The menopause and chronic illness
A lady kindly commented “Now add pre-menopause hot flashes, which in PREmenopuase means I get hot hours!! This sucks so bad. It only gets harder.”
The comment really hit home. What really is the impact of the menopause and pre-menopause on the symptoms of a chronic medical condition? Not just multiple sclerosis, of course, but also other related chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis.
Not just that what do women do to help with any exacerbations of their symptoms caused by the onset of menopause? This is the aim of this blog post.
Firstly would it be possible for you to take the poll below so we can assess the percentages of our readers who symptoms are changed (or not) by the meno pause.
Finally it would be great if you could share a bit more in the comments section below. You may wish to consuder the following questions:-
a) What is your main medical condition?
b) What is the impact of the menopause on that medical condition?
c) How did you deal with these new symptoms? How successful were these treatment?
d) What one bit of advice would you give to a women with your medical condition who have just started the menopause?
Many thanks in advance!
Main medical thing – fibromyalgia
Not sure of menopause effect as constantly sweating not sure what is fibro or what is menopause
Take each day as it comes
I have fibro and chronic Fatigue syndrome with osteoporosis. I was forced into menopause at the age of 29 after treatment for breast cancer. It was decided that a complete hysterectomy and ovary removal would help prevent my cancer returning as it is was estrogen fed. I came out of surgery having hot flashes but put it down to the anesthetic. Soon found out it wasn’t and other symptoms developed during the week. Cold sweat, insomnia, tiredness aching joints on top of the recovery from Cancer and surgery treatment. I now live with all the symptoms of fibro and CFS plus food allergies heat, cold, noise, light smell sensitivity. chronic insomnia. constant pain but a life threatening allergy to ALL NSAID’S and anti inflammatories and muscle relaxants. I itch swell up go blue cannot breath. I refuse all narcotics as I would rather be alive and in pain than a nodding zombie. I am now 50 and love life. I go day by day hour by hour. I work part time have an amazingly understanding, flexible boss. I am thankful I had all 3 of my children “early” as I now enjoy my grandchildren. Life is grand it was never meant to be EASY lolol
My main medical condition is fibromyalgia. I had a complete hysterectomy in 2004 which threw me into menopause. My fibromyalgia flared terribly afterwards. I went on hormones for awhile but ended up refusing them. I was terrified of them causing cancer. With some of the meds I take my pharmacist told me not to take any thing over the counter due to it interfering with my prescribed meds. The past 2 to 3 years the hot flashes have become severe!! I have a dr appt in the morning and will be discussing it with her again. Only advice I know to give is talk to your doctor, get some fans and cool wash cloths!
crisbasham
Hello crisbasham,
Thank you for sharing this information. I did ask many times for a hysterectomy but they said that I was not a candidate to get one. I do have a friend who has had one but they left one ovary in her so that she wouldn’t be left with the other issues that would arise with 2 removed. She is doing very well and not on any hormone replacement. She had a huge Fibroid which allowed her to get her hysterectomy. Other reasons would be severe bleeding, severe pain, ect.
Thank you for responding to my post. It is extremely comforting to know that you are not alone in this season of your life of unexpected changes. Hope this brings you some comfort and help in your decision. Pam
Im scheduled to have a hysterectomy in September. They said if I have my aviaries removed it’ll force me into menopause etc. I’m considering doing it just to be done with it. Just not sure which would be worse.
