In this newsletter: First Day of School photos, new books by Alison Faulkner and Rebecca Woolf, could a panic attack be a peri-menopause hot flash?, last chance to join my Book Launch Group, a new way to cook easy-to-peel eggs, and lots more!
Thank you for the reminder about hot flashes manifesting as panic attacks! A fun new development after turning 40 was PMS symptom of middle-of-the-night panic attacks. Starting to think they are just hot flashes…
Definitely wish there was more research and information about perimenopause and menopause.
I've been so frustrated recently by the total lack of knowledge about women's health. Two of my best friends (making up 50% of my close high school friend group) have PCOS. One of them had to go to 7 or 8 different doctors before finding one that actually listened to her problems and was able to diagnose it. Even then, it took her several more doctors before finding one that knew even a little bit about the condition. One doctor once made an off-hand comment along the lines of "well, maybe it's just your PCOS thing" when in reality it had nothing to do with that. I know at least two colleagues who experienced "premature menopause"- both began menopause well before they turned 40. And don't get me started on how IUDs are placed- doctors aren't supposed to give pain meds or use anesthetics- and from what I've heard from multiple people, the pain can be very, very severe.
HI Gabby! I am a bit older than you (56!). Been dealing with hot flashes for about 9 years now. Sigh...(and yes, I have chosen NOT to do HRT, not sure I would have made that decision if I knew how long this would go, but I am hoping I am nearing the end). And YES, I do experience a panic-like feeling before the actual hot flash. That's generally how I know one is coming. SUPER FUN! Not surprisingly, I also have anxiety as a challenge and these do not help. That said, at this point, I generally recognize what it is and mentally try to slow my breathing, go to my "happy place" mentally (hawaii!) and just tell myself this is part of the hot flash thing. I know this all sounds quite, "mind over matter", and I am in no way saying this will work for everyone, not even that it works for me. Because I can certainly see how others might have varying intensities of similar or different symptoms. Just what I do. And trying to let you know you are not alone.
I got the *shrugs* “I dunno, everyone is different” response so many times before, during and after pregnancy from every single doctor. I would ask a specific question like, “how likely is my baby to have shoulder dystocia given XYZ factors,” and all I wanted was to hear stats on how likely it was to happen. They gave me odds on all my genetic test results (ex: 1 in 10,000 chance etc,” but other than that it was constantly some non-response. I kept thinking, hold on, if we as a society are constantly showing that women’s only purpose is to have children, and women have babies all day every day, it should not be this difficult to answer these questions! Pregnancy isn’t some new, rare disease. It’s been happening since forever. So the only reason docs can’t answer these questions is that the scientific community isn’t studying them. And it’s because we don’t like women here. I’m still dealing with so much rage about my pregnancy and birth experience almost two years later.
I recall watching Oprah Winfrey interview cybill shepherd maybe 25-30 years ago about menopause and was dumb founded by the myriad of symptoms we’re not told about. And I watched in horror as my mother suffered after a hysterectomy where they took her ovaries as well. They butchered her and she was forever altered due to hormonal imbalances. Im 59 and still have not learned much more except like you said…. Different for everyone, suck it up and gut it out….. I had a hysterectomy at a young age (Kept the ovaries) and it’s been beyond frustrating that none of my doctors could tell me when I might be in menopause. Where’s that research? Due to the hysterectomy I was also put on HRT. Two years ago I had a brain tumor that almost killed me. I would like to know why because so much research points to HRT as a cause But there’s not enough!. Again doctors just shrug and say “don’t know”.
As an older reader who is through menopause, I never ever had “hot flashes/flushes” but I did have this magic thing happen where both of my shoulder froze. Come to find out, frozen shoulder syndrome is common in women who are menopausal. Who knew? Not the myriad of professionals I talked with and then I stumbled on some research and boom! Made perfect sense. Joint pain, dental issues, vision changes, it is all normal for menopause. The unpacking is when you are trying to play that game of; is it dehydration, cancer or just normally getting old, you have to add menopause to the mix.
