About a year ago I was experiencing some frustrating symptoms. My PMS seemed to exacerbate and grow funky. My mood was a bit more– shall we say– sensitive and I generally had the sense of feeling “off kilter.” After experiencing, what were likely, a couple of hot flashes I became suspicious.
Enter physician husband: “Honey, I hate to say it but I’m wondering if you’re looking at perimenopausal symptoms here. They can be hell.”
Me? I had a four-year-old. Yes, there was a minor detail; he was our surprise 4 year old that appeared in my 40’s. Perimenopause can hit anytime during the ten years or so prior to cessation of menstruation and it is the erratic fluctuation in hormones that can cause a variety of symptoms.
Really, menopause should be called menostop, because the menses can pause for months at a time as the hormones diminish; it is when there has been no menses for 12 successive months you can officially say you’ve hit menopause.
Enter a very good friend that is twelve years older than me: I ran down my symptoms to her and she shared her very similar symptoms that she had let go for quite some time. Eventually, they became very disabling. She explored organic, individualized hormone replacement and after finding a cooperative physician and months of different “recipe” experimentation with a holistic pharmacist that would mix the compounds she finally found relief. I left that conversation feeling validated that yes, maybe it could be perimenopause, but I was absolutely not ready to go the medical route yet.
Then I turned to Google. Yes, I did what most of us do when we want to diagnose and treat ourselves — I explored the internet. My search was short lived. I found what has been the answer to my symptoms at a comprehensive website called Women to Women.
After perusing the website and seeing that it was an offshoot of an actual clinic in existence for 25 years, that you have the option of visiting their clinic or using the “Personal Program” that you can initiate online, that they combine conventional and alternative medicine, that it is run by women for female health issues and after getting a great sense of this being a legitimate practice, I completed the Women to Women online hormonal profile as a kick off to the personal program.
Based on my hormonal profile results, I was experiencing moderate symptoms that indicated a hormonal imbalance and they suggested some high quality natural supplements. I don’t know about you, but I could supply a pharmacy clearance shelf with unused supplements I have purchased looking for the appropriate quality/combination or based on “the latest research.” Finding the right supplements has been an ongoing, unsolved conundrum for me and I was thrilled at the prospect of having a solution.
Here I am a year later.
I receive my supplements, neatly packaged in the mail every month. For the first few months I had a specialist from the Women to Women program call and check in on my progress.
How are you doing on the regime? “I’d be doing great if I could sleep through the night.”
When are you taking your supplements? “At bedtime.”
Bingo. I did that too when I started and the same thing happened. The B vitamins are affecting your sleep. “relieved sigh . . .”
It was great advice. I got a follow-up phone call to make sure I was sleeping like a baby and there’s an open invitation to call these women any time to check in.
At heart I’m frugal and wondered about making the commitment of setting up a monthly auto pay so my supplements are automatically shipped. I ran it by my husband and his response was, “PLEASE. Do it. What have you got to lose?”
Well, in the past year I’ve lost the hot flashes, the wacked out PMS, most of the moodiness, the fatigue and overall feeling that I am not in control of my body.
The website has a plethora of educational information of other ways we should be helping our bodies– nutrition, exercise and information on a variety of other woman’s health issues.
If you’re in need of losing a few symptoms that may be indicative of hormonal changes, give the hormonal profile at www.womentowomen.com a whirl.
What do you have to lose?