I do hope this post hits home with so many ppl experiencing Peri-menopause. I was Dx with CFS, and I am in my 27th year with it. Two years ago I noticed that I could not sleep. I have gone through bouts of insomnia with CFS but I would take Zanax and then it would lift off of me and then come back to my normal CFS. This not sleeping did not lift, it remained. I tried many different sleep meds but they only made me much worse. I now just go with the flow and sleep when this body allows me to. Which is about 1:30am or 2am. I then get up at 10:30 or 11am. I also saw my Gyno and Dr. about this and I had labs done. All normal. This year has even become much worse for me, horrendous to the point of my needing help to get through it. I started to have 2 cycles a month, every 17 days. I went back to my Gyno and he did a biopsy of my cervix just to rule out anything else happening and did a vaginal ultra sound. This was done after I had my yearly done the week before. All came back normal. Ok. But what I want to bring to the forefront is how I started to feel emotionally. I almost felt crazy. You almost become someone else. I started looking at my Iife and questioning everything. I had a very hard time handling things that I could handle before. Even small things were hard to do. I kept down sizing what I was doing. I also stopped everything I use to do. I also felt such great Loss. Loss of who I use to be. I would say to myself, what is happening to me. I was also overwhelmed by so many things. This was not me either. I just felt like I had nothing left, Like I was loosing myself. Something else was taking over. The person I use to be was gone. I use to be the strong one, I use to help other ppl but now I felt weak and needing help. I would have to say even feeling sad. Of course the Fatigue was there to. I even thought about divorcing my husband, I just could not meet his needs anymore either. So there is the stress.These are all things that I was experiencing. I am trying to explain this with words the best I can. We have a wonderful, sweet, precious German Shepherd who is now 7 yrs old. and I have been feeding her and cleaning up her poo outside and now she is taking medicine to. I am giving that to her as well. I started to feel like, I just cannot do this anymore. Again, not the me I was. When I saw the Dr. about this she said that I was already doing everything I was suppose to. Walking, taking herbs, B-100, Vit D3 with calcium. So she said its time to try a med. I did and it made me even worse then I was. So here I am. I am 47 yrs old and I took notice of changes in my body 3 yrs ago. I do not get hot flashes or night sweats but what did happen to me was not sleeping and then those cycle changes 2 yrs after that. That has stopped so I am back to one cycle again. I feel like I have been blindsided by this, I never saw this coming. I lost so much because of it, meaning what I use to do weekly. Even that is gone.I couldn’t get there anymore. I do hope this helps someone else not feel alone anymore. One more thing I wanted to say is that all my friends had hysterectomy’s so they had no idea what I was going through. I had no one to talk to about it. So here I am. Waiting to get to the end of this. What now, that’s what I keep saying. Where does this leave me now. Waiting, praying, hoping that I won’t loose all of me. Hope this helps someone else.
Pam K
I am pretty sure it is the onset of peri-menopause that altered my immune system progressively until I was diagnosed with Rhematism type chronic pain in all joints except elbows, at age 50. Diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis, without a skin condition, I believe I also have Fibromialga, and Anklosing Spondilitis in my back.
Crippling too is the osteoarthritis which left me quite immobile until I started Biologics. No other drugs worked, then they will consider you for such an expensive treatment. (Enbrel). Its not 100%, but at least I can now do yoga and walk about a km per day with my dogs.
I still limp around due to the OA in feet and knees, but I manage, until I can’t.
Advice:
a) Get in touch with bodily responses so you do not suffer so long,when the early treatments do not work.
Check and ensure with a naturopath that you do not have other conditions like Lyme, or yeast/fungus overgrowth in your system. They are vicious on joints over time.
b) If you are a conscientious eater (good diet), no supplement is going to treat effectively, they can help if you are deficient, but does not get near relief enough to function. Save your money and time.
c) Don’t stop moving, everything seizes if you do, and the pain is so much worse. It hurts to move, but you get relief afterward, sometimes for days by moving the body. Swimming is easiest.
Good luck
I was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome back in 1997. It’s a nerve entrapment condition located in the brachial plexus area causing nerve pain through the chest, myofascial pain, pain and swelling down the arms and into the hands. I have nerve entrapments in both elbows and wrists causing forearm, hand and finger pain. I later developed fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. When perimenopause began, the hot flashes lasted for hours and I began having more issues with sleep and night sweats. Now I’m menopausal and my hormones are out of whack, but I haven’t had the chance to get that taken care of. I want to look into the bio-identical hormone therapy, but most insurance doesn’t cover it. Overall it feel like menopause has exaggerated most of my symptoms. The increase in weight, fatigue, irritability and mood swings causes additional stress which causes additional pain, and that can become a cycle that’s hard to break. I have no energy and I need to exercise, which most days feels impossible. I used to be so healthy and strong and lived a very active life. Now everything feels like work and doesn’t come easy at all. I feel discouraged knowing I will have to deal with all the menopausal symptoms for another 10 years or so. Ugh!
I started getting symptoms once I started pre menopause.
was diagnosed 1 year later.
I didnt know I had MS
I had been almost symptom free for six years. Premenopause caused the symptoms to appear. Over the next two years leading to full menopause, they were stable but very noticeable. Menopause brought on a full blown relapse and transition into SPMS. I have MS since my mid-thirties.