Chocolate in the Library

We know missed periods, we know hot flashes, we know irritability and moodiness, we know vaginal dryness and reduced sex drive. We know crying at anything.

But other symptoms include

Night sweats

Hair loss

Fatigue

Weight gain at your stomach without changes to diet or exercise

Mental fog

Increased libido (yup! Somewhat uncommon, but it happens)

Osteoporosis

Muscle loss

Inflammation (often presents as she's and pains in muscles and joints)

Increased anxiety and/or depression, adhd if you don't have them you may develop Major Depressive Disorder or General Anxiety Disorder

Panic attacks

Elevated cortisol levels (the hormone associated with stress and/or panic)

High cholesterol

High blood pressure

Elevated fasting glucose

Insulin resistance

Insomnia

Balance problems and dizziness

Low levels of iron, vitamin d, vitamin b

Several of these contribute to increased risk of several cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic disease (fatty liver- which can be fatal)

Obviously, if you have one of two of these, unlikely to be the big change leading up to menopause. But if you are in thr right age range and a lot of this looks familiar? Talk to your doctor.

AND

Because most doctors practicing today got extremely little in the way of education regarding perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause, do your homework before you ask them about it!

Getting your hormone levels checked once is basically useless. Estrogen levels vary throughout your cycle AND throughout each day. If you do want hormone testing, arrange to do it multiple times throughout your cycle all at the same time of day.

Ask for the following (sine are standard, bold are not generally something docs test for when doing labs)

CBC with differential and platelets

Comprehensive Metabolic Panel

Hemoglobin A1C

Lipid Panel

TSH (Thyroid function)

Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy

Gamma-Glytamyl Transferase

Aplipoprotein B

Lipoprotein(a)

High Sensitivity CRP

Ferritin (Iron storage)

Homocysteine (vitamin B)

Fasting Insulin (different than A1C)

HOMA-IR (A way to determine insulin resistance)

Iron- Total and TIBC

Lactate Dehydrogenase

Magnesium

Phosphate

T3 Uptake

Uric Acid

Estradiol, Extraction Method- High Sensitivity (if your peeps have never been regular you have a hormonal IUD, or have had a hysterectomy)

FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone)

Sedimentation Rate (inflammation)

Vitamin B12 and Folate

Testosterone, Free and Total

Free T3

Free T4

TPO and TG Antibodies

Sources:

The New Perimenopause by Mary Claire Haver, MD

Perimenopause World

The Pause Life (site and podcast)

The Better Menopause

One of the most popular theories of trauma says there are three steps.

Escape the trauma and find safety.

Process the trauma.

Consolidate the trauma.

Sometimes this can be a relatively quick process. If you get into a car accident while turning left in a busy city street, you might get trauma symptoms that cause feelings of fear and anxiety when you're driving your car, or travelling by car through a busy city.

"Finding safety" would mean learning to handle your anxiety and fearfulness by re-training your body to seek calm, even when reminded of the trauma. This might include things like breathing or muscle relaxation exercises that actually affect an anxious brain and help you stay centred, as well as slow exposure to situations that are stressful and traumatic so you learn to tolerate them again.

"Processing the trauma" means to look back at what happened that has given you significant psychological symptoms, and re-process those memories and the lessons you took from them so they are less damaging or hurtful. That might be revisiting your memories of the accident until they aren't so painful to think about, or it might be working to be more comfortable with driving again.

"Consolidating the trauma" means that when you've settled those memories, you take your new, healthier understanding of yourself forward into your life. That might make you a more cautious driver, or cause you to be more mindful and value every moment because you've seen how quickly your life can change. It is what you make of it.

When you try to do these steps out of order, that's more of a problem. If you want to dive straight into revisiting your memories of something that happened, but you have no defense against the panic attacks and nightmares that remembering causes you, you're not safe, not so far as your brain thinks. Your brain experiences raw memories of trauma as though it were still happening all around you. You can end up even more traumatized than before, so that even seeing a picture of a car makes you feel like you're back on that street waiting to turn left.

If a trauma is particularly old, complex, or strong, it can take a long, long time before you actually feel safe enough to go back into the memories that haunt you most. That's especially true if you're still in a situation that feels threatening, like if it's your job to drive around downtown. Or in other situations, if your abusive parent is still alive and in your life, or if you're still a member of the group or club you were abused in.

GAMBLING IS NEVER PROFITABLE

as you guys know my grandparents got scammed months ago, some man told them he was going to send them medical equipment they needed for $500 dollars, we were desperate, not only they lost all the money they had, my grandpa has gotten significantly worse, he's starting to lose vision in his good eye and my grandma is losing mobility as well (evidence), I know I sound annoying always coming here and begging for money for my grandparents and for my college, I don't know how to anticipate the grief, losing my grandpa everyday to his illness, losing my college education cause I can't afford it, in México the situation it's just getting worse and even though I feel lonely I have found a community here and I'm forever grateful for that, even a dollar goes a long way and all the money will go to their medical needs since I'm very sure I won't be able to cover college expenses, please share and donate if you can, you can help via p*ypal or any way you want through ko-fi, here's the link! 💕 thank you sm

last donation was 2 days ago

true north aid (an organization aimed at providing support to remote/northern indigenous people in canada)

canadian red cross wildfire fund

ontario spca and humane society (links to their donate page specifically aimed at supporting pets and animals in areas impacted by the fires)