I was visiting a friend of mine who is going through menopause. She's 49 and has been dealing with it for awhile. Her family told me about it first because they say she's transforming before their eyes. They say she's more high strung, quick to lose her temper and very un-fun to be around. They were begging me to convince her to start some kind of prescribed medicated therapy. At first, I didn't think she had changed at all but, after a few days, I kind of saw what they were talking about (but not to the extreme they described). My friend is aware that she's not herself but doesn't want to alter this natural process that all women go through with medication.My first reaction was to tell her family to be supportive of her wishes and leave her alone and it will eventually pass. The more I think about it, though, I wonder if that's the way to go. If I change so much that I'm making my family miserable, I think I would consider drug therapy. Especially since I now realize that menopause lasts for years and years. I started to think of it in the context of any kind of illness. If you're sick and there's a drug to help, shouldn't you take it? The reason I hesitate, though, is because I think that our culture makes us susceptible to quick drug fixes (think ADHD, diet pills, etc.) rather than the slower, more disciplined approach of correcting our problems naturally. Then there is the other extreme of those whackos who let their children die while praying over them rather than medically intervene to save them with simple modern day cures.
I guess, when it's my turn, I'll have to decide on some middle ground between these two extremes and hopefully won't change that much when I start my menopause. I think the first thing I'll do is a happy dance at not having to buy birth control pills, maxipads and tampons anymore!
If any of you have advice on natural ways to deal with menopause that I can pass on to my friend, I'd love to hear from you!
1 comment:
I had a hysterectomy one year ago yesterday. Last night we had a celebratory dinner for my 1 year without a uterus and ovaries. It's been quite a year of ups and downs, good and bad, nothing like being handed your menopause on a plate. I am not able to take hormone replacement of any kind right now because the doctors were not careful removing the cancer ridden parts of my uterus (which was ALL of it, thank you very much... "we didn't know"... really?) and the hormones would give any remaining cancer cells something to feed off of. I thought I was doing okay, and I have a family that just doesn't say anything if things are bad. Don't ask, I inherited most of them, LOL!! But last month I just couldn't take the crying any more. I literally was crying 4 or 5 times a day, or more, at EVERYTHING. And I was SO irritable. So I went back to my research notes, and started taking remifemin. It worked ok, but then I switched to estroven, and I feel pretty good, like my old self again, maybe even better. It's all natural, herbal stuff, but it makes such a difference in how I feel. It really is worth it. My mom has a friend who went through the same thing and she won't even touch so much as an advil, and she takes another form of the same thing. Costco and iherb.com have the best prices on estroven. Trust me, it's worth it because I have myself back. I started blogging about my menopause last year but I wasn't very consistent. I'm thinking about getting it going again, it's at http://hellomenopause.com . And holler if you have any questions, I have no problem discussing any of this, I just don't have all the answers, but I do have my lovely year of experience!! :) I love the picture too!
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