In the spirit of Breast Cancer Awareness month and women's health in general, I thought I'd share what I've been reading lately that has been a big help to me. Hopefully this doesn't break the bounds of "TMI," but I've been struggling through several unpleasant symptoms of menopause. I hate to think that I'm already at this stage of life, but some tests from this past summer seem to confirm it and when you can go down and check "YES" to every symptom on the menopause list, well, I guess that's where I'm at.

Anyways, I thought that since I haven't really ever had any bad problems with 'female issues' that perhaps I would escape the wrath of menopause.... hmmm.... apprarently not. And what finally kicked me over into the "I have GOT to figure out something to do about this!" phase of things was the hot flashes that were happening about 10 times a day and then waking me up 2 or 3 times a night and making life miserable. Then I started forgetting everything, and I couldn't concentrate on anything, and I was tirerd, and getting depressed, and you name it... SO... about the time I was getting frustrated with all that, I had a couple of conversations that led me to this book, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause" by Dr. John Lee. And I'm just telling you, if you are a woman in your 40s (or even younger), whether you are having any symptoms of menopause or not, you owe it to yourself to read this book. I have learned SO much about hormones and how they effect EVERY system in your body. It's crazy...

The good news for me is that since putting into practice what I'm reading, particularly in regards to the use of progesterone, after 3 weeks my hot flashes are gone and I'm beginning to feel MUCH better all around! :) And beyond the menopause issues, I hope that the progesterone, along with some vitamin and mineral supplements, will help my issuses with the onset of osteoporosis. I honestly thought it was too late for me to really do anything about that, but I'm finding out that it's not - and if there is anything I can do to avoid this crippling disease that I've watched my grandmother, my mom and my aunt suffer through, I'm going to give it a try.

So that is my 'health update' for now. I hope to continue to report good things with more time... and don't be surprised, if you're a woman and friends with me, if your next Christmas or Birthday present is a copy of this book! :)