Out of all the perimenopause symptoms, the one where I have a permanently stuffed nose is the one that took me by surprise.
Peri came to me in my mid-40s, but I didn’t know it then. I started to develop most of the (now, to me,) classic symptoms: depression, anxiety, body aches, brain fog, and, perhaps the most annoying — wild periods that either showed up every three weeks or went on for DAYS (28 days was my most insane menstruation. Let’s call it #28daygate).
I remember going to the gyno then (#28daygate), and she reported I had fibroids, but she never once uttered the word perimenopause. Perimenopause wouldn’t take the internet by storm for a few more years, and when it did, I was ready to get help. I began my hormone replacement therapy treatment two years ago, and I am grateful. I really am feeling so much better; my period is just hanging in there like a champ, albeit now for a regular number of days!
But let’s talk about how symptoms keep evolving. And this year’s most awful one is the joint and tendon pain that has come on strongly. Tennis elbow felt the worst, as I am a communications professional who does A TON on her laptop and mobile phone.
Yet the most annoying part is that, around 3 pm every day, I can’t breathe through my nose. This has been going on for six months now. Who knew a drop in estrogen could lead to a permanently stuffed nose?
I manage this condition with a nasal congestion spray, constantly clearing snot from my nose, and Aquaphor to treat my raw, inflamed nostrils. My ability to sleep, much better now than before HRT (progesterone, in particular), has been impacted by the stuffed nose and postnasal drip at night.
But we carry on. What about perimenopause has taken you by surprise?
Have you ever had to fill out a medical form and get asked if you’ve ever had surgery? I’ve always had the good fortune of responding that I haven’t. Somehow, even though I had a bad car accident at 19 resulting in a dislocated hip and a scooter accident just last year resulting in a fractured fibula (ankle), I’ve been lucky enough to escape the need for surgery.
That ends tomorrow. I’ll be checking into a hospital in Manhattan bright and early to get a pretty large fibroid removed my uterus via a surgery called a myomectomy. My doctor tells me it should take about five hours. So, how did I even get here? And what the heck is a fibroid?
Uterine fibroids are the most common noncancerous tumors in women of childbearing age. Fibroids are made of muscle cells and other tissues that grow in and around the wall of the uterus, or womb. The cause of fibroids is unknown. Risk factors include being African-American or being overweight. The symptoms of fibroids include:
Heavy or painful periods or bleeding between periods.
Feeling “full” in the lower abdomen.
Urinating often.
Pain during sex.
Lower back pain.
Reproductive problems, such as infertility, multiple miscarriages, or early labor.
Many women don’t have symptoms at all. And that’s because there are different types of fibroids. See more from the White Dress Project here.
As for how I got here, this past year, something changed. I’d been having really long and heavy periods. Like, beyond long. And crime scene-like. And painful and, even worse, my cycle would zap me of energy. It was the type of thing that was making me NEVER WANT TO LEAVE THE HOUSE. And those who know me know I am a social butterfly.
So I went to my gynecologist and asked to get back on birth control. Why? Well, pills can have side effects and carry risk for stroke when one is in their 40s, but they basically make monthly bleeding non-existent.
But my doctor advised against it and suggested an ultrasound. I went in for that and the session took so long and I saw a look of concern on the ultrasound technician’s face, so I knew something was up.
Turns out I have several fibroids and one big one smack dab in the middle of my uterus. I was then asked to come in for a more in-depth ultrasound with saline water to expand my uterus. They got a clear picture of this thing and was told surgery was my best option.
Tomorrow, I’ll be put to sleep and in a robotic surgery, my doctor will shave the fibroid down, hopefully getting it all. Hopefully, this will fix the problem.
I’ll have to skip yoga for some time as my core and pelvic areas will be tender. But I am hopeful as I have been telling those close to me that I simply can’t live like this anymore.
And why do we need a “uterine fibroid awareness month?” Because no one talks about this kind of thing.
