Lizzy, I'm sorry. I need to ouit just using letters. EFGT is Eat Fat Get Thin, by Barry Groves. It is actually out of print and a lot of people now read Natural Health and Weight Loss. In a nutshell, the percentages are 65% fat, 20% protein and 15% carb. Actually pretty close to what people do here. For sleep, if you are doing well other wise, try Melatonin. I think I tried it 15 years ago and wasn't impressed but I only took it once or twice. Then I was talking to friend about a sleeping pill his doc put him on called Rozerium. Being a nurse, I asked him what class it was as I had only used Ambien briefly when deployed to Afghanistan so I wondered if it was the same thing. He said it was just 8 mg of Melatoin. I thought, well heck, I'll go and see if Costco has it. I thought I had seen it so ,lo and behold, there was a bottle of 300 3mg pills. I take 3 about 30 min before bed for a total of 9 mg. It's funny. You go to bed and really don't feel like you've taken something, then bam!, it's morning and you've slept all night. The nice thing also is I work 20 hour shifts and when nothing is going on, we can go to bed. If I get called in the middle of the night, I get up, am up a couple of hours and feel fine, then when I go back to bed, I go right back to sleep without any problems. Lack of sleep will exhaust you. I used to wake up at 2am and lay wake till 5. Now if I wake up, I roll over and go right back to sleep. And the bottle of Melatonin cost about $5.69!

Hismouse, anxiety is a low progesterone thing. I never got it but I hear it is common. My symptoms were poor sleep and exhaustion. It didn't matter if I did sleep well, I was still exhausted. Come to find out those are both common symptoms. You symptoms can easily be controlled and you will feel much better. I have been on Progesterone for 2 months and estrogen/progesterone/testosterone/pregnisilone(sp?) for 4 days and I notice a big jump in energy. I worked in the garden 3 hours yesterday and the only reason I stopped is I was on a time crunch.

AZDweller, your levels are being artificially manipulated however, they can test you for FSH. That is Follicle Stimulating Hormone and it tells you whether your ovaries are stll working. Actually, mine still work, just not enough as all of my levels were in the toilet.

Menopause is a signal to your body that your reproductive years are over and now it is time to accelerate aging because usefulness is over. It is a caveman thing. Nature keeps the population in check by accelerating aging via lack of hormones. LDL increases, HDL decreases, inflammation increases, bone loss skyrockets (don't think taking Calcium will counter this, it helps but you need hormone to keep the body from scavaging bone) collagen production slows (skin sagging everywhere) weight gain in the middle (the worst kind for your health). Things are happening, even if you don't have symptoms. I'm scheduling a bone scan because I am small framed and fair complected, a double wammy. I am also checking cholesterol, ect,

Cindy, thanks for getting back on that. You'd think I would have recognized the abbreviation being on this board so long...lol. I took melatonin once and it seemed to keep me in a twilight state rather than a deep sleep. Maybe I'll try it again. And thanks for serving!!

Hormones and diet are linked. I'm not sure if a poor diet would cause early menapause but it would make the syptoms much stronger. Your diet can effect other glands especially the throid. Check out a sight called women to women. It talks about diet and hormone levels. Sugar can cause havik on your system. A balanced system will help with weight gain and slow metabolism caused by hormone changes.

I went through menapause at 37 do to a hysterectomy.The " women to women" sight really helped. I used their vitmins and followed their diet program and it really helped. The first year was the hardest then not so bad. I don't miss having a period! No more mood swings either.

I started "peri" at 53. Stopped for 4 months, thought "this is it!".
Started eating 100 grams a day of tofu on the Schwartzbein Principle.
PERIODS CAME BACK GANG BUSTERS AND ON TIME REGULAR AS EVER!
Phyto-estrogens.
I'm now almost 54.
Go figure....

