Herstasis Health® Foundation is about education, trust and accuracy.
Struggling with Menopause or Perimenipause Symptoms? If you are a person aged 35 - 55 experiencing sudden hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, rage, depression, insomnia, anxiety, vaginal dryness, memory loss or any of the 35+ known symptoms of the menopause transition, you are in the right place.
Herstasis® Health Foundation is a Canadian non-profit dedicated to providing the latest evidence-based research to people in plain language so they can learn, make informed choices, and advocate for their own menopause health.
Am I In Menopause? PROJECT - Perimenopause and Menopause Stories By tuning in to these powerful accounts, women everywhere can gain valuable insight into the telltale signs and symptoms that often catch them off guard. With a whole host of coping mechanisms to draw from, viewers can better navigate their own experiences and take back control of their midlife health.
Did you drop your dose at any point? I had a similiar reaction so I am currently taking 10 mg. I'm starting an antidepressant tomorrow. I hope that allows me to get back up to 20 mg.
In the last year I have bled through my clothes several time. I’m a high school teacher and it’s seriously affecting my life. I can’t go more than 2 hours without needing an emergency change, I’ve started bringing extra clothes to work. I went on a 3 hour car ride and bleed through my shorts and the car seat. I also stopped dying my hair and let my silver shine through.
Thank you for making this video. I had a bilateral salpingo - oophorectomy (BSO) when I was 25. The doctors found out I had endometriosis during that surgery. Its 12 years later and I'm finally on HRT that seems to be working and helpful for my whole body. I appreciate your video because it brings light to a condition many women go through but don't always have a lot of support for or even understanding about what happens next. This woman's experience gives me some additional ideas to speak about with my doctor. Thank you again !
My rational self says this is menopause, but my anxiety says but what if it's not, because all this blood is not normal. I had terrible clots about a year ago, now I just bleed nonstop and it looks to me like it's just blood. I don't want to see a GP. I'm not registered for a start, and it's too hard to get an appointment anyway, and even if I jumped all these hurdles and I finally got to see one I've never found one that is actually helpful in the past, so what is the point. I'm 51, and I also have no desire to be prodded either. Feel like I'm done with all that - can't face it anymore - so I just leave it and hope it will end one day.
Menopause is so difficult. I had no idea. Thank God for platforms like this where people can share so others understand they are not alone. I can relate to every word she said.
I bled for five months solid after getting an IUD and eventually my body rejected it. At the end of my IUD journey, I ended up bleeding for four hours solid sitting on the toilet in the middle of the night until it finally fell in the toilet. Definitely not for everyone, but I have heard glorious wonderful stories from the people who it actually works for.
Good luck to all of us! my journey started at 38 I saw a lot of gynecologist and all said Im too young for perimenopause, now I am 44 and the joint pain is just there it does go way after menses but not this month I just been crying because the blues or anxiety didn't go away either.
Almost like me. I don't have much physical pains or I can say they are tolerable. I get migrains before my period. Thy psychological Chaos is the one that burdens me a lot. I consider myself active but not as before and I get easily overwhelmed now. I pray that we all get back to our old lives.
Hows HRT working for u sweetie? I'm really going thru the menopause myself at 55 years old it's been tough and has changed my life completely. I had a full hysterectomy at the age 49 because of high risk for cancer. I tried bioidentical HRT a couple of years ago and just didn't seem to be working for me at the time but considering trying again. Even thou I'm not supposed to be on them. I've just been miserable and desperate. Depression and anxiety off the roof. I use to be very active. I was a person trainer and always into working out running was my life and in shape to now not being able to do anything but walk and some yoga. I also have fibromyalgia which is horrible. Sending prayers u way sweetie. U are not alone in this. Thank u for the videos. Stay strong!! U got this💪🙏🙏❤️❤️
Jennifer here - thanks so much for the message and for watching. I have found a good level of Menopause Hormone Therapy (Estradiol patch + micronized progesterone) and an SSRI that altogether has really helped stabilize me. My life has changed so much, though, in terms of exercise which I have really slowed down on because of joint and muscle pain. Starting Herstasis was so helpful because it has allowed me to learn about the SCIENCE of menopause and ignore all the bumpf out there that people are trying to sell me. The creams, the Apps, the one-off hormone tests, the bad advice, the supplements and "compounded bioidentical hormones". You have to be so careful to not buy anyone's Snake Oil which is hard to do when you are desperate for relief. - Hugs xo
There is not enough help to women during periods menopause in the health sistem and i know is very painful fisicaly and mentally I am going through that my symptoms start one year a go and I feel so sad tired and very depressed than you for helping us ❤❤
I am crying right there with her!!! I have felt a lot of those same things. It is a very lonely feeling. It just isn't talked about enough when you are in the early stages.
