Ep. 34 Perimenopause...let's talk about it

Are you in perimenopause? Let's talk about it. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Bee On It, episode 34. Hey Jessica. So what's going on in the beehive today? Hi Debbie. I was thinking about perimenopause and how only in recent years we have shifted culturally towards even acknowledging perimenopause. It used to be very taboo and just only something that you could discuss with your doctor. And in these latter years, I feel like we've gotten more comfortable talking about it.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

I agree. I think it's more out in the open, and a lot of brave women have come out and discussed the symptoms that they've been going through. I wanted to know more about it.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

I want to know, you know, what is it? So myoclinic.org tells me that it's the transitional phase leading up to menopause during which a woman's ovaries gradually produce less estrogen. This period can last several years and is characterized by irregular menstrual cycles, hormonal fluctuations, and various symptoms such as hot flashes, sleep disturbances, and mood changes. And it typically starts in your 40s.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

So, and when we're talking about hormonal fluctuations, there is definitely a decrease in estrogen, which is what helps us to ovulate and get that egg going every month. So that is definitely decreasing in the perimenopausal phase leading up to menopause. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

And for some, symptoms can be subtle or they can really be noticeable. And so I thought it was worth mentioning some of the symptoms. So, first one, irregular periods. Ovulation becomes more unpredictable. The time between your period may shorten or be longer. You might have a heavier flow or lighter flow, or you might even skip a period. Hot flashes. They can happen during perimenopause as well as menopause. Well, what is a hot flash? Let's describe it for people that aren't familiar. You start to feel warm, then comes sweating and flushed skin. And this is all because of hormonal changes. Have you had a hot flash before?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Because I've never experienced that.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

I've had a hot flash, but it morphed it. I don't think I had the sweating per se, but I kind of felt like all of a sudden I got super hot and my cheeks got flush, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I need I need fresh air. I'm really like, I'm hot. I feel like I'm like burning up on the inside. So I guess if that is what a hot flash is, I had one. It was terrible.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Yeah, they're very uncomfortable, is what I hear. Yeah, you'll know it when you get one. It's like somebody turned the thermostat way up high.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Right. And sometimes you can have those symptoms because of different reasons. True. So it's not necessarily because of perimenopause or menopause. We'll we'll discuss some of those, you know. It depends on like if you've got like autoimmune or other health conditions going on. You might see some of those happening to you prior to your 40s. Um another big one for a lot of people sleep problems. You start to notice changes in your sleep pattern. You might have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. You might wake up in the middle of the night and you can't go back to sleep. Mood changes. You might have more mood swings, you might be more irritable, but you're more at risk of being depressed during perimenopause.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Okay. Well, that's something that you'll definitely notice. Go ahead. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

It's going to be exasperated if you have other health conditions going on. So something to pay attention to.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

And talk to your doctor if you're really feeling a certain way. Um, vaginal and bladder problems. As estrogen levels drop, your vaginal tissues may become drier and less elastic, causing pain during sex. That dryness can cause burning when you urinate and you don't necessarily have a UTI, but you're experiencing that. Bring that up to your doctor. Decreasing fertility. This is a big one because as you know, we get older, we're an ovulation becomes less, we're not going to get pregnant as easy. Changes in sexual function during perimenopause, sexual arousal and desire may change. You may not enjoy sex as much as you know, as much, or you may experience more of a sex, like all of a sudden you have a sex drive and you just oh horse where you just want to have sex and then it drops again, and then your libido's low. So your libido is kind of all over the place depending on your hormones.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Okay, because that's something new, because I I thought it I thought it was just always a low libido, but it could be fluctuations in your libido.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

You can go into overdrive.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Overdrive, okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Everybody's different, yeah, exactly. But usually it's a little bit low libido.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Loss of bone, rather. Estrogen levels are lower, and so it's causing fragile bones and osteoporos uh osteoporosis, which can make you more susceptible to bone breakage. And then changes in your cholesterol. And we're not talking about the good cholesterol for unfortunately, we're talking about the bad cholesterol, which can lead to heart disease. So these are things that are pretty common when you're in perimenopause and to be aware of.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

So it's a whole array of symptoms that could be associated with perimenopause.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

It's a whole array, and there's this lovely symptom called brain fog. And they say that 68.3% of perimenopausal women experience brain fog. Have you ever had that where you like can't remember a word or you've gone into a room and you're like, why did I come in here? Uh yeah. You just can't think clear. And sometimes we get this right after we have a baby. We call it, what do we call it? The uh mom brain. It happens during perimenopause as well, because of estrogen levels.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

To me, it sounds like during a woman's lifespan, there's this segment of time where we're we are reproductive, and then there is another segment of our lifespan where we are not reproductive. And this is the the the transition in between those two stages. And to me, it feels like a different era of of life. When I think about all these symptoms, the estrogen levels that we were maintaining up up until perimenopause perimenopause and menopause were was very protective for us.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Yeah. I feel like it had a lot of benefit. And so as it's definitely the drop and lessen, you start to notice, you start to feel a certain way. For me, I I have other health conditions, and so it was hard for me to notice what was perimenopause and what was these other health conditions. I took a long time and wrote out a lot of things for the doctor so that I had notes. Some of the things that I noticed different about myself, if you're very in tune with your body, you notice changes. And that's the thing with perimenopause. It's not one day you wake up and you have all these symptoms.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

That's just the driving point. I think it's not like you wake up on a Monday and you're like, wow, hello, world. I'm in perimenopause. That's not how it works. In my experience, it was like symptoms arose and all converged. I could honestly say, I believe I'm in perimenopause right now. It's multiple symptoms that arose over time, and they are all pointing to perimenopause.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