When you’re a young girl, you’re told about your period and, in many cases, that’s it. I grew up thinking one day your period would stop when you got older (“the change,” aka menopause), but that’s not how it goes at all. Perimenopause can last for up to 15 years and it’s when things start getting wacky. And perhaps that’s why I didn’t think anything was wrong until things got very wrong.
Earlier this year, an article in The New York Times perused the “mysteries of perimenopause,” so it’s no surprise to me that fibroids, too, are a mystery. From the article:
“You’re hearing what I’m hearing, ‘Nobody ever told me this, my mother never told me this,’ and I had the same experiences many years ago with my mother,” said Dr. Lila Nachtigall, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine who has been treating perimenopausal women for 50 years, and is an adviser to Elektra Health, a telemedicine start-up.
So this thing about not talking about this has got to end. We all have women in our lives who need to know about this well before it becomes a problem. And this blog post is my small attempt at making sure there is awareness about fibroids. If you’re experiencing any changes in your period, don’t wait like I did: see a doctor! And there are several apps out there to help you track your period. I myself use Kindara.
Social media cleanse is a GOAL I have for this year, even though it will be hard to do & yet keep on top of news. Scratch that. It should NOT be hard. I’m making it hard. I can monitor news & pitch our faculty to the media ALL WITHOUT having to share my input on news. I admit it’s something I like to do because I love to laugh and reaction from my friends and followers makes it enjoyable. But as we all know, social media can have a negative effect on emotions. It can put you in a not-so-great space. It can take away your focus. For more on that, read the post via “The Daily Practice of Living” below!
In Buddhism, there are eight worldly conditions of life identified that are at the central route of much of our own suffering during our physical lives. They are broken into four pairs of opposites. They are;
Gain and Loss
Praise and Criticism
Fame and Disrepute
Pleasure and Pain
As human beings, no matter how hard we try, we will experience all of the above at some point in our lives, often several times over. The presence of any one in a pair will lead to the manifestation of the other.
I call this the binary consequence of attachment.
The easiest place to look is gain and loss as it is something most of us have experienced and have a memory of from an early age. I remember the first time my mother took away a toy of mine as “punishment” for being bad. I had initially gained the toy and…
Experiment is the name of the game & tonight it was #SeaTangle#KelpNoodles. I should have cut them more w a kitchen scissor, as they’re super long! They were good. They’re very neutral on taste. I thought they’d pick up flavor like tofu, but no. A good compliment to my dinner, though, bc they’re somewhat crunchy (I should have run them under warm water longer) & filling though super low in calories & rich in calcium, iron & vitamin K. #healthyeats#cooking Bought these at @organicbasicfood in #Hoboken.
For a good blog post on how to prepare kelp noodles in a salad, check this out.
There’s Bill. There’s Hillary. There’s Chelsea. And now, meet Tyler Clinton. The nephew of the former President and former Secretary of State, 22-year-old Tyler is the son of Bill’s half-brother. He’s nearly six feet tall, just graduated from college and moved to New York, and appears to have inherited the family genes of drive to…
As part of our celebration of Black History Month and Afro-Latino culture, we turn this week to how the influence of Africa has been interpreted in various Latin and Caribbean cultures. The music of West Africa, where a majority of those enslaved in the Americas came from, was diffused through both an indigenous and Spanish filter to become the distinct sounds and rhythms that we know today.
Cumbia, bachata, mambo and son jarocho are all quite distinct from each other and are still very vibrant expressions of tradition. But, more importantly, they also inform and influence a tidal wave of new expression, mixing with hip-hop, electronic, rock and jazz to form the musical bedrock of Alt.Latino.
In this week’s show, we dive into the vaults of Smithsonian Folkways, the non-profit record label dedicated to American folk traditions of all kinds. Our guide is Folkways curator emeritus Dan Sheehy, who knows a thing or two about Afro-Latino music and culture: He has traveled extensively to produce many of the great recordings in the archive.
Experiment is the name of the game & tonight it was 
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