Is it just me or is menopause not discussed as much as it used to be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's just you. We still discuss menopause around the dinner table 4 or 5 times a week.

Do ya live in a home for middle aged gals?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like perimenopause issues are discussed much more.

I'm in a weird place at age 54. Most of my friends started experiencing perimenopause symptoms in their early to mid-40s and discussed them. I felt the same as always and had cycles like clockworks. Now, many of my friends are completely done and I am just starting with the symptoms, missing a period here and there. Am I going to still have periods when I'm 60?

You may be one of the lucky ones who goes through the "change" in 18months to 4 years.

-49 yo in her 9th year of perimenopause

PP thanks. I will hope that winds up being true. My doctor also said something similar.

[Anonymous]

Ugh... I am early 40s and just like WTF is this. I wish people talked about it more.

[Anonymous]

They should never speak about menopause. What a horrible misogynist term. We don't speak about men's aging as a "syndrome." Plus what you all call menopause are actually symptoms of things - like the decline of vitamins absorption as one gets older - that can in fact be remedied. If I hear another person saying, "it's probably menopause" I may throw something at them! If you want to learn about aging - and why we don't have to, I suggest a great place to start is Harvard biologist David Sinclair's book Lifespan.

https://sinclair.hms.harvard.edu/people/david-sinclair

[Anonymous]

I started having hot flashes at 37 and am now 43. Still in the midst of it. Between having a doctor that didn't believe me and having friends who haven't been through it, it has been a lonely journey. I do think we need to talk about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Menopause was really being discussed for the first time in the 80’s as a non-taboo subject. That’s why it was discussed more. Also, hormone replacement therapy was big business.

Actually, it was discussed quite a bit in the 60’s and 70’s as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like perimenopause issues are discussed much more.

I'm in a weird place at age 54. Most of my friends started experiencing perimenopause symptoms in their early to mid-40s and discussed them. I felt the same as always and had cycles like clockworks. Now, many of my friends are completely done and I am just starting with the symptoms, missing a period here and there. Am I going to still have periods when I'm 60?

In your honest assessment would you say you look younger than most 54 year old women? It would seem to me that women who go through menopause later, look youthful for longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember it being discussed a lot in the 80's too, OP.

In fact, the episode I remember most of "The Golden Girls" is the one where Blanche goes through menopause. Do you remember that one? She doesn't get her period and thinks she might be pregnant, but it turns out she is going through menopause?

Yes, I do remember that one!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like perimenopause issues are discussed much more.

I'm in a weird place at age 54. Most of my friends started experiencing perimenopause symptoms in their early to mid-40s and discussed them. I felt the same as always and had cycles like clockworks. Now, many of my friends are completely done and I am just starting with the symptoms, missing a period here and there. Am I going to still have periods when I'm 60?

What are the symptoms you're noticing? I've been getting irregular periods for a little over a year (my cycle was always predictable since puberty). I've had the occasional hotflash (I think), but nothing too crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Menopause was really being discussed for the first time in the 80’s as a non-taboo subject. That’s why it was discussed more. Also, hormone replacement therapy was big business.

Actually, it was discussed quite a bit in the 60’s and 70’s as well.

I think it's a few things:

1) Demographics. Back then the baby boomers were going through it. They're just a larger group of people. Now it's GenX. We're small, nobody listens to us anyway.

2) An opening up of the conversation. The 60s and 70s ushered in an era of openness about women's health that didn't exist earlier. Women in the 1950s didn't discuss these things in the media, so they just weren't there. The taboos fell away, so the conversation expanded then.

3) Big pharma had something to sell back then. HRT became big, so it was discussed alot more. Then they discovered a connection to hormone-fueled breast cancer, so that went away.

[Anonymous]

OK let's talk about it here...

Why the heck didn't someone tell me that tingling extremities can be a symptom of menopause. I got an MRI for it, and they found nothing. Then it hit me that this started happening right around 50, and so I googled it.

And the vertigo.

