Part 2 of a 3-Part Series About Menopause Symptoms (It’s a long one, y’all)

In my last post, I listed the 34 most commonly accepted symptoms of menopause. Here, I’m going to take half the list and tell you which symptoms I’m dealing with and how I’m dealing with them. I’ll do the same next week with the second half of the symptoms. With some of the symptoms, I won’t go into crazy detail because it’s either something pretty personal or something I haven’t exactly dealt with yet, meaning I’m experiencing the symptom, but haven’t quite figured out how to deal with it. Ready? Me neither. Let’s go…bold symptoms are the ones I’ve had.

1. Hot flashes
2. Night sweats
3. Vaginal dryness
4. Decreased sex drive
5. Breast soreness
6. Irregular periods (this is only half bold because I haven’t had one in 11 years, officially–we’ll talk more)
7. Bloating
8. Headaches
9. Mood swings
10. Fatigue
11. Depression
12. Anxiety
13. Irritability
14. Panic disorder
15. Joint pain
16. Sense of taste
17. Itchiness

Hot flashes Do we really need to talk about this? I don’t actually have frequent hot flashes. I did have a lot more last year and had a fan on me constantly, no matter where I was. This year, my first intense one actually came while I was in. the. pool. I kid you not, I was in cool water and my stomach felt like someone lit a fire and it radiated from my gut out to the tips of my fingers and toes and the top of my head. It was awful. I have noticed that caffeine and alcohol either don’t help or make them worse and working really hard to focus on my breathing helps me get through without going into a full-blown panic attack. I’m not kidding–the hot flashes catch me so off guard and are so intense that I panic, like tight throat, elephant on chest, scrambled brain…all of it. Once I catch my breath and control it, it doesn’t make the hot flash go away, but it reminds me that I’m going to get through it. My brain is a scary place, friends.

Just a little fact (I try to keep these to a minimum because I’m no doctor and definitely no expert): Hot flashes are most commonly caused by changing hormone levels (the most common culprit is thought to be falling estrogen levels) before, during and after menopause. (If this continues after menopause, I’m SUING!!)

Decreased Sex Drive In the next blog post, you’ll hear about the weight gain. That’s where I am with this one. Feeling fat ain’t cute. That’s all we’re saying here. My advice is to see your gyn to work through this one because life is too short to not want to have sex and my reason is a side effect of feeling fat, nothing hormonal.

Breast Soreness We’re talking the days of pregnancy sometimes. I’ve read that the pain is caused by increased fluid, which is caused by–you guessed it–HORMONES. During pregnancy and now in perimenopause, the only thing that even kind of helped was a bigger bra, and a sports bra at that. Don’t compress them suckers too much, give em space. I know this isn’t scientific help, but I’m not a scientist, soooo…

Irregular Periods I only half highlighted this one on my original list since I haven’t actually had a normal one in over 11 years because I had an endometrial thermal ablation. Honestly, I wonder a lot if I made the right decision since I’m now not able to use the number one indicator of menopause, but then I remember the last 11 years after 24 years of pain and agony every month. I ain’t even mad. I’ll figure it out.

Just remember that the absence of a period of 365 days means you have reached menopause. After that, you shouldn’t see one again.

Bloating This is probably one of the hardest things I’m dealing with right now. By the end of the night, I look like I’m 6 months pregnant. It’s gross and it’s seriously wearing on my nerves. I’m *this* close to buying ANOTHER larger size pants, which is pissing me straight off.

There are a lot of things that can cause bloating during perimenopause and estrogen seems to be a major player (duh) in the game. In the same article I just linked, you can find a lot of ways to combat bloating and the first way on the list is to stay hydrated. Y’all, I live in Arizona. I stay hydrated. NEXT!!

Headaches Honestly, I had headaches for almost 7 years when I had extensions, so I can’t blame perimenopause for this one. Well, I couldn’t before. Now, I get headaches just about once a month (I’m sure theres’ a correlation there) and estrogen and progesterone seem to be the biggest culprits, especially during periods. My doctor prescribed an NSAID and I’ve only used them once because I hate taking medicine, especially at this stage in the game, but it seriously helped. Staying hydrated has also helped, as have regular massages because I think some of this is from the tension in my neck and shoulders. Your mileage may vary, but a massage will never hurt.

Depression and Anxiety These two don’t always go hand in hand for me, but during this stage of life, they tend to. One usually makes its appearance independent of the other, but right now, it’s like they’re a package deal. I am fortunate enough to have access to free therapy through my job (which I don’t always take advantage of, but have committed to recently), so I have some tools that help, but I also know that not everything works for everyone. Here are a few things that help–although don’t cure–when I’m experiencing anxiety and depression. Click on whichever tool you want to learn more about (or don’t–you do you, boo): box breathing (y’all, if it’s good enough for the SEALs, it’s gotta help a little), thought challenging (my super-coach calls this “taking your thoughts to court”), good old-fashioned sleep (which also helps with a myriad of other health issues).

I will be honest here in that the only thing that has helped me with clinical depression (which is not what I’m experiencing now) is professional help and sometimes medication. My only personal issue with that is that I have for surely been misdiagnosed and prescribed medication when there is something else going on, so I just suggest advocating HARD for yourself. It happens a lot with women that some of our other health problems get lumped into the “depression and anxiety” category. Heads on a swivel, sisters.

Irritability Come on, now. With all these other things happening, how can I not be irritable sometimes? But honestly, there are times everything seems like it’s fine and I’m still pissed at the world. Everything that everyone does just pushes every one of my buttons, no matter what.

The best help I’m finding for this at this stage in the game, is alone time. Now that I don’t have little kids, it’s way easier to have that time and just think. There are times I write down what is real and provable and what isn’t, and that seems to help ground me in reality. Sometimes, I nap (sleep, sisters, I’m serious) and a lot of times I take a walk with a podcast or Audible book in my ears. Again, I’m no doctor or expert and this is just what works for me.

Joint Pain So this just started for me and it’s not something I’ve got any help for or done much research on, but I promised I’d be honest with you. The one thing I’ve done for pain (which has mostly been muscle pain, like in my shoulders and neck, specifically) is massage, but this isn’t for joints. I do have another appointment with a doctor coming up regarding a few new symptoms, so this will probably come up. I’ll keep you posted–I’m sure you can’t wait!