Next stage......

I'm going to get personal. For the past six months (give or take) I've been completely irrational for at least a week before my menstrual cycle. "Yes - I'm getting that personal" The reason why I want to share this is because throughout our lives we are going to experience new enlightenment's that are foreign and inexperienced. Sharing our personal stories and journey's help others. That's a fact. A friend of mine is starting menopause. She's in her early fifties. I'm not starting menopause although I am in the perimenopause stage. It's a stage I didn't know existed until now. I feel like I'm a teenager learning on how to wear a tampon. Any how I'm recognizing that I'm starting the stage where a woman's reproductive life (that starts several years before menopause), her ovaries gradually begin to produce less estrogen. Believe it or not, it usually starts in woman in their forties, sometimes woman in their thirties and they don't even know it. Perimenopause lasts up until menopause, this could be anywhere from 4-10 plus years. Perimenopause ends the first year after menopause (when a woman has gone twelve months without her period) I'm 41 and it's hereditary in my family for early menopause. At first I didn't make the connection. For several months I've been extremely frustrated, with huge mood shifts for at least a week before my menstrual cycle. Not the normal mood swings. It's thoughts of doom and dread, you're questioning your life, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue and feelings of sadness, sometimes madness - loosing control. Unexplained weight gain. I mean the list goes on.......People around you think you're going crazy. (Especially your husband) You can think you're going crazy. It's very hard to control your emotions even knowing why you're feeling this way. This is my new enlightenment - I am a perimenopausing irrational woman! There's nothing my doctor can do. It was more like a chuckle on his part. "Welcome to middle age!" I have to put up with bloating, breast tenderness, headaches, and memory lapses! After my friend and I discussed womanhood, she wished me luck because her perimenopause stage lasted over ten years and she struggled emotionally and mentally every month. Her suggestion was to not only recognize when the moods swing but to "try" and control, and she swears on taking Dong Quai. Dong Quai is considered the female ginseng because of its balancing effect on the female hormonal system. My friend explained that it helped her mood swings. So guess what's my new herbal medicine drug of choice is!? "Dong Quai" Now I have to learn on how to achieve balance with this perimenopausal rage I have been experiencing every month. It appears out of no where, and you feel totally different with emotional outbursts. For a lack of better words - It sucks! In a way it saddens me. In another way I know I'm not alone. With education and support I will learn on how to adapt with this change and maybe after my doctor is finished chuckling, he can suggest other medications that will save his life! (Just kidding)