Hi MEBLady,
Sorry to delay in responding...had a lot going on out of town.
I am glad to hear you say less is more regarding progesterone cream.
I found it to be good stuff but if you investigate (as I know you are so good at it
), you'll find lots of info about the effects of too much...including fatigue, weight gain and depression. I have noticed this effect myself before I realized and lowered the dosage.
Also...glad to hear you advocate an individual approach to carb consumption. And you may find that your own carb needs are changing...cyclical at best.
Btw, I can't eat corn at all...not even corn-based vitamin C. boohoo
I am going to address your concerns with some my own (long winded) anecdotes.
Because everyone has a unique version...and because until VERY recently, menopausal issues have been tabu and shameful to discuss openly.
(In some of my other posts I talk about M more...)
During periM which lasted about 6 years and thru M which has been for almost 5,,,untill I stabilized...I found that my physical and emotional needs were in a complete state of flux...like a small boat on the rough sea.
Of course in my case I had those huge fibroids at 45, surgery (myomectomy)all alone in a distant state, my dad died, I had to move, divorce, lose job...all in one year so I was toast. beyond toast...ashes.
Hard to pinpoint causal agents for bad PMS symptoms. Life just sucked.
(I did get very slim when I got out of a toxic relationship. Actually that has happened several times in my life
.)
I always had bad, estrogen dominant, inflammed PMS. It got worse as I approached Menopause. I didn't really understand about amino acids and mood, prostaglandins and fats and food sensitivities etc. I mean info was not easy to find even for an info hound like you or me.
For me menopause was initially very sad because I thought (mistakenly) that my youth and therefore my life, was essentially over. 2 Miscarriages, no child unless of course you count 32 y/o BF
). Seriously, it was kind of a primitive skein of darkness my primitive brain was spinning out. No eggs, the curtain closes. YOU WILL BE THROWN OUT OF THE CAVE (actually did get thrown out of a Rock Band in Austin when they found out my age...of course they couldn't get along and dissolved without the Elfgirl)
And at 51 I stopped menstruating. January 2002. I was having the volcanic hot flashes, slathering on prog. eating soy and desperately searching for plant esrogens. Actually still stupidly eating plenty of sugar, slowly packing on pounds, not sleeping...not meditating...which I am very skilled at.
Hard to believe that I started a Wedding Music business at that time. My self esteem was non-existant. I just had to put on make-up, black velvet, stand like a Queen,
let the music pour out, insist that people ACTUALLY PAY ME. (often the hardest part) hotflashing all the way! In retrospect, as firing squadish as it was in the beginning, I think that performing solo like that really remade me into a more whole person and although I felt like a facsimile for awhile, "acting as if" finally ignited a long forgotten inner fire. (fighting hotflash with inner fire hehehehehe)
At some point around 2002 I stopped eating soy and my life improved noticably. It turned out that eating soy was for me like eating cement. Entirely toxic. I think that the hot flashes were a little better, but it still felt like a storm which I wondered would ever end...and when it did would I be....old?? withered??
I had heard that sugar and stress triggered hot flashes. Eat a cookie, have a hotflash. Get stressed, have a hotflash. The recipe.
I knew that I was reactively hypoglycemic...but I needed the comforting serotonin rush...I needed caffiene for energy...I had to perform, force myself to be focused and appear perfect so often and for a few years it was SOOOOO Stressful.
I think that genetics, luck, friends, love, creativity, owning my darkest emotions, dogged determination to be healthy no matter what, gardening, meditating, quitting sugar and most caffiene, eating splendidly, having deliberate, strategic faith...are the positive forces in my life...It has really taken about 5 years for things to calm down.
If my life had been more stable, If I were as relaxed and confident as I am now, if I knew how to let go as well as assert myself as well as now, if I had not EATEN SUGAR!!!!!!, then MAYBE things might have been smoother. It's hard to tell.
One thing is for sure...I now feel like my body is the most amazing phenomenon.
It is as if Nature and my body had a deal going all along and now they've conspired to throw me a surprise-life-party. I would fall down and kiss my body's feet...hey maybe I CAN still do that!!
Because even tho I will still work to gain some muscle and lose some fat, I actuall do feel better than ever before. I am not using any HRT. I
love sex. I had some sexual dysfunction for about 3 years but it is gone gone gone. I can concentrate, remember stuff. I can BLOW OFF OBNOXIOUS individuals like never before.
My hair is as long and shiny as when I was 18.
Vanity thy name is Elfgirl
I heard once someone compare later stage Menopause...which I am now calling Primarche {the beginning of Prime)(see my posts)...to
latency...the period of development between 5 and 12, between the hormonal upheavals of early childhood and adolescence, when a child can individuate, learn and create in amazing ways, if allowed to.
I am allowing.
About hydration; it was not until I moved to TEXAS that I really learned, the hard way, to drink water. (jeez do I have to learn EVERYTHING the hard way????????????
) Dehydration makes you feel tired, among other things.
2 helpful classics. about stress reduction:
The Relaxation Response and
Beyond the Relaxation Response by Robert Benson.......oohhh the joys of 'the slack jaw response'
MEBLady, you have my utmost respect for all your strength and smarts.
You're an example for me.
Thanks!!!!!