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[CLKD]

 

[Conolly]

Hello Dr. Max,


Okay, so my hot flushes are just in my mind... thank goodness! Now tell me, how do I get to have oestrogen there as well? 


Conolly X

[CLKD]

 

[JaneinPen]

We lived in Japan for ten years and I have a lot of Japanese friends.  I was there from 40 - 50 years of age. A lot of my Japanese friends were my age or older and it is true that their symptoms are much less stressful than ours are. Only one of my close friends really suffered with hot flushes etc and she actually had quite a western diet which could have been a factor

[Kathleen]

Hello again ladies.

Herdwick - it's interesting what you say about your Japanese friends and their diet. I've read that traditional high fibre foods can help reduce menopausal symptoms and of course the western diet is also known as the Standard American Diet or SAD!

Take care all.

K.

[Conolly]

Hello Herdwick,


Thank you for your input. Japanese lifestyle, including diet, exercise and middle age expectations and stress certainly play a role in menopause symptoms. My personal view is that BMI is the key factor as Japanese women are thinner on average and, as expected, based on fat index, experience menopause earlier than Western women. I'm on mobile phone now, will post links later on.



What I cannot agree is comparing menopause to mental conditions, disregarding the biochemical factor. Most Western women have no clue on menopause symptoms before they begin experiencing them on perimenopause, so how could they be ‘learned' psychosomatic symptoms? How many films have we seen dealing with the menopause subject to  corroborate his Golf War Syndrome pathetic example?


Conolly X

[Samade]

I read somewhere once and I wish I could remember where. One expert said on a study visit to Japan she wanted to interview women about the menopause and get some enlightenment on their lack of menopause symptoms. She said she soon found out that the reporting of symptoms was seriously skewed as it was so taboo to admit symptoms. Now this was just one study and one I can't remember where I read it but interesting and remembering its always worth questioning even things you think you know.

[rebel2]

I don't come on here very often but read this article today.  It interested me for several reasons [some that might make people on here angry, but I'm entitled to my opinion!]. 

Firstly, there is no doubt that the WAY you respond to any physical ailment has an effect on the way you deal with it, and ultimately, recover from it or learn to live with it.   I never gave the link between mind and body a thought until recently, but over the past three years the degree to which my mind can exacerbate my physical issues - or indeed create them out of the blue - has amazed me.  Panic attacks are an easy and obvious example, but I have had many, many other varied symptoms and all of them have been magnified by my health anxiety fixating on them and concentrating on them to the exclusion of all others.  I now joke that I almost welcome something new as it means my existing complaint can take a rest and go on the back burner!

I am not in any way denigrating the very real, and very troublesome, ailments that come along at this age for women.  All I have found is that if I 'bugger on regardless' they diminish, and in some cases stop altogether.    I feel sure that in olden times women just soldiered on [in the same way that they managed without washing machines and disposable nappies] but did have similar issues - I just sometimes wonder whether focussing on them to the exclusion of all else is really helpful. 

I do take HRT for hot flushes and naively assumed that was all the menopause entailed; until I came on here and got an education in the reality of this time of life!  However, I have had to stop living on here as it undoubtedly fed my OCD side and I started worrying about a whole host of physical issues I never even knew existed. 

Before you rush to reply with your knives out...   I have had three years of anxiety hell, three years of obsession hell, three years of no confidence [and I was a reall ball breaker party girl in my youth - god I miss her!].   I have tried the medical route, but found that keeping busy, keeping fit and eating well is the best medicine for me.   I really needed to get a sense of proportion about my worries and stop reading scare stories that had me convinced I was suffering from something I had never heard of the day before.

After all, whilst I was obsessing throughout those three years, another day had gone by and I had missed it.   I might have had to struggle through bladder hell, or gumbleedgate, or hotflushroom101, but I might at least have been distracted enough to put it out of my mind for a moment. 

Just saying...

[Dorothy]

I'm sure that one's attitude toward symptoms (of anything) make a huge difference in how one feels.  BUT the idea that we suffer menopausal symptoms because we keep focussing on them or because we are not accepting of ageing or because we are expecting to have them is ridiculous.

I was a perfectly healthy, fit and active 35-year-old when I started to get symptoms.  I certainly wasn't thinking about ageing!  I ignored my symptoms at first, thinking they would go away, but they got worse and worse.  By the time I actually had a diagnosis, it was a huge relief (although also a shock) as I'd thought I was going mad or suffering from some terrible illness.  I have ticked just about every symptom on the list and every single one of them occurred before I even dreamed I could be going through peri.  So it would be interesting to know how I was able to develop psychosomatic menopausal symptoms before I knew anything about them or realised that it could hit me so young.

[dahliagirl]

My mother in law used to love a bit of distraction to get her through the day when she had terminal pancreatic cancer and was in constant pain.  It worked (along with the morphine patches).  It is very valuable.

Unfortunately, some people soldier on, not understanding what is going wrong, then crash.  Then it takes quite a while to unravel and get back on course.  It happened to someone I know who ended up losing her job.  She retrained and is now enjoying herself again, but is now a bit short of money to make ends meet, which is not where you want to be in your 50s.

I think it is a balance, and it varies from person to person. Ideally, you need the medical support there when you need it so that you can get on with the lifestyle improvements, and enjoy the distractions.  There is still a lot to do but for some people the hrt helps them do it.

[Conolly]

Hello ladies,


This is an interesting study on the menopause in Japan https://www.gfmer.ch/Books/bookmp/185.htm


Conolly X

[weathergirl]

I  think more research or attention or attention needs to be paid to why some women have an easy transition and, for some, it is a living hell.  I find it fascinating that we all go through this same transition, and yet some are barely bothered by it and others are suffering badly.  There has to be something to that and I wish they would look into it.  Personally, I feel that the very gradual decline of hormones helps the body transition.  Not sure.......

[Shadyglade]

Every one is so different. I had a very long peri which was very up and down, and a late meno at 56. Since then, apart from a couple of plips, I've not been to bad. Others have hardly any problems until post meno. There really is no set map.

[weathergirl]

Shadyglad yes it does seem that way.  In retrospect my peri was a bit tumultuous, too, but I don't think I recognized it for what it was.  Things have gotten much 'quieter' in that regard.  But then again, we never know how it all will shake out as the months/years go by.  I do find it intriguing that menopause is experienced differently in different cultures!

[Conolly]

This one is very interesting. It deals with the anthropology of the term "hot flush"in Japan

I'm not sure the link is going to work, apparently you have to register to read it free online.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3655428'seq=12#page_scan_tab_contents


If it doesn't work just look for this:

Zeserson, Jan Morgan. “How Japanese Women Talk about Hot Flushes: Implications for Menopause Researc.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 2, 2001, pp. 189–205], JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3655428.