I’d like to be a jellyfish
‘Cause jelly fish don’t pay rent…
They’re just simple protoplasm
Clear as cellophane.
They ride the winds of fortune,
Life without a brain.”
from the song Mental Floss by Jimmy Buffett
Now that my menopause brain fog has lifted, I notice an interesting new mental phenomenon manifesting itself. It’s a little like what longtime meditators call monkey mind (and I call Menopausal HDD). Still, it’s different. Monkeys jump from tree to tree exuberantly. Monkey mind jumps from thought to thought, idea to idea quickly. There’s almost a manic energy to them.
This new syndrome is more like jellyfish mind. While myriad thoughts intrude themselves, one atop another, I find myself floating among them. I’m drifting in a sea filled with plans, ideas, to-do’s, memories, wishes. Like a jellyfish, I float from thought to thought as they wave and brush against me.
I don’t mind the floating either. Which is weird. Because I like to be focused. Heck, I need to be focused. But too often, I just float from one thought to the next, one thing to the next, serenely. I feel like a caricature of a Zen master (mistress?).
And since it is time for another blog entry and I am surrounded by flotsam and jetsam in my own little ocean, I’m going to write about the various kelp-thoughts that brush against me. The warning here is that these topics may not go together at all. Yet they have at least The Big M in common. Okay, there’s the disclaimer – don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Estrogen Addiction Say What?
Yep, Apparently our hot flashes are due to an estrogen addiction. UBC Professor of Endocrinology Dr. Jerilynn C. Prior presented her findings on estrogen addiction and its treatment with progesterone at Women’s Health Congress 2010 in Washington DC. Not a joke. Really.
According to Dr. Prior, when a woman has a hot flash:
“she’s experiencing a massive release of brain chemicals … Integrating what we know about hot flushes has led to the hypothesis that the brain exposed to prolonged high estrogen levels reacts like the brain of an addict without a fix when estrogen levels drop. The best animal model of hot flushes is the heroin-addicted mouse.”
Apparently, the treatment for this estrogen addiction is progesterone, since “estrogen and progesterone work together in every tissue of a woman’s body.”
Okay. I’ll bite. Massive release of brain chemicals sounds right on. Furthermore, I’m a big believer in natural progesterone cream. But as I’m floating in my little sea, these thoughts brush against me. Do we have to name everything so that it sounds like a disease or disorder? When Mom Nature cold turkeys us at Menopause, does she know what she has done? And is progesterone now our methadone?
Dr. Prior and her team suggest that women who have taken estrogen will have tons more hot flashes when they stop the hormones. Does that mean instead of 20-30 per day, I’ll have 40-50? I gotta tell you, it doesn’t make me excited about stopping my bioidentical patch anytime soon. And I am definitely planning to decrease and ultimately discontinue it, having passed that magical three year mark. Will I need truckloads of progesterone to combat the dreaded withdrawal from my estrogen addiction? Do I need a 12 step program?
There were a bunch of other kelp thoughts I was going to share, but I’ve drifted too far past them and run out of room. They’ll likely show up in the next post.
As Jimmy Buffett continues in his song,
“In one ear and out the other.
Don’t you get criss crossed.
I recommend you try a little
Mental floss.”
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Hmm,well I guess I’m not an addict…no hot flashes, ever. I feel like I really missed the boat during my entire menopause escapade. Aside from my periods up and stopping in 2005, nothing too terrible at all…
Oh Tamara, Lucky you! You did not miss the boat at all – sounds like a perfect voyage through the Big M to me. Believe me when I say that I am so glad for you! Sometimes I wonder if the reason I didn’t sail through (like I thought I would) is that I was meant to create the Menopause Goddess Blog. Or maybe that’s just magical thinking, but it sure makes me feel better!
Hi Lynette. You fog has lifted? OMG! How far into this life changing process are you? I’ve been going through this for 10 years now. My brain fog was so bad 2 years ago I actually went through comprehensive Alz testing. (It was negative.) I was normal, so they said. The hot flashes don’t wake me up so much anymore, but they are incessant. My mom had aggressive breast cancer twice. Therefore, I haven’t had an HRT of any kind, regular or bio-identical. I’m just slogging through this on my own. I’m taking Effexor, which is supposed to help.However, I can’t really say that I’ve noticed a big change. I gave my husband a kiss today and had one at that moment. “Hot flash?” he said. Oh yeah.
Hi Meigler,
I am also about 10 years into this process (counting perimenopause and I do count it.) My brain fog got a somewhat better about 2 or 3 years ago, but was still there – sort of like “patchy fog”. My holistic MD told me about a supplement he was taking for his brain (inspiring equal parts confidence and consternation). He wanted me to try it, so I did just to humor him, sure that it would do nothing. Now maybe it’s the placebo effect but I swear that it worked wonders for me. (Didn’t work at all for my girlfriend and sister Menopause Goddess, Lei.) Anyway, it is called acetyl L-Carnitine and the brand I use is Designs for Health. There may be other brands that work, but when I ran out and bought another brand called NOW at my local island health food store, it did nothing. And I could feel the fuzzy, foggy stuff starting again. So that’s all I know, for whatever it’s worth.
