Alcohol and Perimenopause

[FinallyRN]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

I'm 48, and even though I went to my doctor because I was convinced I was peri-menopausal, (sleep patterns changing, agrivated PMS, bloating and cravings before my menses,) after blood tests she told me I was nowhere near menopause! I couldn't believe it. It must manifest itself in other ways that aren't measurable because just like you all, I can't drink like I did, not that I want to, I have zero tolerance for any inconvience etc, no acne though! I gain weight before my period and I have huge cravings just before. This is when I consume the most. I could truly be AF for 3 weeks and then BANG, I'd make it up in one week of bingeing.

[jane jane]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

Cosette, I LOVE your avatar, by the way.

More peri-alki-menopausal chat: has anyone else noticed an INCREASE in sex drive with the approach of "these years"? One reads so much about the opposite, but I find that I really like it more than ever! Mr. Jane and I have always had a terrific time 'twixt the linens, but lately I'm ready whenever, wherever! No complaints from Mr. J, unless he's tired after a long day.

He commented recently: "Maybe we're both aware of aging, and want to get it while we can. I imagine that the citizens of Atlanta f***ed like this after Sherman took Kennesaw mountain." (Sorry non-Southerners---a war reference to the days before the Siege. Other applicable references: the Irish before Cromwell's siege of Drogheda, Moscow before Napoleon arrived, and so on...point is, don't you think people have GREAT sex when they think they're about to be blown to bits? And yes, I do think of aging as a form of warfare on our cute young bodies and nimble minds...)

[jane jane]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

Oh, yeah, and the people on the sinking Titanic---I bet they had some big fun before hopping on the lifeboats! And the Pompeiian people when they got the first whiff of the lava from Vesuvius...new meaning to "hot time in the ol' town tonight!"

I've been told I'm not perimenopausal because I still have regular periods. I think there's more to it than that. I think, somewhere in there, things are changing, even if the outward signs remain the same.

I think what I dread most about the eventual end of ovulation is the goodbye to any possibility of another child. Not that I want one---my girls are 18 and 20! But I still feel springy and fit, am financially comfortable, and have plenty of time...and look at these Hollywood bozos who have babies at obscene ages, via all kinds of weird-science means!

Somebody stop me.

[living proof]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

Wow, this is an intersting one for me as well. I am 46.5 and in the past year HAD to come to terms and finally break up for good with my longest most intense relationship ever - alcohol. The writing was on the wall since my early 30's when I remember my very first blackout but my 40's had forced me to deal with the ugly truth. I can't handle it anymore. My body/chemistry/whatever it is that breaks down all that poison was no longer able to do what it did all those years. I managed to escape with no organ damage, no physical damage that I know of at this writing. But man, oh man, it was ugly in the end. There is a lot already known regarding the harsh reality that alcohol is just much harder on the female body than the male body. I am so thankful that my body finally was the reason I had to throw in the towel. My mind never, ever would have gotten there.

[Cosette]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

Jane jane - Dont get me started on the hair loss. Its been going on for about 6 months now---Hairdresser keeps cutting it shorter and layering. He did tell me this time that the regrowth is looking good so I may be on the upswing. Other symptoms include - waking up several times during the night, of course night sweats and hot flashes, depression and brain fog.

GP says alcohol exasserbates (sp) all of these symptoms - yet another reason to stop.

Lots of info online linking perimenopause and alcohol abuse- why dont my drs know this??

Therapist just called - Chem 7, cbc and liver functions all look good!!! :happy:

[fjones]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

Thank you for this thread. I had 19 years without a drink but went into a deep depression which I used alcohol to self medicate. I was analysed to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and on top of that in the early stages of the menopause. Weight gain, sadness, lethargy, exhaustion - I could go on and on but I am sure that my return to drinking is partly hormonal related. In my drinking before I stopped at 26 - I ALWAYS got out of control drunk in the week leading up to my period and have always had badPMT. As I feel at the moment a drink makes me feel normal and alleviates these feelings for the time that I drink but then they come back with a vengeance. Well nearly at the end of Day 2 but do not feel strong.

[jane jane]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

fjones, please be strong even if you don't feel it. "Fake it 'til you make it"---act as if you are in control (even while wobbling inside) and maybe you'll come out okay on the other side of this bad time.

It helps me if I can see it as a new adventure (menopause) rather than just one more Little Death leading to the Big One. And looking at older role models is a great help. I have several friends in their 70s who are dynamic ladies---travelling, writing, enjoying their widowhood/divorceehood/grandparenthood---and they tell me life only gets better. Not sure I quite believe it yet, but "dum spiro spero" as the Romans said ("while I breathe I hope.") Of course, they also said "in vino veritas..."

[MyOwnWoman]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

I'm 42, and over a year ago I started having mini-hot flashes and my periods changed. Early for peri, but everyone is different. I'm not particularly healthy, so makes sense that I'm aging more quickly than average.

I can't say that I notice a difference with alcohol though. I've been a heavy drinker for over 20 years. But I'm glad you brought this up, because just last night, as I'm slipping into another depression, I noticed that these intense blues seem cyclic. Not just grumpy and sad, like regular PMS, but major free-floating anxiety and dire hopelessness. So this talk of peri-menopause reminds me that maybe the intensity of this PMS is due to changing hormones, and not that I've hit the rock bottom in Loserville.

Oh, and I do think my hair is getting a bit thinner. Why can't it be my waistline??!?!?!?