Seems like hotflashes and mood swings are taked about as it related to menopause but not the more obscure symptoms.

Anyone else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like perimenopause issues are discussed much more.

I'm in a weird place at age 54. Most of my friends started experiencing perimenopause symptoms in their early to mid-40s and discussed them. I felt the same as always and had cycles like clockworks. Now, many of my friends are completely done and I am just starting with the symptoms, missing a period here and there. Am I going to still have periods when I'm 60?

In your honest assessment would you say you look younger than most 54 year old women? It would seem to me that women who go through menopause later, look youthful for longer.

NP. I am 53 and this is me, too. Now finally the periods are acting up. Different bodies age differently, and it doesn’t have that much to do with health and lifestyle. I was reading an article that said if you were able to get pregnant naturally after age 35 (I was 39 for my first), you probably have a body that ages more slowly and will live longer. I also have no real wrinkles or turkey neck or old lady hands and not a lot of gray. Also through no particular effort of my own- I started using face creams in my mid forties, and never bothered with sunscreen (although I also was never one to lay out in the sun) My mother and grandmother/grandfather on my maternal line were/are the same. My mother had some kind of mild cancer at 80 and it just kind of disappeared with the most minimal treatment. We joke that that side of the family lives forever.

It makes sense that you look more youthful if you haven’t gone through menopause because it means you still have higher levels of estrogen and other hormones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK let's talk about it here...

Why the heck didn't someone tell me that tingling extremities can be a symptom of menopause. I got an MRI for it, and they found nothing. Then it hit me that this started happening right around 50, and so I googled it.

And the vertigo.

Seems like hotflashes and mood swings are taked about as it related to menopause but not the more obscure symptoms.

Anyone else?

Me! My feet were tingling yesterday and I was like wtf is this?!?! I'm glad I saw your post. I've also experienced cold flashes, in addition to hot flashes. No one told me about that and each time it's happened, I thought I have the flu/'rona/ a fever, etc. Nope, hormones!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Menopause was really being discussed for the first time in the 80’s as a non-taboo subject. That’s why it was discussed more. Also, hormone replacement therapy was big business.

Actually, it was discussed quite a bit in the 60’s and 70’s as well.

I think it's a few things:

1) Demographics. Back then the baby boomers were going through it. They're just a larger group of people. Now it's GenX. We're small, nobody listens to us anyway.

2) An opening up of the conversation. The 60s and 70s ushered in an era of openness about women's health that didn't exist earlier. Women in the 1950s didn't discuss these things in the media, so they just weren't there. The taboos fell away, so the conversation expanded then.

3) Big pharma had something to sell back then. HRT became big, so it was discussed alot more. Then they discovered a connection to hormone-fueled breast cancer, so that went away.

This.

A lot of us Gen Xers are going through menopause right now, and not taking HRT like the boomers did. There is nothing to sell to us, and we aren't a large group anyhow. Watch for it to be talked more in public when the next large generation goes through it.

I would also add
4) There is a lot of emphasis on youth and appearance now, even more than there was for the boomers. I try to look as good as I can, and when I have a hot flash and start pouring sweat, people look at me like I am crazy when I tell them I am going through menopause.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK let's talk about it here...

Why the heck didn't someone tell me that tingling extremities can be a symptom of menopause. I got an MRI for it, and they found nothing. Then it hit me that this started happening right around 50, and so I googled it.

And the vertigo.

Seems like hotflashes and mood swings are taked about as it related to menopause but not the more obscure symptoms.

Anyone else?

Me! My feet were tingling yesterday and I was like wtf is this?!?! I'm glad I saw your post. I've also experienced cold flashes, in addition to hot flashes. No one told me about that and each time it's happened, I thought I have the flu/'rona/ a fever, etc. Nope, hormones!

Low vitamin B12 can also cause tingling, so that’s something to watch for as well. Even if you’re in the normal range, being at the low end of normal puts you at risk. Taking a daily multi-vitamin can help!