Vasomotor instability symptoms
Frequent disruptive shifts in mood
Fatigue
Emotional outbursts
Insomnia
Unexplained weight gain
Irrational thinking
Trouble concentrating
Excessive sweating without physical exercise
Vaginal dryness
Are these symptoms signs of some dreaded disease? Or the side effects of a powerful drug? Every symptom has an ICD-10 code, recognized as a medical issue, and ensures reimbursement to the physician who attempts to treat it.
These are physical and mental responses of menopause and perimenopause. They are the most common complaints of millions of women annually going through the change.
An article published in the New York Times entitled “It’s not a Disease” sparked a lively discussion among my female colleagues.
Menopause is a condition, not a disease, yet anyone experiencing these symptoms wishes there was a cure.
As my sister-in-law said, "menopause was the most miserable 25 years of my life."
Not every woman will have symptoms for that long, but most average four to five years. Can you imagine even five years of not trusting your body or your ability to control your mood?
I was 42 when I started going through menopause, and a decade later, I still had the occasional hot flash or sleepless night of sweats. Those years were the most intense of my business career and the most demanding in my lifetime. The Rose was in its infancy, and every day was an uphill battle to survive.
I’ll never forget being in front of a grant review committee, which consisted of a lot more men than women, and presenting my request for funding. Suddenly, I felt that familiar flush taking over my body. It always came with a warning, a second or two before consuming my body, and I knew it was on its way. It felt like a hand twisting my innards somewhere deep inside. My stomach would drop with dread. My throat would tighten. My brain shut down. I knew in a matter of moments, my face and throat would turn to a deep color of red, droplets of sweat would cover my forehead, and my hands would shake.
Was I nervous or unsure of myself or what I was trying to convince these people to support? Heck no! I was in the middle of a hot flash, and there was not one darn thing I could do to stop it.
Of course, that moment didn’t happen once. It didn’t matter if I was reporting out to my board of directors, holding a staff meeting or presenting an educational program to the community. Menopause believed in equal opportunity. No event was safe from this public display of my passage into an older woman. My body and its aging were evident for all to witness.
I am always suspicious of women who claim they sailed through menopause. Somehow their insistence that menopause was “no big deal” came off sounding like another one-upmanship in the ugly game of the female competition. It was clear proof they were in better shape, smarter, more competent, or just plain more blessed by the gods than I was. Of course, one of these same women carried a portable motorized battery-powered fan with her everywhere she went.
I’m sure there are some women who didn’t have a difficult time. I just didn’t want to hear about their luck, not after I’d lived through 24 hot flashes in one day. If you could describe such a time as living. Not many people are at their best after being up all night.
I tried everything available to find some relief. I took the natural route, consuming huge amounts of Black Cohosh, Dong Quai, Ginseng and dousing with Evening Primrose Oil. I avoided alcohol which sure didn’t help my mood. I stopped eating my favorite Mexican food, a bigger sacrifice than the alcohol. As a yoga instructor, I was steeped in the process of meditation and daily practice. No amount of OM’ing or mindfulness helped. I doubled my exercise routine, but the symptoms still plagued my days and nights.
Finally, at wit's end, I turned to the medical profession for help. Their solutions? Antidepressants or hormone therapy. I tried both. The anti-depressants only added to my weight issues which made me more depressed. Being in the breast cancer field, I was well aware of the studies linking hormone therapy and breast cancer. At first, that option was a no-no. It was the bout with 24 hot flashes in one day that pushed me over the edge. I convinced myself a short regimen couldn’t hurt. Six months later, no relief.
In fact, nothing worked until I did hypnosis. Laugh if you want, but after one session, I never had another hot flash.
Here it was three decades later, and I wondered what new remedies had been discovered for today’s modern woman, the non-stop, can do it all, best educated, best paid, most savvy women of all time.
NOT one thing. A search of Dr. Internet made it clear. The same ‘remedies’ that had been offered in the '90s are all that's available today. Really?
Hell, Viagra was created during this same time. Isn't Erectile Dysfunction a natural change of life in men? Is ED any more of a medical problem than the life-disrupting symptoms of menopause? It was the most profitable drug of all time in its first year of distribution. Sure, it’s been a success, and today remains in the top prescribed drugs in spite of its competition.
Too bad there isn’t a little blue pill for menopause.