[living proof]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

Wow, this is an intersting one for me as well. I am 46.5 and in the past year HAD to come to terms and finally break up for good with my longest most intense relationship ever - alcohol. The writing was on the wall since my early 30's when I remember my very first blackout but my 40's had forced me to deal with the ugly truth. I can't handle it anymore. My body/chemistry/whatever it is that breaks down all that poison was no longer able to do what it did all those years. I managed to escape with no organ damage, no physical damage that I know of at this writing. But man, oh man, it was ugly in the end. There is a lot already known regarding the harsh reality that alcohol is just much harder on the female body than the male body. I am so thankful that my body finally was the reason I had to throw in the towel. My mind never, ever would have gotten there.

[Bella]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

I am 39 yrs old and had 3 blood tests to detect my levels of FSH. (follicle stimulating hormone)which all came very high, indicating that I am peri-menapausal, hence reason for not conceiving. We had been trying for 3 years! During this time I was drinking like a bugger and getting more and more depressed. I stopped drinking for 1 month and hey presto, I became pregnant! Wierd but not complaining.

[Suzanna]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

This is a very interesting thread. What do we stop producing besides estrogen? I went through menopause early and am done now at 49, finito, but I always liked the wine, for the last 20 years with a 4 year break in there somewhere. I had no markedly lower tolerance but I am very concerned with what effect alcohol will have on my body. Living Proof, it is encouraging that you don't have any organ damage. Jane jane you are not a thread killer, this is an interesting thread, and the fact that so many of us experience these things and doctors are unaware and don't see a pattern? I am glad you still got your mojo going on there girl. :H

[bootcampbarbie]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

after going through a great deal of fatigue and health issues i went to a center that dealt with bio identical hormone replacement. they did extensive blood testing about 33 panels as i recall and that is when i learned all about men and women and hormones. i then since have bought a lot of literature on the subject of hormone replacement and thyroid .... it has been fascinating to me to discover that indeed there was much that i didn't know that was happening to me that was physical. if i had known it, i wouldn't have waited til i was 47 to do something about it. it has only been 5 weeks since they analyzed my tests and prescribed based on those tests prescribed supplements and also progresterone, testosterone, hgh, iodine, iron, bio thyroid med, and i get tested in a few weeks to see how i'm doing. my dosages for bio identical (meaning what closely resembles what your body does or once produced) are specific to my blood panel. all i can say is that it is all changing for the better. i'm still reading my 10 other books that are stacked up for me to get to next. but i'm very excited about what is possible. i don't have to live that way anymore. nor do i have to use booze either. it also has made me not want alcohol either near as much. so i think going to lenair or a form of rehab in a few weeks is going to be that much easier.

[Eastender]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

Jane Jane,
I wrote this morning on another thread that my Mum has been telling me I am Perimenapausal, My mood swings are terrible around 5-7 days beforehand. (Thats usually when I have a good drink )my husband has pointed that out to me a number of times.

I am 50 years old and have a friend the same age who finished two years ago without a symptom, Lucky Cow is what I say.
My grandma now 88 had her tenth child in her forties and never had a period after that.
The trouble I am having with my kids, there is no way I would take that route!

Sex life was great the last couple of years, recently too sad or agitated to enjoy like previously.

Great thread JJ I feel i am not going insane reading all the other posts!

[jane jane]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

Eastender---I WANT to be a Lucky Cow! That's the prayer these days---one good strong period then FINITO.

Bootcamp, you may be onto something. No telling what they'd find if they did 33 panels (?) on me.

Here's my other thought: why is something so natural, so inevitable, and so biologically predestined such an ISSUE these days? My guess is that we're just living so dang long that we face things our predecessors did not (because they were, uh, DEAD at early ages.)

Do you know that I just now learned that my father's mom spent a year in a fancy mental hospital after the birth of her ninth child? Dad was her eighth, and he was pretty old (35) when I was born, so I never really knew this grandmother, but...WOW---a YEAR in a bin? When I asked my aunt to explain, she just said, "Well, we just called it a 'little nervous breakdown' back then."

It was perimenopause, I feel sure!

[bootcampbarbie]

Alcohol and Perimenopause

well, as i said i haven't been on this program long enough to really give it the proper due but i can report back with this as my hubby was tested and his hormone levels were very low as well. our hormones start tanking in our 30's and then for women we start gradually producing less and less progesterone til we stop in our 40's this has so many symptoms it is simply numerous: hair loss, loss of sexual appetite, weight gain/loss, irritable, infertility, god the list is a page long.
so, for me..well my nails and hair seem to be getting stronger and i'm on 200 mg. topamax. less cravings for alcohol, progesterone is known as the happy pill. and i do love it, so no more need of anti depressant, i no longer have to sleep as much or nap at all, and i'm back at the gym again.. i was so ill before i had to lay in bed 5 out of 7 days.. sexual appetite has dramatically increased. let's just say my car is no longer virgin territory as i ripped hubbies clothes off on the way back from the movies the other nite he was happy. weight haven't noticed the chubbies going away. but dr did say that my waist would finally tone up... and the rest of me too. all that i'm on will speed back up my metabolism. funny enough in meeting with friends i haven't seen for awhile they said i look the best i ever have and i also look younger than them. odd very very odd. so it is having some kind of rejuvination.. my acne is going away. almost gone. that is due to the testosterone. and i'm feeling more confident also due to the testosterone... while i feel sad and moody i'm not feeling that really incredibly below the line depression i've had all my life. i believe that is a combo of the things and a good deal to do with the thyroid medicine. so, i'm just about feeling healthy for as long as i can, whatever age i'm at...... it wasn't fun the place i was at. and i'm committed to being in this new place, alive and healthy, and running the beach again... believe it or not, know this sounds funny but suzanne somers book on bioidenticals was actually interesting. and northrupps book on women's health is very good as well. she's an md. and one of the best books i've read thus far is a woman dr from ucsf called "female brain".. wow, i read the entire book in one sitting. fascinating.