Are you having hot flashes at night? I’m trying a new fan device that may just be a godsend. I need to try it a little longer, but now that the flashes have returned (I”m weaning off my biioidentical hormones), I’m acting as guinea pig. I should have a report in the next couple weeks one way or the other – check out Menopause Goddess Blog for results.
And yes, I am all too familiar with the loving touch that starts the hot flashes. Sheesh.
Keep me posted and let me know if the fog starts to lift. or not. We just keep trying to get through the weird parts. Menopause – it’ll set you free, but it will definitely piss you off first!
Hi Meigler, I stopped all bio-idential hormone replacement 7 years ago. I’m 63. For those hot flashes I recommend Black Cohosh. Remifemin is a great and reliable product.
Since I’m pretty sure I have ADD the thoughts ran amok and swiftly through my brain when I was depressed and full of anxiety. Other times I had severe brain fog, and drove through red lights and had instant forgetfulness. I had no short term memory. Now that I am healed of depression I still have times of brain fog, but of a milder sort. My hot flashes are mild. I feel like I’m overheated sometimes. At least I’m not sweating and waking up with wet sheets like my 47 year old sister does. Although I am 51 and my younger sisters are 45 and 47 they are also skipping periods. My youngest skips for months on end, yet here I am skipping every other month and having 5 days of spotting, then a regular period 3 weeks later. I fear that when I skip for months on end then the hot flashes will really start. I see my OBGYN on Wednesday. I really need that blood test to see if I’m really menopausal.
Hi Lorraine,
Some women have the majority of symptoms during perimenopause and things get better during actual Menopause (after having no periods for a full year). Let’s hope that will be the case for you. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you.
Thanks Lynette.
I am 64 ans I still take HRT – however since 2002, I take it every few days – and when I forget my Tuesday or Thursday dose, I do feel some hot surges.
Hi Lynette S! I am grateful to find your information regarding the onset, or should I say the resumption of the hot flashes after hormones. I am dealing with the longest menopause in history! I am now in the 20th year of my menopause. It started when I was 48 and I turned 67 on my last birthday. The doctor made me wait a full year for the patch, my first attempted remedy. When I finally got it, The Menopause From Hell, segued into a much more manageable malady. I discovered the bio-identicals a couple of years later and took them for the next 13 years. I would have taken them for the rest of my life, except that I started to have bleeding issues. But they made the difference between the constant embarrassing sweats every half hour, 24/7, and the cool, serene goddess that estrogen created in contrast. What a rude shock I got immediately after discontinuing estrogen. The ongoing constant sweating, day and night (oh, the nightmare!), the immediate wrinkling of my face and the rudest insult of all, that foggy brain you mention that can’t remember or retain jack! The heat that emanates from the back of my head and neck feels like it could start forest fires! Please tell me there is an end to this somewhere and not just a punishment for being a woman.
I’ve gone through, and am finally coming out of, five years of menopause misery. I won’t go into details except to say that I did try the patch for about a year and a half. It took away the symptoms. But I don’t want to be reliant on drugs for the rest of my life so I weaned myself off it and the hot flashes, night sweats and sleep problems came back. Dryness, skin problems, and low libido are part of the package, too.
When I went back to my doctor and he told me all he had to recommend was to go back on HRT I realized it was time to seek alternative solutions. I went to a good naturopath to diagnosed me with low everything – estrogen, estriol, progesterone, thyroid function, adrenal function, liver function, digestive issues. My blood sugars were out of whack – high insulin, low glucagon. Five years of menopause strain, marital issues (as a result), business stress, and drugs (sleeping pills, anti-anxiety drugs) to just keep going, had taken their toll.
So he put me on a low glycemic diet, a comprehensive digestive enzyme to help my liver, since undigested proteins heading into the liver make its job much harder. Another supplement builds up my liver, a third helps my worn-out adrenals. Progesterone cream is helping. At my six-week check, everything had improved. I’m sleeping better (expecially when my snoring husband sleeps in another room); the hot flashes are less frequent and less severe and sweaty, and the night sweats have diminshed too. My progesterone is still too low so I asked my naturopath to recommend the best dosage for which I would then get a prescription from my doctor and have made at a compounding pharmacy. They both agreed. (As a prescription it is also covered by my extended health plan whereas nutritional supplements are not.)
I have also already lost five pounds and counting, without trying, on the new diet.
