My Thermostat is Broken ©

While there are things that I have learned about menopause through other's experiences and my own, there are always things that one cannot anticipate because every woman's experience is a little different.

My first menopause symptoms began in my late 30s but I didn't at first recognise what was happening. I just thought I must have been coming down with a virus because I was hot and my cheeks were flushed. Unfortunately my mother hadn't told me that the women in our family tend to start menopause much earlier than average. 

After a year or so of irregular hot flushes I realised what was happening to me and that's when my mother confirmed our tendency to start menopause earlier.

Mum used to talk about sweating so much during her hot-flushes that her clothes became soaked. She said it was like having an internal potbelly-stove that she couldn't turn off.

It seems that I have reached this particular stage just recently, particularly during the colder weather. I think what happens is that when I start feeling the cold, my internal thermostat kicks in, but because the thermostat is not working properly my body doesn't know when to stop heating up. So on a cold morning, at first I'll be shivering a little with the cold, and then half an hour  later, I'll be burning up as my internal potbelly stove goes into over-drive. My cheeks are so flushed that it looks like I'm guilty of committing some crime that I'm embarrassed about.

Thankfully I haven't started sweating like I've developed my own personal Niagara Falls but it sure is a weird sensation. It's almost like I am burning up on the inside while I'm cold on the outside. ©