that’s a symptom of menopause. Take a tablet or two and lie down…
Depression, yes, it’s a normal part of menopause- you’re grieving the loss of your periods- yeah, sure…
Skin rashes? Yes, allergies are more common in menopause- take a anti-histamine.
Even a broken ankle! Well maybe because you slipped on your sweaty feet, failed to see the step because of your vagueness, and it broke because your bones are more brittle after menopause, they can still put it down to menopause with a stretch!!!
We can be in and out of the doctor’s surgery in 5 seconds flat!! They love us!! Short consultations, pat answers and space to see more patients and earn more money! keep those hot flushes rolling in!
Talking of sweats I was describing hot flashes to my friends the other day what it is like to have them and be a high school teacher with a class of 30 fifteen year olds while going through menopause. You know kids are pretty adaptable- they soon get used to your face suddenly taking on a fire engine red hue, not from rage but from a unexpected hot flash…..but they never cope with the sweats.
I mean they are grossed out when you accidentally spit on them while talking animatedly about a topic you find fascinating that they (yawn) would rather not know about …like calculus or Pythagoras’ Theorem….however you should see the look of horror on their face when a drop of perspiration, that starts out as a drop on your temple, runs down your cheek , teeters for a tantalising moment on your chin, and then plop, splatters onto their workbook (with an apologetic bounce as it does so!) Not even your frantic apologies as you feverishly mop up the page (smudging all their work as you do so) using a tissue miraculously found from the depths of your bra, can ease their horror!! Nothing worse than a menopausal math teacher!
“Is it hot in here or is it just me?” If I had a dollar for every time I heard that question in the last couple of years! The mantra of the 50’s friendship group!
Think of all those songs about hot summer nights - they weren’t written about love & sex, they were actually written about menopausal women! Who knew we had so many empathetic friends who happened to be song writers!
My girlfriends and I are hot, hot in the city tonight….but not Cameron Diaz hot or Penelope Cruz hot- we are just hot. And sweaty!!! Like after a few hours in the sauna, a long game of tennis, a vigorous Pilate’s session…….
They tell you that hot sweats are normal but mmmm- they didn’t mention needing showers in the middle of the night, being able to wring your hair out as well as the sheets…… waking up soaked through next to a grumpy partner who didn’t realize “for better or worse” meant sleeping in their own personal spa, provided by their loving other half!
You can tell the menopausal women out to dinner. While everyone else is laughing, conversing & having fun they are the ones madly fanning themselves with the menu, surreptitiously wiping their brow with a tissue, or mopping the nape of their neck with a serviette. Once I was so desperate (and it’s embarrassing to confess this) I even yanked the hem of the table cloth to wipe my face! Not a good look……. And the guy opposite didn’t appreciate having to drink his red wine from out of his lap!