Hahaha love it....what is my excuse for evrything....perimenopause....I sucked at swimming, perimenoupause, sucked on that hill on the bike perimenopause......sucked at my last hal marathon....Perimenopause....I DNF....Perimenoupause
Triathlon Forum
Login required to started new threads
Login required to post replies
Re: Menopause in athletes - what do we need to know? [socalrunner59]
[ In reply to ]
Re: Menopause in athletes - what do we need to know? [spintela]
[ In reply to ]
Awesome! :-)
OK not really, this bothers me a lot, I have to think critically all day every day at work (I'm basically the Problem Solver[TM]) and when I'm fuzzy in the noggin, it just sucks. Only upside is I get to work on coaching my team to become problem solvers haha.
AP
------------------------
"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS
OK not really, this bothers me a lot, I have to think critically all day every day at work (I'm basically the Problem Solver[TM]) and when I'm fuzzy in the noggin, it just sucks. Only upside is I get to work on coaching my team to become problem solvers haha.
AP
------------------------
"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS
Re: Menopause in athletes - what do we need to know? [socalrunner59]
[ In reply to ]
socalrunner59 wrote:
Perimenopause and decreased cognitive function is apparently very common, yet rarely talked about. I'm 53, in perimenopause; I just started hormone therapy (very low dose estrogen patch) and one the symptoms which is driving me crazy is decreased cognitive function. When I mentioned the "brain fog" to my gyn, first words out of his mouth was rest assured its not dementia. Over the course of our conversation he reassured me three times, "it's not dementia."OMG, THIS! I have very few of the symptoms everyone talks about other than ZERO sex drive and tough recovery and THIS. Seriously, I was certain I was getting early Alzheimer disease. I'm still skeptical I don't have a brain tumor or Alzheimer but even the kids remark on my lack of grammar and my stellar spelling is now Very Dependent on spell check. I think I need to see your gyn. :)
http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit
Re: Menopause in athletes - what do we need to know? [kathy_caribe]
[ In reply to ]
The good news is my doctors reassures me cognitive function returns when full menopause is complete. It's just those few years leading into menopause that we go brain dead. My husband thinks I'm illiterate--I swear, I can't read aloud anymore.
Re: Menopause in athletes - what do we need to know? [mdiane630]
[ In reply to ]
Just a quick update - I attended the "Healthy Aging for Women" seminar last week. As expected, it wasn't geared toward women athletes, but I did find out who is going to be involved in the Menopause Clinic and talked to one of the physicians. Here is her reply:
Hi Diane,
I have not been able to find a study to address your particular question on elite athletes and hot flashes. Here is a citation on a recent objective study on exercise, but not at the level of marathon runners. I am going to a conference next month for the Menopause Society and will keep my eyes and ears open on any other information out there.
Maybe you have highlighted an area of research for the Baylor Menopause Clinic!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22735162
I gave her a condensed version of our posts, and I also pulled some numbers to show her the number of 40+ women who participated in the 2012 Houston Marathon (1,234) and 1/2 Marathon (2,110) as well as the 2012 IMTX (236) and 2012 IMTX 70.3 (293).
I'll be sure to talk to her after her conference next month!
I didn't bring up any of "our" questions during the Q&A because I didn't think they'd be of interest to most of the people there, but the question of "brain fog" came up several times - the forgetfulness is considered normal and will get better, although there are some things such as consistently not being able to pull up the words you want that you may want to talk to your doctor about. (Sorry to be vague - don't panic if this is you, but do mention it to your doctor!) I was also happy to see that they have brought a psychiatrist on board in the department, and she will also be involved in the Menopause clinic - she talked about mood changes, depression, anxiety issues, etc, related to Perimenopause and Menopause. Each doctor only had 10 minutes, so they basically gave an overview.
Thanks to everyone who has posted - I know that even if somebody here pursues this topic it will take a while to have any results, but it's so helpful just to have y'all to share with!
Diane
Hi Diane,
I have not been able to find a study to address your particular question on elite athletes and hot flashes. Here is a citation on a recent objective study on exercise, but not at the level of marathon runners. I am going to a conference next month for the Menopause Society and will keep my eyes and ears open on any other information out there.
Maybe you have highlighted an area of research for the Baylor Menopause Clinic!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22735162
I gave her a condensed version of our posts, and I also pulled some numbers to show her the number of 40+ women who participated in the 2012 Houston Marathon (1,234) and 1/2 Marathon (2,110) as well as the 2012 IMTX (236) and 2012 IMTX 70.3 (293).
I'll be sure to talk to her after her conference next month!
I didn't bring up any of "our" questions during the Q&A because I didn't think they'd be of interest to most of the people there, but the question of "brain fog" came up several times - the forgetfulness is considered normal and will get better, although there are some things such as consistently not being able to pull up the words you want that you may want to talk to your doctor about. (Sorry to be vague - don't panic if this is you, but do mention it to your doctor!) I was also happy to see that they have brought a psychiatrist on board in the department, and she will also be involved in the Menopause clinic - she talked about mood changes, depression, anxiety issues, etc, related to Perimenopause and Menopause. Each doctor only had 10 minutes, so they basically gave an overview.
Thanks to everyone who has posted - I know that even if somebody here pursues this topic it will take a while to have any results, but it's so helpful just to have y'all to share with!