I have felt like this for a while and now find it hard to leave the house. I cried this morning because I felt overwhelmed needing to do the smallest tasks. I got rid of my care because I just can’t drive. I am 46
I would love to know if she and other women highlighted are on or have tried HRT? I love these stories, makes me feel like it’s not Just ME!!!! But it’s also a little discouraging if I’m being honest. I keep waiting for the good ending when they found HRT or some Kinds of herbs that helped at least a little. I’m only 45 and this roller coaster she speaks of has been ME since I turned 40. And HRT these past few months have ended the extreme irritability and anxiety on a chronic level. Thank god. That was the worst of it. But the swing right before and during my period…that’s still rough. Not anxiety, just way too sensitive, and low mood. I’m getting my testosterone looked at to see if adding that to the Estrodiol & Progesterone…can resolve the low mood, motivation, libido and shitty energy. I’m just in the beginning of the HRT journey…so still tweaking. But already just having the crippling anxiety, insecure and irrational fear looping gone…is worth it.
I would love to know if she and other women highlighted are on or have tried HRT? I love these stories, makes me feel like it’s not Just ME!!!! But it’s also a little discouraging if I’m being honest. I keep waiting for the good ending when they found HRT or some Kinds of herbs that helped at least a little. I’m only 45 and this roller coaster she speaks of has been ME since I turned 40. And HRT these past few months have ended the extreme irritability and anxiety on a chronic level. Thank god. That was the worst of it. But the swing right before and during my period…that’s still rough. Not anxiety, just way too sensitive, and low mood. I’m getting my testosterone looked at to see if adding that to the Estrodiol & Progesterone…can resolve the low mood, motivation, libido and shitty energy. I’m just in the beginning of the HRT journey…so still tweaking. But already just having the crippling anxiety, insecure and irrational fear looping gone…is worth it.
I have never ever wanted to work in healthcare. Never wanted to be a doctor or nurse, but now, if I could start all over again I would have become a doctor for one reason only: to help women going through perimenopause and menopause. I am going through hell. I don't want this.
Jennifer here - I hear you! I do feel like I missed my calling sometimes. Ironically, instead we have to steer Far Away from any type of medical advice, make sure the conversation is kind of contained to stories, and yet keep the community running as a little non-profit from the "Left Coast", Vancouver, without selling women out with quack science "advice", unproven / unsafe products, or your super squee private data out from under you. When we were a tech startup, investors told me "there's no money in women's health" and, unfortunately, they may be right - IF you are doing it with integrity, transparency and honesty for women, and playing within the regulatory rules that include accuracy, reproducibility, efficacy and safety. At Herstasis Health Foundation, we are not Health Care Providers, but that doesn't mean we can't also publicly commit to "First, Do No Harm". Thanks for watching, and check us out at www.herstasis.com.
I have PCOS I went from not having periods and now having super heavy periods I'm 41 my mom passed away in January of this year and my periods are so heavy right now I stay in the shower and I found a couple packs of my mom's adult diapers in closet that's the only thing that seems to handle it I can't do anything I can't go anywhere grrr
I am suffering terribly I’ve been to drs and all tests are clear I am literally planning a funeral for me because I can’t walk long distances the flashes are debilitating the palpitations send me to er dizziness is excessive
I went to VA. My Dr, would NOT help me at all. I found another Dr. That specializes in this. My other labs are perfect, I have NO estrogen or progesterone levels. Literally, so love, they were off the charts. Testosterone 13. This is refreshing. I'm looking so forward to starting. I'm tired even when I'm sleeping. No joke. Thank you!!
Get help. It’s out there. I felt like this and worse and it changes with proper HRT your MD will likely deny. We are in a revolution where women’s hormone changes no longer lead to death of body, mind, spirit…
I am 56 and i have a IUD and small fibroids. I have 2 periods a month. Heavy bleeding for 2 days with big clots. Not happy .wish it was over. This sucks.
56 yrs old in perimenopause. Sucks.i get two periods a month. I have multiple small fibroids. I have very heavy periods 2 days in a roll with clots. It has ruined my life. IUD doesn't help. Waiting for the day my period be gone
We worry about Mary Claire Haver now that she has products she is pushing. As a Doctor, that seems potentially scammy to us and we don't like it. She had some great content before, now we don't recommend watching her, it's too confusing for people.