Oh, Lawsie Mercy, the panic attacks. Mine come in conjunction with hot flashes. The hot flashes are a walk in the park compared to the waves of anxiety and panic. I found no literature on it; it was only when I compared notes with a peer that we both discovered it was something we shared. It's a huge, huge quality of life issue - I'm a train wreck. How do women who are world leaders cope?
As a 59 year old who has a daughter and some younger nieces, I have made myself available to talk about any peri/menopause questions they may have. Our mothers didn’t discuss it with us but we don’t have to continue that legacy.
Yes panic-rushes are connected to hormones (not necessarily to hot flashes, although they can happen at the same time). Both have to do with a big swing in hormones. This is hard to explain without going into detail about endocrinology, but it has to do with estrogen and serotonin and progesterone receptors in the brain. The short version is, because your ovaries are getting sluggish, they act like an engine that takes a minute to respond to pushing the gas pedal, so you push, nothing happens, and then the engine revs. Your brain says "more estrogen", your ovary chugs and chugs and then revs, and you get a surge of estrogen. These surges can cause a feeling of windedness or panic (has to do with the chemical effect of estrogen and how it functions in the brain). On the flip side, you can get these rushes when your estrogen drops. Estrogen and serotonin are symbiotic, so many of the symptoms you get as your estrogen drops (both abruptly in daily fluctuations, or over months/years of peri menopause) are similar to what you find in descriptions of "serotonin withdrawal" (aka antidepressant withdrawal). I agree there is a lot of ignorance and a dearth of research (I dont expect that to change any time soon), but a A LOT of information exists (that doctors just dont study because, well, so many reasons). One of these days maybe I'll write about it
For me, I would feel this weird quick stress/anxiety (and I didn't know what it was at the time, I would just experience this) about 30 seconds before a hot flash. Once I figured it out, I would have those few seconds to "prepare" 😂. A glass of cold water right then would sometimes help. Most of my hot flashes came when I would be in a situation/conversation that I wanted to walk away from anyway. Stress induced hot flashes!!! 🥳🥳 (Sarcasm). We women do put up with a lot throughout our lives. That's what girlfriends are for, to chat everything out
Hi Gabby, I'm also experiencing perimenopause, and it's been a confusing experience so far. Especially because I also have several autoimmune issues, it's hard to know what's happening and how to treat it. Racing heart can also be a sign of thyroid issues, and so so many people have a thyroid issue, please consider checking that if you have not. For me, the racing heart seems to be random spurts of adrenaline. Taking an adrenal health supplement has helped a lot. Cheers to becoming a crone!
Though I had some panic attacks when I was a young adult as a result of stress & trauma, in my fifties they began to hit me hard, like hallucinogen hard. Turns out, it was caffeine. Switched to decaf and they disappeared.
Re: hot flashes, I'm also learning that probiotics may induce them so am taking a pause on supplements and probiotic beverages for a while.
Thank you for covering the oft-neglected perimenopause topic, and can I just say how excited I was to see this newsletter's subject line / headline? Lol was secretly hoping you were going to regale us with an explanation of the "panic attic" ... A room makeover gone awry in the tall house? The place where you retreat when the panic comes? a red tent for hot flashes? 😂
I recently briefly googled hoping to find some menopause info--I'm about to turn 41 and had a couple things happen that made me wonder whether I'm hitting peri menopause and what I should be looking for besides the well-known hot flashes. Did not find anything very helpful. Glad I'm not the only one feeling lost...but yeah, this lack of research and knowledge is a problem.
Consider that the rapid heart beat may be a reaction to soy products. I found this to be true starting in my 40's about an hour after eating anything containing a decent amount of soy product- it felt like a rapid fluttery flip-flop that went on for several minutes. I realized this was the cause after reading ONE sentence in a book (believe it was Before The Change) about how soy can affect a small percentage of women this way. At the time I couldn't find any other information about this issue, but quit eating soy products and haven't had a problem since.
