The Menopause (and the lesser known Peri-Menopause) Coming to a Female near you! Free Training - Suitable for anyone over the age of 18!
World Menopause day is taking place on Monday the 18th of October and to acknowledge this I thought I’d share some fantastic free training on offer for both men and women from the Menopause Experts and I have also been asked for an update on my progress with the HRT.
Before I launch into my ‘tell all’ on HRT, I thought I’d give you a reminder of who I am, in case you haven’t read my previous blogs. My name is Zoe, I am 45 and have a 5-year-old son. I am what is affectionally termed in the medical trade as a ‘Geriatric mum’. I had my son at 40 and honestly, I have not stopped feeling tired since I was pregnant. But is this just the acceptable norm for older mums?
How did I know nothing about the Peri-menopause?
I am still shocked firstly that I am ‘of that age’ and secondly that I hadn’t even heard about the Peri-Menopause until recently. However I am not alone and still have yet to meet any one of my friends or acquittances who really do.
If it’s going to inevitably affect almost 50% of the population and the other 50% are going to be indirectly affected, why is so little still know about it? The sad truth is that studies into woman health gets substantially less funding and air time than men’s health….however the great news is this is changing because women are demanding more for themselves and their workplaces!
I am well into my 40’s and having read: ‘Preparing for the Perimenopause and Menopause’ by Dr Louise Newson and subsequently written my blog: 10 things I wish I’d known about the Perimenopause as an ‘older mum’! (you are not losing your mind!) which received such an overwhelming #Metoo response (in the sister not mister sense I followed it up with a sequel which again got a lot of positive feedback…Part 1 - HRT and Me - Has it made any real difference? which went through the my experiences of the first to weeks of HRT, a diary a kind of ‘Bridget Jones – The Peri-Menopause Years’ if you will!
The White Wine Diaries – the book that never was!
I was reminded recently by a dear OLD friend;) that in my late 20’s I had always said I was going to write a book called ‘The White Wine Diaries – the mis- adventures of seemingly normal woman who lose it on the loopy juice! This never made it off the drawing board (or out of the bar for that matter!) But now that I am ‘getting on’ perhaps it is more important to look at what impacts me now rather than the price of a Pinot Gris as was!
Free Menopause Training – not just for the fairer Sex!
I was introduced to a lovely lady called Teresa Townsend this week who is a Professional Peri-Menopause & Menopause coach. She had read my blog and wanted to have a chat about my direct experiences of the Peri-Menopause. She has also shared some great free training from the Menopause Experts website which is suitable for both men and women and I know a lot of men will think why bother but honestly if you have a wife/mother/female colleagues you need to know this stuff because it might just save your marriage and/or sanity!
HRT 4 weeks in….did things really continue to improve?
In my last blog I talked mostly about the up sides of HRT, the increased energy, the incredible drop in sugar cravings and anxiety (I don’t think these were related) and aching joints etc…..But how do I now feel two more weeks further down this road? These are the positive things that had remained:
- Energy still at a noticeable high
- Sugar cravings are all but gone
- Anxiety levels continue to be low and I feel a lot more grounded
- Less aches and pain in my joints
- I don’t feel as angry and resentful anymore – don’t get me wrong my husband will still do things that annoy me but he is less likely to end up under the patio as a result! Que much happier husband and calmer home life.
All in all, I feel more capable and on it (so nothing unexpected has ended up in the fridge!)
Now my HRT downsides……
- Every time I feel a bit off colour or ill I start to wonder - is it the patches? But I got past this quite quickly
- The patches are expensive (you have to pay two prescriptions for them which is over £18 for 3 months) so it will be cost prohibitive to some. Perhaps they make them really expensive so that you get really angry at the injustice then you will be convinced that the patches work well based
- Even though I am eating less rubbish due to the lack of sugar cravings and I am still doing a reasonable amount of exercise, if anything I have put on weight and cms. Not masses but I had hoped this would not be one of the side effects for me but it does happen to 1in10 of woman on HRT. This may level out over time but right now I am having to accept it is one of the dealable downsides. I also had fibroids when I was pregnant, huge ones and they increased in size from the progesterone which are in the week 3 and 4 patches so I have seen my waist measurement go up and I suspect this is why.
I am going to carry on with these patches for at least 3 months in total so if I feel its worth another update I’ll keep you posted!
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