Hormones.

[NoMercy]

How have these little swines affected you at different stages of your life, from puberty to menopause or anywhere in between?

I think this is an area of medicine / science which is completely under-explored.

[Islay]

My hormones turn me into a raving monster every month!! Its only a matter of time before I commit murder and get away with it!!

[NoMercy]

Islay, I can relate to that. I hit rock bottom yesterday and nearly destroyed my relationship. I literally wasn't in my right mind.

[Old_Geezer]

Oh I never listen to them moaning.

[Islay]

I am very irregular dates are all over the place but hubby can tell me when I am he says I totally change!

[MallyJ]

The reasons for lack of work on menopausal problems?? The majority of researchers are men.... after all we just need to pull ourselves together( no I am joking) I told himself years ago that we (note the we) would be going through the menopause without resorting to hormone treatment. We have both survived!

[Dahlia_Lama]

I was menopausal at 38 , not peri menopausal , I appeared to go straight into it . My life and everyone elses who was close to me in retrospect was an abject misery for the following 8 yrs. I won't expand apart from saying that it was and will be the most awful time of my life .... 8yrs I won't ever get back. I know some people who sail through it and I'm honestly delighted for them .

[Islander]

They are conniving little critters NoM, designed to bring abject misery to womankind. I hope your find a balance soon. x

[jourdain2]

Don't get me started, N-M! I may have time tomorrow.

Suffice it to say right now that I am 66 years old (67 next month) and still suffer from the things.

After collapsing regularly at school and being sent home for 2 days in bed with hotties on my tummy. My mum was finally alerted by a friend of hers that I was in dire straits so she eventually took me to the docs. He put me on the pill, I was 14 and knew nothing of such things. The relief!! My periods completely wrecked my life for a week each month.

The contraceptive pill in those days was pretty strong, but I've survived. I remained on various forms of it until I was 50 then went on to HRT for 3 years until there was the silly scare. Came off it, perforce, and hit a brick wall hormone-wise. I was in bed for days at a time alternately shivering and sweating, washing bedding every day. This has continued ever since and it has finally calmed down a bit (after nearly 17 years!) but I still pale and shiver and then blush red and sweat.....I am fed-up of 'investigations' in case I have 'nasties'. It's hormones, OK and I hate them, they have ruined my life at times (marriage breakup is certainly mainly to do with them).

It is completely under-explored, under-appreciated and under-funded. We are expected to playa full part in life, but like a favourite carrying 4 or 5 stones weighting. :(

[Sammy48]

Don't yet me started on bleedin hormones. They have wrecked my life from puberty to menopause. Too long a story to tell. I may write a book.

[ummmm]

I've been lucky. Get a little bit emotional but as I cry really easily anyway no one pays heed to me.

[douglas9401]

I guess I've been lucky. Never been a problem for me.

[NoMercy]

I get emotional at stories of animal cruelty and suchlike but otherwise my emotions are completely governed by my massively fluctuating hormones.

I definitely suffer with oestrogen dominance which is undoubtedly what causes my painful breasts condition. My nan died with endometrial cancer, the only known cause of which is oestrogen dominance :(

[ummmm]

I only started getting emotional after my dad died.

[NoMercy]

Something like that can change you forever. I think my brother's death changed me in certain ways.

[ummmm]

It certainly has.

[NoMercy]

My ex's daughter died 8 years ago and it changed him. To this day he can't have photos of her around the house.

[ummmm]

I have a photo of my dad and uncle on the fireplace but I have to turn it so I can only see my uncle from where I sit.

My aunty died in a motorbike accident and it really changed my nan.

[chanel5]

I used to blame hormone swings for the horrendous feelings that used to overwhelm me, making me and everyone else in my life utterly miserable. But in later years I was diagnosed with (a) type 2 bipolar disorder and (b) a non-specific condition that was described as "on the autism spectrum". The BP has been successfully treated with medication and I have learned through workshops and therapy how to manage the other problems. Sometimes we women assume (or are told by men) that our symptoms are all due to hormones when in fact this assumption may mask a different condition, and one that can be successfully treated.

[NoMercy]

That's an interesting post, Chanel, and I daresay many a bad temper will have been blamed on hormones in the past. I think though that when these swings coincide with your monthly periods or other biological phases of your life, hormones are the most likely culprit.

[ummmm]

Yes, my OH can tell whether any outburst I have is hormonal or just that someone has really peed me off.