I don’t want to just make the symptoms go away. I want to be in optimum health and live long and healthy. The traditional medical establishment does not have all the answers (Dr. Jerilynn Prior accepted), so I recommend finding a good naturopath and looking for help there.
My cousin, who is my age, was also going through menopause hell and went to a naturopath and a traditional chinese herbalist for help. Within the year she reports excellent sleep, no hot flashes, moods stabilized, and 23 pounds lost. I am expecting similar results.
Don’t keep suffering. Go find help from someone other than your MD. Their training only takes them in one direction. The alternative route can be costly but can also short-circuit years of suffering.
Hi Wendy, I agree agree agree – although I have a Holistic MD. Naturopaths are excellent as are MD’s who practice Integrative or Complementary Medicine. Traditional allopathy has almost nothing to offer Menopausal women save regular HRT or (gasp) antidepressants. But don’t get me started! Anyway, thanks so much for your story. As I wrote Judy, I’ve cut in half my bioidentical estradiol patch, but the supplements and fine tuning by my “airy fairy” doctor have clearly done their work. Except for a few nighttime hot flashes which are being dealt with handily by this new prototype fan I’m trying, I’m feeling great. And like you, I expect it to continue. You’re right – we don’t need to keep suffering.
To All,
I am trying to get through all the posts. But I need to ask What Patch? Also, is anybody on methadone for chronic pain management (not addiction relief, because I am not sure if it effects the body in the same ways) will experiencing menopause?
My anxiety and depression has gottrn so bad since I stopped the methadone (without the doctors permission) about a month ago. My husband and I are now thinking menopause has more to do with the increased mental disorders than the discontinuation of the methadone. I am still taking an opiate pain reliever for my chronic pain, i did not cold turkey off all pain meds. The methadone was causing excessive sweating and with the menopause sweating is was unbearable. At one point my hair was not dry for 3 days straight. FYI: I did cut it all off (doesn’t make that much of a difference.
Please if anyone can offer any type of help I’d be grateful. I do have calls in with my GYN and Psychiatrist. I would really prefer not to have to go inpatient for psych eval. Yes, it is that bad, almost took my self a couple of weeks ago.
Ladyjp
Dear Ladyjp,
Whew – you are living proof that Menopause can complicate and mess up all the other stuff going on with us. And side effects of medication that were dealable become unbearable.
The patch I was referring to was my estradiol patch. Which offers no help for chronic pain. I surely hope your MD’s will be of some considerable help to you. I understand the sweating/heat can be incredibly uncomfortable. (At one point, I was dunking my head under cold water 3-4 times a day just to get a little relief.
The only good news is that the worst does not last forever – small comfort now, I know, but true. And try all the non-medical stuff in the interim – fans, natural fiber clothing, layers, a bag of frozen peas to your overheated forehead, cool or tepid water baths/showers, and so on. Hang in there, girlfriend! Oh and the most important help? Your girlfriends.
Hi Judy,
I can so relate to that heat you describe! And many of the other symptoms which were taken care of by my BHRT.
Well, I finally did it. I cut my lo dose bioidentical hormone patch in half. And while I did get some hot flashing, especially at night, it’s more than manageable. Especially with the new fan I am trying (really only helps with nighttime hot flashes, so if that is not a problem for you, it isn’t a real remedy.) Check out my latest blog entry for more info on it at Menopause Goddess Blog.
I also have to say that I did most of what Wendy is talking about – I got my bioidentical hormones from a holistic MD (I affectionately refer to him as my airy fairy doctor): where we tested everything – hormones, organ function, the works. I was prescribed diet modifications, supplements, and thyroid hormone. I already take progesterone cream, which I am not discontinuing. He gave me an amino acid supplement for brain fog called acetyl – l carnitine too. My adrenals were suprisingly okay. All of these in combination with the bioidentical patch made me feel like me again. Definitely, I agree with Wendy, a holistic approach is the best way to go. To find a practitioner near you, check out Holistic Medical Association or Women In Balance, a non-profit hormone balance educational organization that I love.
There is definitely an end with a multi pronged approach designed for you personally. Every woman’s Menopause is different.
And the same.
Good luck – let me know how it goes!
Oh boy, another little addiction to battle. Wasn’t it enough that I licked nicotine? Chocolate? Sugar?
I’m taking Femerelle, with moderate success. My doctor recommended it. Take a look at it and see what you think. You might want to try it before you take off the patch; wish I had started it sooner.
Thanks, girlfriend. Alas, I am allergic to soy, which is the basis of Femerelle. Luckily, I am doing well on half dose patch. And I am not giving up chocolate. Or wine. Gotta pick and choose my addictions, so I guess the estrogen will have to go. So far, so good on the weaning off bioidentical hormones. I’m feeling pretty positive about the whole thing. We’ll see if I still feel that way in a couple months.