I agree. For me, it was like this diagram of trying to figure out is this my other health condition or is this perimenopause? I was having these symptoms and I just couldn't pinpoint what was going on. And I missed something. I missed a big thing that wasn't obvious to me several years later. It dawned on me. And so I was asking my doctor, did we check this? And she goes, No, we haven't checked this in a long time. And we checked it, and I was low. So I was like connecting all the dots, and it made so much more sense why I was really feeling these symptoms. I would say I felt my lowest of low for like a good like five-year period where I just was like not feeling great about things. And I didn't really share that with my doctor. I just kind of chalked it up to this is like my other health condition. We live in the Pacific Northwest, it gets gray sometimes. I just I had all these things that I wasn't like treating. And when I started to treat those, I started to notice, oh, maybe it's not okay. I fixed that.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

So that's not it. I started to connect the dots and realized that this is what's really going on. Trying to save somebody and spare somebody being super symptomatic if they can connect those dots earlier and write those symptoms down and share it with your doctor. Don't be afraid to be your own advocate and research. Sometimes in researching, it will give you some ideas and you can connect, it'll help you to connect those dots a little faster, especially if other health conditions can mask some of these other symptoms. So I think it's worth like being your own advocate, finding a doctor that you trust, not being afraid to write these things down and present it to the doctor when you go see them. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

I mean, I think that that's a great point to think about because when we're at this age in our, you know, in our 40s, there's we're likely to have other health conditions. So to me, it's like be a good historian of you. Um, write things down that come up and are out of the ordinary so that you can bring it up at your appointment. Because a lot of the time I go to an appointment and when I'm put on the spot, I don't recall all the changes that have happened over the last year. I might just think about how I'm feeling that particular day. And so be a be an expert of you, of all the physical changes that you've gone through, so that you can you can, as you say, connect the dots. I think that if you're going through perimenopause and you have other health conditions, there could be overlap of symptoms, almost like a Venn diagram. And so when you have that overlap, um your symptoms may be exacerbated. It's just good to know why you're having the symptoms that you're having, whether they're related to one condition versus another, or maybe both.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

I agree. I think that also it's worth mentioning things that are abnormal that you should definitely bring up to your doctor. Any kind of irregular, heavy bleeding, any periods that are excessively heavy that last longer than seven days, or you know, occurring more frequently than the 21 days, bleeding between periods, any kind of spotting or bleeding occurring between regular cycles, those are that's not normal. Bleeding or spotting that happens after sexual intercourse, that's not normal. Heart palpitations, which is, you know, a rapid or a regular heartbeat, severe mood changes, intense anxiety, panic attacks, or feeling of hopelesslessness and depression, not normal. Dizziness or vertigo, unexplained dizziness, not normal. Some of these symptoms can be common, but like common like cycle changes, irregular periods and skip periods, those are normal parts of perimenopause. But when you're bleeding through a pad pretty frequently, like a pad every hour, that's not normal. So just being your own advocate and writing those things down and knowing when to reach out to your doctor when you're experiencing that is is good to do. So you want a doctor that you can trust and that you feel comfortable with sharing that information with. Some of it's embarrassing, you know. It's like even I didn't bring up certain things. And so I wish I had, because I probably would have been helped a lot sooner.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

If we don't write it down, we're not going to remember as you were saying at the time, you're focused on what's currently going on. You want to get in and get out. No one wants to spend hours of the doctor.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

And and you're only given a certain amount of time when you do make your appointment, your annual or whatever appointment that you make. So having this information on hand will be really helpful to paint a an accurate picture. So we talked about the signs of perimenopause. We talked about some overlap that you may have with other health conditions, and then we also talked about kind of signs of when to see a provider, right? Just some abnormal things.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Abnormal signs.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Okay. So, and then another thing that I want to bring up is perimenopause is obviously a sign of biological aging. You're, you know, you've gotten to that point in your in your lifespan, and it's when things are waning. I think there are some psychological aspects of going through perimenopause that are worth discussing. I think that as you're going through these changes, you realize that you're entering like a different epoch of of life, and it's not the most cheerful time in your life when you are experiencing all these physical changes. I just want to kind of bring that up to the surface because it almost feels like if you consider your body a shell that it's sort of deteriorating. It feels melancholy for me, to be honest, to realize that I'm at this stage of life right now.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

There is some sadness because you can't get your youth back. When you're young, you take it for granted. And when you reach a certain age and you're reflecting back, it's all like, I wish I would have done this, I wish I could have done this. So I just say when you're young, keep your health in the forefront, take care of yourself, eat healthy, live life with no regrets. When you reach a certain age, you just things change in your body. You slow down, you are not as flexible as you once were. You really kind of start to see that you're at the halfway mark of life. And it's exciting because you're also your most mature self and you've grown in leaps and bounds. I would say make sure that you stay on top of your mental health, your physical health, and make sure you live life to the best of your abilities for as long as we're here. It's so important to enjoy as every aspect of life. And it it's a big adjustment when you move into the next phase of life because you start to be sort more symptomatic. As they say, getting old is for the birds.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

I would really have to agree. There's um the biological aspects and then the psychological aspects of entering this transition phase and then eventually to menopause.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

And speaking of that, since we've talked about menopause, I would love for you guys to join us with our next episode when we talk about menopause.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yes, please join us.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Interested in hearing more about it. Join us next time.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Bye. Bye. Just so you know, we are speaking from our lived experiences and are not licensed therapists. We are all about community. Join our community by following and subscribing to Be On It through YouTube, Instagram, and of course your podcasting platform so we can continue to bring Be On It to you.