I've noticed very recently that some more people/startups are bringing attention to and information about perimenopause and menopause. While those stages are far in my rear view, you may want to check out Stacy London's Instagram account with a link to her new venture, State of Menopause.
Thank you for the reminder about hot flashes manifesting as panic attacks! A fun new development after turning 40 was PMS symptom of middle-of-the-night panic attacks. Starting to think they are just hot flashes…
Definitely wish there was more research and information about perimenopause and menopause.
I've been so frustrated recently by the total lack of knowledge about women's health. Two of my best friends (making up 50% of my close high school friend group) have PCOS. One of them had to go to 7 or 8 different doctors before finding one that actually listened to her problems and was able to diagnose it. Even then, it took her several more doctors before finding one that knew even a little bit about the condition. One doctor once made an off-hand comment along the lines of "well, maybe it's just your PCOS thing" when in reality it had nothing to do with that. I know at least two colleagues who experienced "premature menopause"- both began menopause well before they turned 40. And don't get me started on how IUDs are placed- doctors aren't supposed to give pain meds or use anesthetics- and from what I've heard from multiple people, the pain can be very, very severe.
HI Gabby! I am a bit older than you (56!). Been dealing with hot flashes for about 9 years now. Sigh...(and yes, I have chosen NOT to do HRT, not sure I would have made that decision if I knew how long this would go, but I am hoping I am nearing the end). And YES, I do experience a panic-like feeling before the actual hot flash. That's generally how I know one is coming. SUPER FUN! Not surprisingly, I also have anxiety as a challenge and these do not help. That said, at this point, I generally recognize what it is and mentally try to slow my breathing, go to my "happy place" mentally (hawaii!) and just tell myself this is part of the hot flash thing. I know this all sounds quite, "mind over matter", and I am in no way saying this will work for everyone, not even that it works for me. Because I can certainly see how others might have varying intensities of similar or different symptoms. Just what I do. And trying to let you know you are not alone.
I got the *shrugs* “I dunno, everyone is different” response so many times before, during and after pregnancy from every single doctor. I would ask a specific question like, “how likely is my baby to have shoulder dystocia given XYZ factors,” and all I wanted was to hear stats on how likely it was to happen. They gave me odds on all my genetic test results (ex: 1 in 10,000 chance etc,” but other than that it was constantly some non-response. I kept thinking, hold on, if we as a society are constantly showing that women’s only purpose is to have children, and women have babies all day every day, it should not be this difficult to answer these questions! Pregnancy isn’t some new, rare disease. It’s been happening since forever. So the only reason docs can’t answer these questions is that the scientific community isn’t studying them. And it’s because we don’t like women here. I’m still dealing with so much rage about my pregnancy and birth experience almost two years later.
I recall watching Oprah Winfrey interview cybill shepherd maybe 25-30 years ago about menopause and was dumb founded by the myriad of symptoms we’re not told about. And I watched in horror as my mother suffered after a hysterectomy where they took her ovaries as well. They butchered her and she was forever altered due to hormonal imbalances. Im 59 and still have not learned much more except like you said…. Different for everyone, suck it up and gut it out….. I had a hysterectomy at a young age (Kept the ovaries) and it’s been beyond frustrating that none of my doctors could tell me when I might be in menopause. Where’s that research? Due to the hysterectomy I was also put on HRT. Two years ago I had a brain tumor that almost killed me. I would like to know why because so much research points to HRT as a cause But there’s not enough!. Again doctors just shrug and say “don’t know”.
As an older reader who is through menopause, I never ever had “hot flashes/flushes” but I did have this magic thing happen where both of my shoulder froze. Come to find out, frozen shoulder syndrome is common in women who are menopausal. Who knew? Not the myriad of professionals I talked with and then I stumbled on some research and boom! Made perfect sense. Joint pain, dental issues, vision changes, it is all normal for menopause. The unpacking is when you are trying to play that game of; is it dehydration, cancer or just normally getting old, you have to add menopause to the mix.
