Sunday, January 30, 2011

Will I Be Mummified This Year?

This is kind of personal, but I hope to hear from people willing to share their thoughts.

Perimenopause is the time when a woman's body begins to wind down the production of female hormones. Those of you that haven't had the pleasure, imagine weeks and months of PMS! Night sweats, insomnia, itchy skin, vaginal dryness, tearfulness, and volcanic rages at nothing and everything. My doctor prescribed hormone replacement therapy to ease the transition.

Once the transition was over, I tried to go off the hormones, natural plant bioequivalents, but each time the symptoms returned. I decided to stay on the hormones because every woman I'd known who used them kept a kind of dewy glow. I wanted to keep mine.

The only problem is that studies indicate that continued use of the hormones predisposes one to certain cancers and other medical problems. With all the different cancers in my family plus my own personal risks, I'm scared anyway. So, when I ended up being without the pills for a whole week due to lack of funds to pay for the refill and icy weather preventing transportation to pick up the refill, I asked my doctor about staying off.

It's been almost two weeks now without the pills. No strange conditions have arisen that weren't already there. Definitely not the dreaded rages. Will my back hump over? Will my hair grow scraggly? Will my neck wrinkle into crepe paper? Will my voice turn squawky? Will my vagina dry like autumn leaves?

I'm going to stay the course and see what happens. See if there are other ways to keep a dewy glow.

2 comments:

  1. Update: My neck is more wrinkly. Sex is not very interesting. I want to garden and play with the dog.

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  2. Update: Wow, how strange it feels to read this. Well, it's a year later and my skin is more crepey. I'm definitely less interested in sex, although my clitoral orgasms, when I care enough to make one happen, are just as good. My poor vagina is DONE, not feeling anything like it did before, no longer a chalice of pleasure. It has about as much sensation as the inside of my nostril with a finger shoved into its depths. Nothing.

    TMI? If you're a woman, you'll want to know what might be coming, and if you're a man who loves a woman, you'll want to know what might be coming. The other change I notice is a redistribution of body fat and gristle, a decrease in muscle mass.



    On the good side, for there must always be a good side to every change, I care more about the fate of the planet and the life upon it, and less on getting laid. I guess that is a good thing.

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