Nailed it. Just purchased a sick number of free weights on FB marketplace last weekend and am researching protein packed lunches. Like so many others here I have a very laissez fair obgyn who seems to have no answers or even a roadmap to offer when it comes to this journey. This is such a fun age 😉
I was feeling ALL OF THIS plus so much more and my doctor kept brushing it off (pffft). So frustrating. I finally found a doctor who listened and validated what I was feeling at myalloy.com and put me on HRT. Highly recommend
Grace Ferris – you are the absolute best!!! The “research weightlifting” was sheer perfection
After I had my 2nd child at 36 years old, I had several perimenopausal symptoms for 3 years and my doctor said I was too young and laughed it off. Well, my last period I had was at 40 years old. When I moved to Seattle my new doctor confirmed what I already knew. I was post menopausal!
All. of. this. I am turning 45 this year and can recommend a few books that have been super helpful for me: The Menopause Manifesto, Unlock Your Menopause Type, and The Menopause Brain, all of which present current research around lifestyle factors and treatment, and helped me navigate conversations with my doctor. I finally started HRT this spring and it has been a gamechanger! I’m sleeping better, my energy levels are back to normal, and my baseline anxiety is way down. My therapist told me that a lot of women at this stage get put on anti-depressants when HRT might be more appropriate, but our generation has to overcome all of the previous misinformation around it. I also had the sweetest young pharmacist handed me my prescription and told me he was so happy for me – that he saw his mom suffer through unnecessarily and was sure that I was going to feel a lot better. All to say, I’m so glad our generation is talking about it!
Huberman Lab podcast episode 179 (June 3, 2024) has good information: Dr. Mary Claire Haver: How to Navigate Menopause & Perimenopause for Maximum Health & Vitality.
Not there yet but there is a book called Hormonal Intelligence (almost like a textbook) and it’s 100% about women’s heath in all the stages. I find it very helpful but mostly it was just good to say “ahhh that’s what that is” about so many things.
Almost 58 here, and still having the occasional light period. There are quite a few good podcasts taking a more functional/integrated approach to hormones which I quite like and learn from–Everyday Wellness with Cynthia Thurlow, Evolving Wellness with Sarah Kleiner, The Hormone Solution with Karen Martel, and if you can find Elizabeth Bright on youtube, she has a fascinating expertise on thyroid as it relates to female aging. What’s worked for me is being almost zero carb and minding thyroid function. I also don’t drink, and stopped oral contraceptives about 5 years ago (tricky transition, but better off for it).
LOLing so hard. Also putting out the recommendation for Menopause Manifesto by Jen Gutner; my early 40s friends and I are inhaling it right now. Recommended to me by my doctor who listened on audio and said it was about time there was actually facts and science that women could reference wrt menopause.
Reply to lana
June 21, 2024 1:29 pm
me too! as of a couple weeks ago!
I am feeling this so hard right now. I’m 44, about to turn 45 in September, and it’s amazing the lack of research and information on menopause in Western medicine. I just saw my gynecologist earlier this week, and was telling her about my night sweats, stiff joints. She shrugged when I asked her if this was it, am I going through perimenopause? Why such a question mark around all of this?(Rhetorical question because I know there has been very little to no funding for women’s health research.)
I decided to see an acupuncturist for help and she asked so many more questions and was way more knowledgeable about the symptoms. So, if you’re open to it and have the means, highly recommend looking to Eastern medicine as well, which is way more proactive.
Reply to Amanda
June 21, 2024 1:45 pm
47 year old pediatrician here, so I know lots of puberty and minimal about perimenopause. But I adored Jen Gunter’s Menopause Manifesto. Mary Claire Haver’s Menopause book is helpful too, but not as much fun to read as Gunter’s
Reply to Amanda
June 21, 2024 1:49 pm
I’m 44 and sometime around 42, I think my perimenopause symptoms came roaring at me. I get SO HOT at night. So, so hot. Even in the winter, when it’s like -10 out, I want to sleep w/ the window slightly ajar. I normally run cold. Not anymore.
I asked my primary care physician about it last year, she also kind of shrugged and had nothing for me.
Now I’m intrigued by what you wrote.
Reply to Amanda
June 21, 2024 1:52 pm
Same! My gynecologist just keeps saying, well things change as you get older, but the symptoms are so all over the place I am having a hard time deciphering what is perimenopause and what is something more serious. I have read what few recent books I could find (written by female doctors) and basically estrogen interacts with nearly every system in the body!!
Thanks for the rec to seek alternative practitioners. The lack of research is so incredibly frustrating!
hmmm…. I think I’m playing the game 🙂