One Hot Mama
I began having hot flashes when I turned 32. That seems young, doesn't it? I thought so too, at first, until I realized that I began menstruating when I was nine. Young, I know, right? Anyway, I remember having a few night sweat episodes after the birth of my youngest, but nothing like the drenchings that began around 40.
I thought that I was experiencing peri-menopause. You know, all those things that we once
heard word-of-mouth, doctors thought women were crazy and referred us to mental health specialists? Thanks to the magic of the interwebs, our collective voices are heard. Turns out, we're women and things like mood swings, headaches, night
sweats, and hot flashes are part an parcel of being female. I know, sucks, right? It's easy to collect these symptoms together and label them "the change of life," except, of course, when we just accept the easy collective reality we might miss the exceptions and individual symptoms that might belong to another, more challenging collective reality.
So, here's the thing: excessive sweating, hot flashes, and night sweats can be peri-menopausal, or they can be something else entirely. If I knew then what I know now, I would have insisted on a complete hormonal panel blood test be ordered often and frequently. The whole kit-and-caboodle.
In fact, when my daughters begin their first annual girly parts exams, I will insist that they get hormonal panels done, too. Period.
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