I'd appreciate your opinions. I've had enough. Here's my story..... I'm 51 and have had 3 periods in '08 - one in April, one in May and one right now(Sept.) Last summer ('07 - so, it's been a year), I started having some nausea. After going through the GI mill for the last year with every test they have just about, all they found was acid reflux = which I'm on Zegerid for. (That's the only med. I'm on.) To make a long story short, I still have this debilitating nausea. I've tried some anti-nausea meds that don't help much. They even took my gall bladder out 6 weeks ago thinking that may be the cause - it wasn't. I wake up with the nausea every day and can hardly lift my head off the pillow. It hangs on all day and sometimes eases in the evening. With all of this testing and reading on the Internet, I've given myself a terrible case of health anxiety. If I have a glass of wine of dinner, I usually feel better for awhile and can eat dinner. I don't have an appetite but make myself eat during the day so I don't lose weight. (Does the glass of wine help because I forget about how awful I feel, or because it eases my anxiety?) I never feel relaxed, sleep horribly at night(wake up for hours at a time stressing myself out or just tossing and turning), have hot flashes at night, am really tired most of the time, have light headed, sort of dizzy spells and just plain feel miserable. My bloodwork came out OK, including TSH. Haven't had any hormone levels tested. A cat scan showed an adenoma on one of my adrenals (no big deal, they said). I'm seeing my OB/GYN next week. I'm thinking about all the options - anti-anxiety meds, HRT, anti-depressants (although I don't feel depressed - maybe they could relax me?) What do you all think? I just want to feel better. I've never had any health problems before this. It's like my body has turned on me and I can't get ahold of it. Is this the peri- hell that some of you are describing?

Oh my, I am so sorry you are having such a rough time.

Assuming that your GYN finds that all is good, I would guess that you are in the throws of peri/meno. All of the symptoms certainly fit.

I am a big believer in appropriate medication, responsibly prescribed. My own GYN says that Effexor has been shown to be the best medication for the symptoms of peri/meno. It is officially classified as an antidepressant. It works on serotonin and norepinephrin, and, for many women, relieves that anxious, lethargic, all-over "I am just not right and nothing helps" feature of this time of life. I take it and I have had an excellent result.

I hope you will talk to your doctor about the possibility of medicine. It is not a weakness. It is not a crutch. No diabetic feels bad about using insulin. I believe that we women must do whatever we need to do to get through this challenging time of life.

I wish you better days!

Warm regards,
Marcy