Hi CJ,

I'm 62yr and started menopause at age 50. I read a book at that time by Dr. Christiane Northrup called The Wisdom of Menopause which I highly recommend. Menopause is not a disease but awesome time for a woman to rebirth herself. Our nurturing hormones start to go and that's when we start to see the inequities around us. This can make us angry. Or sad . lots of emotions come to the surface. That's the time to look inside oneself for answers. It's not easy. You have to be really honest with yourself. For me personally, I stopped eating foods with sugar which helped with physical symptoms. I still woke up at night sweating so I put a bath towel on my sheets. I never took a drug, pill or anything for the symptoms I just toughed it out. And on the other side emerged a wiser and stronger woman. I never went to see a doctor because I am determined never to get on that treadmill. Eating paleo was one of the smartest things I ever did and I'm sure helped lesson the symptoms. Read everything you can to educate yourself. And don't be afraid. This is how I did it. BTW I used to get migraines until I stopped eating anything with sugar or foods that burn as sugar.

I'm 49 & I've been using Pro-gest for perimenopausal symptoms.

Going Primal solved most of my symptoms, so I stopped using the cream, but recently was dealing with some pre-menstrual spotting and started using the cream again. It's working great & I will definitely be using it as needed to ease my shift.

Zinc and Vitamin E supplementation has been helpful, too.

Hi, Natasha. I do yoga, and other gentle, restorative exercise. Daily, restorative movement, several times each day, is vital for me. And sunshine.

I take the following supplements: EPO, CLO, Vit. C and D. (I eat a bit of pastured butter with the D and CLO.) Also, magnesium malate, iodine, beta glucans, biotin, Unique brand Vit. E, zinc, and PicMins minerals, nutritional and brewer's yeast, and local bee pollen. I may add a few other supplements. The CLO, D and bit of pastured butter make life nicer, more cheery, and seem to be regenerating something. The EPO and E, as well, and they keep me from having creaky bones. Remember when the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz got some oil and he didn't creak anymore? E and EPO do that for me. The minerals, magnesium, and extra zinc make me feel stronger, more solid, and calm.

Some use chasteberry, I have not tried it yet.

If the waking up at 2 am gets too tedious, I sometimes take one tablet of diphenhydramine.

I avoid all processed foods except for beef bacon. No coffee, alcohol, or chocolate. I protect my sleep and rest environment and schedule.

I eat beef, beef fat, eggs (mostly yolks), wild salmon, veal brains, beef liver, sometimes chicken liver and cream, with a bit of plant matter. I grow herbs and a few vegs. I try to avoid store-bought produce when possible. I avoid nightshades and FODMAPs, and high amine foods, oxalates and goitrogens. I eat low salicylate, too. The cream is mostly as yoghurt which I incubate 24-48 hours.

I drink tea, which helps in small amounts. Too much is too much. :) Tea is the only high salicylate food I use.

Food plan is 20-30g/CHO day, 50-75g/PRO/d, and usually 120-150g/FAT per day. I eat small portions, keeping the law of small numbers, per Dr. Richard Bernstein.

I haven't got it all solved, but doing these things has helped very, very much.

I wish you all the best. :)

I'm 52 and perimenopausal for 2-3 years now. Periods became irregular, every 3 weeks 3 or 4 times in a row, then none for 3-4 months, then every 3 weeks, some very light, some extremely heavy to the point it frightened me although I always had very heavy periods (but also very regular) all those years before.

I also had on and off spotting. I started having increasing perimenopausal symptoms like brain fogs, extreme sensitivity to temperatures and feeling hot in the morning and cold only a half hour later, but no hot flashes yet. More mood swings as well.

I then went online and read several blogs and forums about menopause and learned that basically "anything goes" and also that rule about not having a period for a year means "menopause" but actually there seem to be enough women out there who suddenly have a period after 2 years or 2 or 3 periods one year apart.

My spotting stopped about a year ago, I went paleo last summer and my other symptoms greatly disappeared, most noticeably the temperature thing and feeling hot/cold.

I haven't had a period now in several months, I don't count anymore because unless I should develope symptoms that frighten me or make me feel extremely uncomfortable I feel that "anything goes" and I keep my feminine pads in the closet and maybe I need them again next week, maybe next year, maybe still when I'm 60 or maybe never again.

I feel that since less than half of all women our age in the Western world still have a uterus and a large majority of those are on some form of medication, be it hormone related or otherwise, I don't really have any reliable examples of what is "normal" and what is supposed to happen and what not.

I will rely on food, homeopathy, and herbs to make me feel better when needed. And like I said I don't like to go to doctors and will only do so if I think I'm seriously ill.

Long ago I was in the hospital (because of fibroid surgery) and one of my roommates was a 54 year old woman (I was 35 at the time) who had a hysterectomy because her periods were so heavy and frequent that she collapsed.

Her hysterectomy was voluntary, she didn't want to have anything to do with it any longer. I now learned from the internet/books that those symptoms (very heavy periods too frequently) are the number one reason for all hysterectomies in women our age and why at age 60 only 30% in our society still have their uterus.

I also learned from all these forums I read that there I several women who "tough it out" and that it will eventually stop. Never say never but for the time being everything has already improved due to diet and I intend to die with my uterus.