Suicidalness = I don't want to live THIS life

[DharmaGirl]

So, things got sooooo bad that I've finally gone back on HRT.

I had a breakdown at age 52 because of menopause. My doctor told me she didn't want to mess with my hormones since I was suicidal, but had she, I could have skipped the breakdown, loss of career, the damage to my son. I didn't realize it was partially my hormones until menopause was over. Thank the gods you got back on because my loved ones and I went through hell!

 

[Ecdysis]

Yes, it's shocking how much misinformation is out there about menopause, hormones and HRT - even among doctors!! It's considered to be a "women's issue" and hence treated as being unimportant.

I saw so many Dr's asking them "what on earth is wrong with me?" and listing all my symptoms and not one of them said "it could be peri-menopause". In the end, my partner complaining to his (male) co-worker about how bad my health issues were, had that guy saying "Sounds like it could be menopause".

Even then, it was such a struggle to get Dr's on board with it... It's taken me 4 years of struggle to get it sorted out and things have been a MESS during that time. I was fired from 3 jobs because I simply wasn't coping at work - and I'd NEVER been fired before in my entire life.

Sorry you've gone through it too... It makes me so mad to think that not only have generations of women before us suffered through this, but that millions of women are still suffering through it today, just because Dr's are so badly informed. I ended up complaining about this to everyone I could find and someone ended up telling me that during their university training, doctors have ONE lecture on menopause. If they miss that lecture or aren't paying attention that day, their knowledge about it is basically zero. If they attend the lecture and pay attention, that one hour of basic information is what they've got and that's it. What truly shocked me tho, is how badly informed a lot of ob gyn's are. I assumed that at least THEY would be experts in menopause but nooooo... Some of them are great, but you really need to search to find them and the bulk of ob gyn's are just full of such crap about menopause... basically repeating rumours that they've heard and saying things that are patently wrong. When I was looking for an ob gyn who was really informed about menopause, I saw about 10 or 12 different ones and they'd just tell me such rubbish and they'd all be contradicting each other too.

Seeing as women are more than 50% of the population, I really, reeeeeeally hope this pathetic health care gap is closed soon and our generation is the last to go through this...

 

[SeekingAfrica]

Seeing as women are more than 50% of the population, I really, reeeeeeally hope this pathetic health care gap is closed soon and our generation is the last to go through this...

True. But let's face it, we had to fight for the right to work, to vote, to work certain 'male' jobs, and let's face it- there is still a gap financially at many jobs for how much women are paid. So while this is an awful oversight and I'm sorry it happened to the both of you (@Ecdysis and @DharmaGirl ) I am not really surprised sadly.
A friend got dismissed for a serious issue because of her weight- and it took until she'd been in the emergency room few times to be taken seriously and figured out it was different issue. And that was in a 'first-world' country... We have a long way to go as a society...
But I am glad if the 2 of you have found some help/relief for your health. The society...that will take time... But I hope you are doing better, both of you.

It's considered to be a "women's issue" and hence treated as being unimportant.

That makes me so mad! People use words to discredit experiences all the time! Like mental health is 'it's in your head'- but hello, your brain is in your head, if you're brain-dead you're close to be considered dead... like it's one of the most important things and it's still dismissed because people go by the ancient greek idea of something being real if you can see or touch it.
Also growing up there was a lot of shaming around my period, which took a long time to get over- and it's literally something that every woman goes through- but you have to be ashamed to talk about it? We have a lot of growing to do as society.