A chocolate fish for anyone who figured out my struggles with overheating in bed this summer was an early sign of menopause. I\u2019ve hesitated to post about this, but in honour of my Mum who went through it and never talked about it, and because I\u2019m doing a gyne list this morning, I\u2019m thinking Let\u2019s Hear From The Wimmin! Yeah, right on. But don\u2019t be afraid, there won\u2019t be any gory gynaecological details because hot flushes are my only symptoms so far. Except maybe a bad memory, short temper, and irritability. Wait… is that new? Abject apologies* to anyone who still thinks the subject is too icky to talk about.<\/p>\n
It only became obvious last week, when I started getting hot flushes during the daytime for the first time. I don\u2019t find them particularly unpleasant actually, and toyed with the idea of trying to deal with it without medication – for about half a day. Non medical treatments available, so I am informed, include giving up tea and coffee, alcohol, and sugary or spicy foods – just about everything that makes life worth living, in short. Sod that for a lark.<\/p>\n
I had a bit of practice with what flushes might feel like years ago when I was pregnant with the twins who were trying to kill me with pre eclampsia. The team gave me an IV injection of magnesium, and it caused instantaneous blood vessel dilation all over my body, even my tongue. It was ghastly, like being on fire. I almost punched the midwife. (Could this be the title of a new TV series? Something like \u201cCall the midwife… a cow\u201d I would watch it.) So I knew what all over vasodilation felt like. With a hot flush, you can feel when it\u2019s about to start and then whoosh! It comes over you like wave – or maybe a power surge. It\u2019s like blushing all over. Like I say, it\u2019s actually not too bad – far less unpleasant than magnesium – but the problem is not being able to sleep at night. So, being a firm believer in \u201cbetter living through chemistry \u201c or \u201ca pill for every ill\u201d, I\u2019ve started back on the oral contraceptive pill. I really hope I\u2019ve got my diagnosis right, because all the other possible causes of night sweats are pretty dire – malaria, lymphoma, tuberculosis. Wish me luck!<\/p>\n
And don\u2019t worry – I\u2019m still the vital, dynamic, sensual woman I\u2019ve always been (or shall I say rather, I have those features as much now as I ever have in the past).<\/p>\n
*not really<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A chocolate fish for anyone who figured out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-16o","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3478,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/16\/settling-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":4240,"position":0},"title":"Settling in","author":"Interloper11","date":"October 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"My host family are very nice. In fact it is just a couple whose children have left home, and another student, a 19 year old girl Carolyn from Maryland or Delaware or somewhere in America. Her accent at the moment is terrible, but she is here for four months and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/6359A273-C61A-4F53-8184-8C69E62CC00A-225x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4055,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/14\/hot-in-bed\/","url_meta":{"origin":4240,"position":1},"title":"Hot in bed","author":"Interloper11","date":"January 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s been a rather underwhelming summer so far, but even so, I\u2019ve had terrible trouble with my nocturnal thermoregulation. 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