Oh, Lawsie Mercy, the panic attacks. Mine come in conjunction with hot flashes. The hot flashes are a walk in the park compared to the waves of anxiety and panic. I found no literature on it; it was only when I compared notes with a peer that we both discovered it was something we shared. It's a huge, huge quality of life issue - I'm a train wreck. How do women who are world leaders cope?
As a 59 year old who has a daughter and some younger nieces, I have made myself available to talk about any peri/menopause questions they may have. Our mothers didn’t discuss it with us but we don’t have to continue that legacy.
Yes panic-rushes are connected to hormones (not necessarily to hot flashes, although they can happen at the same time). Both have to do with a big swing in hormones. This is hard to explain without going into detail about endocrinology, but it has to do with estrogen and serotonin and progesterone receptors in the brain. The short version is, because your ovaries are getting sluggish, they act like an engine that takes a minute to respond to pushing the gas pedal, so you push, nothing happens, and then the engine revs. Your brain says "more estrogen", your ovary chugs and chugs and then revs, and you get a surge of estrogen. These surges can cause a feeling of windedness or panic (has to do with the chemical effect of estrogen and how it functions in the brain). On the flip side, you can get these rushes when your estrogen drops. Estrogen and serotonin are symbiotic, so many of the symptoms you get as your estrogen drops (both abruptly in daily fluctuations, or over months/years of peri menopause) are similar to what you find in descriptions of "serotonin withdrawal" (aka antidepressant withdrawal). I agree there is a lot of ignorance and a dearth of research (I dont expect that to change any time soon), but a A LOT of information exists (that doctors just dont study because, well, so many reasons). One of these days maybe I'll write about it
For me, I would feel this weird quick stress/anxiety (and I didn't know what it was at the time, I would just experience this) about 30 seconds before a hot flash. Once I figured it out, I would have those few seconds to "prepare" 😂. A glass of cold water right then would sometimes help. Most of my hot flashes came when I would be in a situation/conversation that I wanted to walk away from anyway. Stress induced hot flashes!!! 🥳🥳 (Sarcasm). We women do put up with a lot throughout our lives. That's what girlfriends are for, to chat everything out
Hi Gabby, I'm also experiencing perimenopause, and it's been a confusing experience so far. Especially because I also have several autoimmune issues, it's hard to know what's happening and how to treat it. Racing heart can also be a sign of thyroid issues, and so so many people have a thyroid issue, please consider checking that if you have not. For me, the racing heart seems to be random spurts of adrenaline. Taking an adrenal health supplement has helped a lot. Cheers to becoming a crone!
Though I had some panic attacks when I was a young adult as a result of stress & trauma, in my fifties they began to hit me hard, like hallucinogen hard. Turns out, it was caffeine. Switched to decaf and they disappeared.
Re: hot flashes, I'm also learning that probiotics may induce them so am taking a pause on supplements and probiotic beverages for a while.
Thank you for covering the oft-neglected perimenopause topic, and can I just say how excited I was to see this newsletter's subject line / headline? Lol was secretly hoping you were going to regale us with an explanation of the "panic attic" ... A room makeover gone awry in the tall house? The place where you retreat when the panic comes? a red tent for hot flashes? 😂
I recently briefly googled hoping to find some menopause info--I'm about to turn 41 and had a couple things happen that made me wonder whether I'm hitting peri menopause and what I should be looking for besides the well-known hot flashes. Did not find anything very helpful. Glad I'm not the only one feeling lost...but yeah, this lack of research and knowledge is a problem.
Consider that the rapid heart beat may be a reaction to soy products. I found this to be true starting in my 40's about an hour after eating anything containing a decent amount of soy product- it felt like a rapid fluttery flip-flop that went on for several minutes. I realized this was the cause after reading ONE sentence in a book (believe it was Before The Change) about how soy can affect a small percentage of women this way. At the time I couldn't find any other information about this issue, but quit eating soy products and haven't had a problem since.
I've noticed very recently that some more people/startups are bringing attention to and information about perimenopause and menopause. While those stages are far in my rear view, you may want to check out Stacy London's Instagram account with a link to her new venture, State of Menopause.