Question for women regarding menopause

Haven’t been on for a while, but something has been really bugging me. I went to the doctor with what seemed like a bladder infection but was actually vaginal atrophy that I was then prescribed vaginal estrogen cream. I first took 2 grams every night for two weeks and then 1 gram 3 times/week. I’m now going on my fourth week, but for the last week, I have been nauseous nearly every day with acid indigestion and bloating. It’s been quite frustrating.

My question is would these effects last for this long or is this TMS rearing its ugly head? One thing to note, last Thursday was my youngest’s 21st birthday - the same daughter I had major labor and birth complications that led to PTSD. Pelvic pain, nausea, everything I felt after I had her has resurfaced, but it seems worse now than it has in the past. Can TMS and PTSD collide like this, on top of menopause?

I had been doing really well but menopause has been a struggle and knowing there are dozens of symptoms makes me question TMS and it doesn’t help that I feel the same symptoms I felt when pregnant. @plum @Nicole J. Sachs LCSW

 

Jan,

Thanks for your comment. I think you may be onto something about growing older and losing my womanhood, not to mention having incontinence issues at my age. I feel like I started menopause way too young, and yet, I know there are others who had a hysterectomy with their ovaries removed and started surgical menopause in the 30’s, so I’m lucky in that respect.

What’s weird is that when I first started taking the estrogen, I was nauseated for a few days, but then it went away. It seemed that when I adjusted the cream down to 1 gram 3 days/week is when I started with the nausea and other gastrointestinal issues. I’m also headed to the dentist (my not-so-favorite place) on Thursday to get a tooth pulled and three cavities filled. I will be under sedation though, so that shouldn’t worry me too much, but I do a phobia on the dentist.

There’s one other thing that I just realized - both my sister and her daughter were diagnosed with celiacs disease, and they have the worst kind. My sister had to redo her whole kitchen and remove any gluten. If she even touches someone else’s food that has gluten in it, she gets sick. So, I was over getting my hair done and she started talking about it and then told me I should get tested because it runs in families and my issues could be that. Of course, my TMS brain ran with it, even though I had already been tested. (Oh, but there’s a special test you haven’t taken) Anyway, she starts listing off the symptoms and posting on social media this month because it’s National Celiac Month and I swear I have most of the symptoms! I kept telling her that I didn’t have it but she kept pestering me, even though she knows about TMS!

So, although I think some of this is related to the hormones, I also think TMS wormed its way in again when my sister starting getting me to doubt. I have told myself over and over again that I don’t have it, but the niggling in the back of my mind keeps saying, “but maybe you do.”

How do I shut it up and move forward? Do I get tested again with this special test just to put my mind at ease or tell my brain to F*** off?

 

Just to tell you my experience with estrogen in menopause. Last year I tried estrogen suppositories for atrophy and I had nausea from it. I didn’t expect side affects at all, I haven’t read the description when I took them. I had no clue where the nausea could come from, I was alarmed and thought it might something severe in the stomach. Then, after more than one month I had this epiphany when I was in the shower: I said to myself that this must be the feeling pregnant women sometimes have - and then I made the connection: nausea and hormones. I looked it up and there it was: stomach issue, e.g. nausea. I stopped taking the estrogen and the nausea went away.
There are natural alternatives that could help to compensate the lack of estrogen.

 

Hi, so are you saying vaginal atrophy feels like a bladder infection? This may not be the same but I’ll tell you my story for what it’s worth. I’ve dealt with UTIs for decades. In the last couple years, sometimes it felt exactly like I had one but the culture was negative. But most of the time they’ve been positive cultures confirming an infection. Whether I’ve had a true infection or not each time, I truly believe that my recurrent infections are rooted in TMS (although I haven’t really knocked them out with TMS approaches).

The most recent time I thought I felt one coming on and I just took over the counter Azo pills and felt better quickly ... placebo or not, who knows? But given my experience, I wonder if it might be your body reacting to TMS stressors and it’ll go away by other means rather than the hormones, which seem to be aggravating your body more than anything.

I don’t even know what vaginal atrophy is so I may be totally off the mark, but I figured I’d share my thoughts. I hit menopause 2.5 years ago and besides a few warm flashes here and there, I really don’t feel anything else different. So I haven’t dealt with hormone therapy or anything. But I wonder if you just try stopping the hormones, and try to dig into the TMS stuff and maybe try natural remedies if you’re still having symptoms.

Good luck and I hope you start feeling better soon!