Thank you for sharing your story, I'm 48 and I've been in Perimenopaus for about+- 3 years. I have anxiety, chronic fatigue and joint pain in my knees and my hips and Pelvis. I've put on 17kg in 18 months. I have no energy at all to do simple things at home. I get tired easily and I just feel like I'm dying slowly 😢. And no one seems to understand the severity of what we as women go through during this time 😢
Not to mention that just about the time a male partner needs Viagra, a woman's libido goes out the window and sex is not only not desired but not even fun anymore. Sex is already so much easier and less complicated for men, and now the blue pill makes it even more so. The only thing that saved me was vaginal hormones. There is no cure for Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM) other than estrogen. It just gets worse and worse as we age. Topical, vaginal estrogen is very safe and can be started at any age.
This exact thing happened to me on the way to work one day, but I think that I was luckier than you. Fortunately, I was wearing a long black nylon coat. I had to leave work once I had clocked in and bought replacement clothes and adult nappies because the bleeding didn’t stop. I called the NHS non emergency line here in the UK, and they organised blood tests as I had recently needed a blood transfusion due to a similar incident that had happened at home. I wasn't prepared the second time because my period wasn't due 😢
Wow! Taking Ryan's ovaries out might have been a big mistake. Nobody told him that this is the body of a woman and this is what happens when you remove estrogen from it it raises havoc. Hopefully the testosterone helps Ryan with the symptoms.
I wish I still had my periods or that at least I had them until a little later. You're right. The great majority of us enter menopause in total ignorance. I started to have symptoms of perimenopause in my mid forties and my cycles stopped at 50. In my peri-menopausal stage i started to have joint pain (shoulders and feet), floaters, I started to gain weight. And I started to have vivid and terrifying nightmares. That's what i remember. After 50 is when the real fun started. The hot flashes were brutal, the insomnia was relentless, the constant need tongo to the bathroom at night. I had a frozen shoulder that finally needed surgery, right now and even before (this pain comes and goes) is foot pain. There was a time when my foot pain was so bad that i couldn't take walks at all. Then i started HRT and so many things started to get better. It's not perfect and I've been having the need to periodically increase my estrogen dose. I had a dexa scan and theu found out I have osteopenia so I need to check my esteogen levels to have them high enough not just to get rid of symptoms but to protect my bones, my heart and my brain.
Jennifer here - Oh dear sweetie, you are really up against it aren't you? We are here and we have survived to tell the tale. Suicidal thoughts are super important to discuss with someone, anyone around you. I still get them but they are more like weird impulses that are merely thoughts now rather than days-long crying. I hope you have a healthcare provider. I managed to finally find an SSRI (Ciprolex) that really helps with my depression spirals that also come with fatigue, plus an Estradiol patch and micronized progesterone pill which helps with lots of other symptoms including sleep. - Hugs from all of us, we see you. xo
Jenna is referring to the fact that so many women have been "taken in" by this so-called bioidentical hormone craze when in fact all the drugs we take are made from and with chemicals. One of my bosses used to say we are just a big bag of enzymes walking around in some skin. Thanks for watching!
Menopause's hormonal changes can disrupt brain chemicals linked to mood, leading to anxiety and depression. Symptoms include feeling down, unmotivated, and excessively worried.
I'm suffering from this now. My mood changes several times throughout the day. Content, sad, anxious, depressed, angry. It's miserable. 😢 Does it get better after full menopause?
Because menses and childbirth aren't enough, now we have menopause. A dirty little secret that no medical professional prepares you for, let alone talks about. And when you ask questions, you get things like "that's just how it is'. I had no perimenopause symptoms and have never had a hot flash. Ok, great but sleep? It's an illusion. And my anxiety, which i never had, continues to escalate. I'm not "pitiful' as one poster noted below but candid, open discussion always makes things better.
Hello Doctor,my mom is going from her menopause, she's 47+ and suffering from heavy bleeding with clots which lasts upto 20 days ,please recommend something,we are in a great trouble!!
Hi there, none of us are Medical Doctors at Herstasis, "just" scientists. Please see our other videos on heavy bleeding on this channel as Jenna discusses the use of the Mirena IUD that solved her heavy (heavy!) bleeding issues. Also you can read more about this terrible symptom at www.herstasis.com/bleeding-issues/. - Hugs to your mom and you from Herstasis. x
Oh dear, that sounds terrible! Poor you, seriously. Lack of sleep will cause so many problems in a life. Regardless of whether you have a uterus or not, you can still take daily micronized Progesterone which has been shown in clinical studies to alleviate some of the perimenopause sleep issues. If you are not also taking Estrogen, then you can ask about that at the same time with your healthcare provider. - Hugs from Herstasis x
Menopause was an incredible relief because WOW that way down was yes-went outta my mind toward the end. Did HRT and made a HUGE difference psychologically, but body no. Went off and had a smoothe exit into menopause. Needed a little hormone kick to get my head okay. I had my last double period and all over SO much easier because YEAH-the very end is psychosis for some. I feel better that I have in a decade post menopause.
