Wow, I take a couples days off, and this exploded! I appreciate all the interest!
I'm here, I'm 48 and perimenopausal.
Hi,
@michigandergirl ! LOL! I feel like we've started a session. To go more on record, I just turned 50 and I'm perimenopausal.
It’s frustrating and infuriating that we don’t have better knowledge across the spectrum of healthcare to understand how much hormones impact EVERYTHING, from heart, to GI, to bone density, to muscle strength, to immune functions. Even many - maybe most - OB/GYNs aren't educated in peri/menopause. Make that make sense?!?!
No kidding! My mother was a OB/GYN nurse practitioner for most of her professional career, and she knows very little about what happens. I don't know how that happens.
One of the big things the book covers, and that I’ve spent time learning about more beyond the book, is the hormonal changes that come with peri. That it’s not “just” that estrogen production drops, but that it can go up and down wildly and without pattern for years (like, potentially a LOT of years - Oy), before hitting menopause… and can still continue to do some weird stuff post-menopause, too.
THIS exactly was very helpful to me, too. Having some idea of what's going on is very helpful.
I have hypothyroidism and Pernicious Anemia.
My mother also has thyroid issues. She had a heart attack last October (doing well now) and for 6 months or more after that, she had so much trouble because she kept getting out of breath. Turns out that they eventually realized she had anemia (don't know if specifically pernicious). She had always had low iron levels, but it didn't seem to affect anything until she had the heart attack...and then it did. She got an iron transfusion and a blood transfusion (maybe two) and suddenly she could breathe! Since then, it has been managed better.
I was going to say I am still taking birth control, which is basically hormone therapy. I dont even take the placebo pills. I am on low dose estrogen all year round, as of June 2023.
This is very nearly what I do. I take 13 weeks active pills, then 1 week placebo. I'm still getting a light cycle during this time, but from what I understand, this can just be an effect of the pill. I'm going to be checking into this.
We often have similar menopause to our mothers, so I asked mine. Since she was an OB/GYN NP, when she got to 50 and hadn't hit menopause yet (or had big symptoms), she went on HRT to avoid the symptoms like hot flashes. So that was that. I may do something similar, but we'll see.
I really, really like how prescriptive the book is. Even if everything doesn't work perfectly for everyone, it's great to have a starting point.
I had already been planning to start taking beta alanine from some other info I had read, but then its usefulness was confirmed in this book, too. I started it Saturday (before my most recent long run), and I have to say that my long run went pretty well. Nothing amazing, but better than I was afraid it would. I'm hoping it is helping a bit already.