Diane
Re: Menopause in athletes - what do we need to know? [spintela]
[ In reply to ]
OK, so now I'm bummed - after 5 weeks on HRT and more restful nights than I've had in the past 2+ years, I started spotting the other day, and now it's full-blown-like-a-heavy-period bleeding. I have an olympic-distance race on Sunday, and the flow is always heavier when I exercise, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to make a couple of port-a-potty stops, which will blow my chance of having a better time than I did last year. I was at a meeting at my boss's house last night and started "leaking" but luckily I caught it in time. I swam this morning and was waiting for the shower to warm up afterwards, and I looked down to see a red puddle at my feet. Yuck, this sucks!! I'm waiting for my Dr to call me back (I love the docs in my dept, but I work with med students and don't really want any of them to have access to my file - even with the HIPAA laws, I'm still not comfortable with it, so I go to a friend outside of this area). Anyway, thanks for letting me vent, I'll post an update once we figure out what's going on.
One thing they all mentioned and this worries me is that when their periods were going on and off sometimes they got really heavy heavy bleeding and it came on all of sudden and at the wrong time and place...that really did worry me. How embarrising if this happens and I am at work, restaurant, shopping or party. They said carry extra change of clothes in car. One of my friends said she was a the pharmacy when it happened, another at costco, another buying shoes at nordstrom and she stained the chair she was sitting on.....horrible
Hope this helps in getting you prepared it has for me. But one thing i must say, none of them exercice none of them race. So this morning at the gym I talked to another friend of mine who is in menopause already and she said not to worry because she never had the bleeding like that and nor did our other friend who is an athlete and she attibutes this to being active and exercicing.
spintela wrote:
I was at a friends house yesterday and menopause was the topic. First because i brought it up and wanted some input since all my friends who were there have already been through this. This is what was discussed: One thing they all mentioned and this worries me is that when their periods were going on and off sometimes they got really heavy heavy bleeding and it came on all of sudden and at the wrong time and place...that really did worry me. How embarrising if this happens and I am at work, restaurant, shopping or party. They said carry extra change of clothes in car. One of my friends said she was a the pharmacy when it happened, another at costco, another buying shoes at nordstrom and she stained the chair she was sitting on.....horrible
Hope this helps in getting you prepared it has for me. But one thing i must say, none of them exercice none of them race. So this morning at the gym I talked to another friend of mine who is in menopause already and she said not to worry because she never had the bleeding like that and nor did our other friend who is an athlete and she attibutes this to being active and exercicing.
Late to the party, but thank you for starting this conversation, and thanks to Kiki for the helpful "it's a discrete phase" reminder.
I am 47, went off the pill in May, had my FSH test in June, and am officially in menopause. I had gone on the low-estrogen pill to manage fatigue and night sweats a few years ago, although I would still have bad night sweats if I consumed too many carbs. In July I started an HRT estrogen-progesterone combo, and my plan is to transition off of it and onto black cohosh + fermented soy isoflavones over time. I hope that and a continued avoidance of grains and sugar will do what I need (you could summarize my nutrition as "Paleo diet for athletes", carbs in weeks of 12+ hours of training and after workouts).
Worst symptoms of perimenopause/menopause for me:
-fatigue
-poor sleep
-night sweats
-low libido
-moodiness (brooding/anxiety, not mood swings)
Now in my third month of HRT, the best consequence has been sleep quality, which has improved *dramatically*. I have some spotting, but not much. I also agree (with Kiki, I think) that staying busy and not leaving much room for brooding has been important for me.
A related issue that my doctor brought up was that my pelvic floor is unusually tight, and I hypothesize that it's associated with my strong lower rectus abdominis and transversus abdominis muscles from lots of long hours of cycling and a regular, hefty dose of yoga. I have been able to ease it through diaphragmatic breathing and stretching backward over an exercise ball. But he said that's something to be aware of as a menopausal athlete.
Thanks again for this helpful discussion!
I am 47, went off the pill in May, had my FSH test in June, and am officially in menopause. I had gone on the low-estrogen pill to manage fatigue and night sweats a few years ago, although I would still have bad night sweats if I consumed too many carbs. In July I started an HRT estrogen-progesterone combo, and my plan is to transition off of it and onto black cohosh + fermented soy isoflavones over time. I hope that and a continued avoidance of grains and sugar will do what I need (you could summarize my nutrition as "Paleo diet for athletes", carbs in weeks of 12+ hours of training and after workouts).
Worst symptoms of perimenopause/menopause for me:
-fatigue
-poor sleep
-night sweats
-low libido
-moodiness (brooding/anxiety, not mood swings)
Now in my third month of HRT, the best consequence has been sleep quality, which has improved *dramatically*. I have some spotting, but not much. I also agree (with Kiki, I think) that staying busy and not leaving much room for brooding has been important for me.
A related issue that my doctor brought up was that my pelvic floor is unusually tight, and I hypothesize that it's associated with my strong lower rectus abdominis and transversus abdominis muscles from lots of long hours of cycling and a regular, hefty dose of yoga. I have been able to ease it through diaphragmatic breathing and stretching backward over an exercise ball. But he said that's something to be aware of as a menopausal athlete.
Thanks again for this helpful discussion!