Ok so the Hotflashes have come back some, hot weather makes em worse, I think.... I have a question, where does breast tenderness come into this. My right B hurts like the devil if I lean on it. I had a mamo and the markers came back, and the Radiologist said return in 1 yr. I have no lumps or bumps, it is just tender. Well both ar just the right is bad. Is this menopause symptoms, And I feel blah every day. I haven't a clue where to go for bio-identical hormones.
help! Debbie

Breast tenderness is one of the symptoms of perimenopause, and it can come and go monthly. Perimenopause can last for quite a few years. When I was having breast tenderness and sleep disturbances I really disliked it, but as time progressed and the hot flashes started, I knew I needed help! Thank goodness there was a solution, bioidenticals. My life is sooo much better now. I feel like "me" again! And that foggy thinking went away, too. LOL, I sound like a commercial, but I promise, I get no kick-backs!

If you have a pharmacy in your area that does compounding, they will probably be your best resource for finding a doctor, because they will know which doctors prescribe bioidenticals.

When I was looking for a doctor that does bio-identical hormones, I called lots of different offices. (Kind of a pain and time-consuming, and not very productive!) There is also a site I just came across that might help you find a doctor in your area. I have never used this site, but it may be worth a try. Here's the link:

http://restoremd.com/

You may also want to do a google search and put in your city and state and the words bioidentical hormones (or something similar) and something may come up.

Hope you can find what you need!

I started having premenopausal symptoms a few months ago, age 47. They were really bad, progesterone cream has helped with everything, but its taken months of use. My dr told me its unusual for fat women to be low in estrogen since our fat cells make it, but often progesterone drops to 0 around my age. Estrogen required sufficient levels of progesterone to get into the cells.

The progesterone cream got rid of my symptoms- sore breasts, erratic periods, major irritation, water retention, low blood sugar, dry eyes, no sex drive. Now if I could sleep through the whole night life would be great. I will try the melatonin CindyCRNA.

The book What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause by John Lee answered a lot of my questions. Every single chapter he recommends ditching the sugar.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Thanks for being here with me.

One thing I do know:
Since I started working out reguarly (5-6 days a week), my hot flushes disappeared. I haven't had one in a year.

Again, I'm back to the periods coming every three months or so.
(I haven't been consistant at all with the tofu)
But, man I feel so GOOD with out PMS!
This is a benefit of peri I guess.

Nawchem, I post on another board and there are those there that advocate 15-20 mg per day of Melatonin a day. Google melatonin. It seems to have a lot of benefits, not just sleep. I take 9 mg a night. You won't notice anything for a few nights. You have to take it consistently. I sleep like a baby. Progesterone helps with sleep also which is why you always take it at night.

I have learned something since my last posting on BHRT in April. BHRT can suppress your thyroid. Not a big deal, I have started on thyroid meds but just be aware of it. I felt fabulous on BHRT for 3 weeks, then got tired again. They checked my thyroid and now I'm on meds so it is all good but just be aware.

Thanks for the thyroid info. My thyroid levels went up when I started pausing, I cut back slightly on thyroid meds, went on progesterone and then I was low again and super tired.

I took 6 mg of melatonin last night and slept in till 6:30 and I feel good. I'll try the 9 tonight, gonna go google melatonin now.

I have been told to take melatonin 2-3 hours before bed. I take it right before bed but I'll try earlier.

Since I posed this in April, the hot flashes have started. Plus, night sweats. I'm hot natured anyway (my mother says that I've always been that way--I never wanted to wear a coat or sweater) and I live in Alabama, so my air conditioning bills have been very high this past summer.

That was I was me though I was fatigued . I'm on bioidenticals for the fatigue and i would suggest them to anyone here with symptoms they don't want to endure for the next 8 years!

I was completely done at 47. I take bioidenticals to combat the fatique, hair loss, bone loss, muscle loss ect.

You are so lucky--it sounds like you just breezed through the perimenopuase past of it! I'm looking forward to getting through it to reach menopause, because it's been pretty rough for me.

The bio-identicals really help, but I am one of the 10 to 15% of women who continue to have regular monthly periods even while on consistent levels of replacement hormones. (Most women on BHRT can choose when they want a period, and just stop the estrogen supplementation for a short while to make it start, every few months.) But my periods just keep on happening regularly, despite all the estrogen and everything else. My FSH test levels say I am deep in perimenopause, but it's like someone forgot to tell my body!