“Listen
to your body. Your body knows best.” This is a mantra I have used over and over with my kids and myself. Age though has shown me that for women, listening to our bodies
takes a lot of work. Physically our
bodies are changing week by week, day by day. Depending on where we are in a
cycle, we may feel fit and thin and a day later, exhausted and chubby. Our hormones are of course our friends, but
sometimes they like to mess around with us physically and emotionally.
I have definitely entered perimenopause, the years before
menopause actually occurs. When I last
asked my PCP to run tests on my hormones, everything of course looked
“perfect”. Blah! Sometimes lab work makes me angry. As an intrapersonal individual, I spend a lot
of time listening to my body. I know things are off. My body is on fire in the morning and my
makeup has usually sweated off before entering the classroom. I wake up
thinking I am going to burn to death during the night if I have had foods that
don’t agree with my body. I’ve gained 30
pounds despite continuing to eat mostly healthy foods. My energy levels have gone down. I no longer
enjoy high intensity activities. My body
now asks me to do more yoga, Pilates, and walking. When I don’t honor it, it throws a tantrum
and workouts cease. By listening to my
body, I am aware of so many things that lab work is not able to detect. I know my body
is changing. Sometimes I struggle not
knowing if these changes are RA related, hormonal, or my guess, both. I wake up at night with eyes so dry I am
afraid to close them. I told my class the
other day, "unfortunately, my
brain sometimes likes to take little breaks in the middle of
conversations." Are the dry eyes and brain fog due to rheumatoid arthritis or
perimenopause? I have several other
symptoms that could be RA or perimenopause or maybe worsened by the other. My
rheumy says, “they are still treated in the same way.”
Having now gone through puberty, pregnancy, RA changes, and currently
perimenopause, I can say with certainty that our bodies are never mundane. I gained a lot of weight with both
pregnancies and lost the weight quickly. I was actually surprised at how my
body bounced back after giving birth. I was happy with the outcome. With
perimenopause, I struggle. I practice a
lot of self-love and my inner self feels happy and complete. It’s the outside
that needs more of that self-love. I have started adding supplements
that support a woman’s body during perimenopause. Mid-life is a beautiful time. There are so many things I love about it and I want to round out the bliss that comes with age by figuring out why my
physical body is not in balance with my emotional/mental state. I have made it the last 12 years
with rheumatoid arthritis, surely I can make it through
perimenopause too, right?
I have definitely entered perimenopause, the years before
menopause actually occurs. When I last
asked my PCP to run tests on my hormones, everything of course looked
“perfect”. Blah! Sometimes lab work makes me angry. As an intrapersonal individual, I spend a lot
of time listening to my body. I know things are off. My body is on fire in the morning and my
makeup has usually sweated off before entering the classroom. I wake up
thinking I am going to burn to death during the night if I have had foods that
don’t agree with my body. I’ve gained 30
pounds despite continuing to eat mostly healthy foods. My energy levels have gone down. I no longer
enjoy high intensity activities. My body
now asks me to do more yoga, Pilates, and walking. When I don’t honor it, it throws a tantrum
and workouts cease. By listening to my
body, I am aware of so many things that lab work is not able to detect. I know my body
is changing. Sometimes I struggle not
knowing if these changes are RA related, hormonal, or my guess, both. I wake up at night with eyes so dry I am
afraid to close them. I told my class the
other day, "unfortunately, my
brain sometimes likes to take little breaks in the middle of
conversations." Are the dry eyes and brain fog due to rheumatoid arthritis or
perimenopause? I have several other
symptoms that could be RA or perimenopause or maybe worsened by the other. My
rheumy says, “they are still treated in the same way.” 
"my brain sometimes likes to take little breaks in the middle of conversations." I laughed and laughed and laughed. And am so stealing that! :)
ReplyDeletePerimenopause is hard. I think especially because it amps up the changes you can experience every day (hour?). And it's not (for instance) the same 5 symptoms cycling through. It's these 5 today and another new 5 tomorrow. it's exhausting.