Breast discomfort, bloating, acne, and cramps are all symptoms associated with perimenopause, I’m afraid. If your periods are irregular but still happening, what’s going on is that your ovaries are not quite done producing hormones, but the fine-tuned system of regular ovulation is winding down. Some chaotic and unpredictable hormone shifts result, contributing to the [...]
Posts Tagged ‘menopause’
Q: Why do I feel premenstrual all the time–at 50?
Posted in Questions...and answers, tagged hormones, menopause, perimenopause on November 28, 2011 | Comments Off
Great Expectations
Posted in The Good Stuff, tagged female sexuality, intimacy, menopause, sex after menopause on January 5, 2011 | Comments Off
A woman born in 1850 could expect to live just past her 40th birthday. A woman born in 1900 was likely to make it to 50—assuming she survived the flu epidemic of 1918 and other hazards. I looked up this life-expectancy data to help me understand why we have so little shared understanding of how [...]
Resolve to Speak Up!
Posted in The Good Stuff, tagged communication, menopause, sex after menopause, sexually literate doctors, vaginal comfort on December 31, 2010 | Comments Off
I was struck by this sentence in a report on research with women aged 45 to 65 experiencing menopause: “As a generation, they have yet to develop a voice for this situation, and many remain silent rather than proactively seeing help.” Really? We are the generation who, in high school, bought Our Bodies, Ourselves to [...]
One Test Where Grades Don’t Count
Posted in The Good Stuff, tagged hormones, menopause, sex after menopause on November 26, 2010 | Comments Off
Many of the women I see in my office would like a black and white answer: Where, exactly, are they on the path to menopause? Unfortunately, I can’t really give them a solid answer, and here’s why. Perimenopause—that period (no pun intended!) between regular menstruation and menopause—isn’t a steady progression. It’s more like two steps [...]
MiddlesexMD Online Community Roundup
Posted in Under the Covers, tagged menopause, NAMS, sexuality on October 18, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Now that our new site has been up for a while, we’ve met and made friends with others in online communities serving midlife women and sharing information about sexual health. We’d love for you to meet some of our new friends: The amazing women at Vibrant Nation invited me to participate in their — really [...]
Q: I quit the pill and tested mid-menopause in one month; now sex hurts. Suggestions?
Posted in Under the Covers, tagged advice, hormones, lubricant, menopause, vaginal comfort on September 13, 2010 | Comments Off
Isn’t it amazing how quickly things can change? You say you were tested as being mid-menopause. Blood work is accurate at assessing ovarian function on the day you’re tested, but it is miserable in predicting what may happen in the next weeks or months. An FSH level may come back 40 (suggesting menopause) on one day, but you may ovulate [...]
Q: I’ve had a hysterectomy; does my vagina still clean itself?
Posted in Questions...and answers, tagged advice, anatomy, menopause, sex after menopause, sexual health on August 6, 2010 | Comments Off
Fortunately, the vagina is self-cleansing; it requires very little attention. The cells on the surface of the vagina naturally regenerate or ‘turn over’ on an ongoing basis. After intercourse, semen deposited in the vagina coagulates and then slowly liquefies again and is slowly secreted. The top of the vagina is called the vaginal cuff when [...]
Q: Are mental fog and PMS-on-steroids related to perimenopause?
Posted in Questions...and answers, tagged advice, menopause, midlife, sexually literate doctors on July 30, 2010 | Comments Off
Oh, where do I begin? Perimenopause can be a pretty tough transition for many women. It is not only possible but probable that those symptoms are related. Patients with these complaints get a one-hour appointment in my practice to review the signs and symptoms that accompany this transition. Riding it out is one option. Above all, [...]
Q: How do I treat dryness and vulvodynia while taking Tamoxifen?
Posted in Questions...and answers, tagged advice, lubricant, menopause, sex after menopause, vaginal comfort on July 16, 2010 | Comments Off
The most important thing is usually to re-estrogenize the vagina—with localized, not systemic estrogen. I haven’t seen a single oncologist not agree to allow breast cancer patients to use this. There are a couple of really low-dose estrogen products to use in the vagina; the estrogen is not absorbed outside of that area. Vulvodynia occasionally [...]
Need Help with Kegels? There’s an App for That
Posted in The Good Stuff, tagged app, incontinence, itunes, kegel exercises, kegels, menopause, orgasm on July 5, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Weights in hand, what I need is time and focus and coaching. And ladies, there is an App for that. That is, if you use an iPhone or iTouch, you can download Kegel coaching applications for anywhere from free to about $5. I’ve found three. They’re very different, and all helpful.
-
Categories
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
