What has been your experience going through the menopause?

were you one of the luck ones or did you experience problems with anxiety, depression, ibs, hot flushes etc.,? and how did you manage? did you receive medication or go for alternative therapies etc.,?

Oh my gosh menopause has been hard on me, but I will not take medication because my mother got breast cancer from it. I just suffer through and know that in time when ever that will be it will end the hot flashes and the depression and anxiety have all been hard on me. Talking with others and having a supporting family helps the most for me

i dread the thoughts of it my sister is going through all of the above at the moment and with being diabetic she cant have hrt she has to go it alone which i think is very unfair
am pre- menopause, so far just the hot flushes, but believe me they are bad - all of a sudden for no reason sweat is pouring off you, then as quickly as it comes it goes - so far no other symtoms
I am one of the lucky ones. I have never experienced a hot flush, mood swings or anything.

I do have a very positive outlook on life which I think helps. I never give in to illness. I just don't have the time.
I never had a period problem from when I started at 13. When I went through Menopause starting around 48, I had about two "hot flashes" and that was it. I never experienced mood swings, or any other manifestations historically associated with menopause. While I do not doubt these problems are often very real for some women, I have a very strong feeling that girls are conditioned from an early age to anticipate such problems as a matter of course. they watch for them to happen, they expect them to happen, and I think there is a whoooole lot of psychosomatic involvement here.

I lived a lot of years of my life in different countries, especially around the Mediterranean Basin. I don't recall EVER hearing a woman complain of period problems, or difficulties with menopause. How interesting it is that in those places women simply are not in the habit of teaching their daughters to expect those difficulties as a matter of course.

It is also noteworthy that big pharmaceutical companies are making zillions of dollars plugging and selling umpteen different products that target "women's monthly woes" and the claimed "difficulties of menopause". It is almost a mass social indoctrination into a belief that to be a woman is to have a life that will inevitably be punctuated by these "curses" I of course cannot make the claim that I escaped all of them by simply not buying into the indoctrination process, but the fact remains, I did, (escape them) and I didn't (buy into it).
I am going through it just now and have problems with night-sweats and hot flashes however I don't want to take any HRT as I feel it is part of the cycle of life and I want just get on with this new chapter of my life.
i had a emergency hysterectomy when i was 28 and when i was 29 started going through the menopause and for two years no one done anything to help me and it was terrible i was like the exorcist my husband used to say he was waiting for my head to spin round.id sweat like i had run the marathon,i would bite everyones head of for no reason.they decided to put me on hrt and i was like a new woman,Ive been on it now for 8yrs and i still need a fan on at night as i still get warm but without these baby's i would of killed someone before now!.some people agree with taking hrt some people don't but for me its brilliant.