I wish they had a class on menopause like they had on puberty when I was in 5th grade. No one tells you what to expect. I remember my mom went through menopause but she was too pissed off at the time to explain it. Now she’s too old to remember it. So i just realized that I’ve been in Perimenopause for the past 2 years. I had all the symptoms but blamed the symptoms on other conditions. If there was more awareness on the topic I could saved my sanity and a lot of money. Here are the symptoms I’ve had so far, what I blamed them on, and money I’ve wasted to fix the problem.

1. Hair loss/thinning. My hair became much thinner and super fragile over a period of 6 months. It literally broke off and I was extremely embarrassed and wore it in a ponytail to hide the fact I had no hair. I blamed my hairdresser for over-processing my hair. Solution: tape in hair extensions. Cost: $2000 and counting.

2. Inability to concentrate and lack of motivation. I was diagnosed with adhd 20 years ago. I blamed my medicine and assumed it suddenly stopped working. I wondered if I suddenly developed a tolerance to it. Which is odd bc it’s been effective for the past 18 years. Why all the sudden a tolerance. And my motivation and energy has decreased drastically in the past 2 years. I’ve become antisocial and would rather sit around at home in yoga pants all day. I used to workout all the time. I mean I ran half marathons and lifted weights every day. And I thought I was just becoming lazy all of the sudden in the past 2 years.

3. Weight gain: this was never an issue for me before. I could eat everything in sight and not gain a pound. Over the past 2 years I’ve gained 16 lbs that I cannot lose. I blamed “being lazy” (which is partly to blame). But i can’t lose the weight like I could before. If I ever binged on junk food for two weeks straight when I was younger, all I had to do was cut out sugar and eat a healthy diet for two weeks and bam the 10 lbs I gained was gone. Cost: my self esteem money spent on new clothes to fit my curvy body.

4. Vaginal wall weakness. To save you TMI, I’ll just say that those muscles weaken and loosen. I blamed childbirth (yes partially true). But menopause in general weakens those muscles quickly. Kegals weren’t enough. Cost: $1000 to repair my bladder that prolapsed (weak muscles down their can cause that) and $6000 for vaginal rejuvenation to bring the muslce walls back together.

If I knew early on what to expect perhaps I could have treated/minimized these problems early on. I would have saved $9000 and my self esteem. But I have an appointment in two weeks with my gyno. Hopefully he has a solution!!