I've been having some "female" issues for the past 1.5-2 years. Irregular periods, severe mood swings, hot flashes ALL DAY LONG. I'm 36. I went to my GYN a little over a year ago to talk about it and they did some blood work and nothing came back abnormal and since my symptoms weren't consistent there wasn't a whole lot to do other than wait and see. Wait and see if my body regulated itself; wait and see if it got worse; wait and see. Give it some time.
So I did. I waited almost a year. The same things were happening. Not any more consistently, really. I would be regular for a few months. Then skip a month entirely. Some months I would even get to have 2 periods which was SO MUCH FUN. I was due for my annual GYN appointment so I scheduled it for late January. I chatted with my Doctor about what had been happening for the past year and she wanted to do more tests to see if anything had changed.
About a week later, I got the results. My FSH level was high indicating ovarian failure. In turn, could mean early menopause or that I'm Peri-Menopausal. Not sure, what my ovaries are up to, so we scheduled an ultrasound. At the ultrasound appointment, another GYN took my history and got to work. She's looking at all my girly bits on the screen and says "that ovary is dead. nothing happening in there. shriveled up not producing any eggs". Then on to the other ovary. It's not much bigger, maybe a few eggs left, but it doesn't really know what to do any more. The uterine lining is very thin, indicating that my body isn't producing much estrogen. All signs point to Peri-Menopause.
At this point, I'm just taking it all in. We are done having kids. I have two beautiful girls. But the knowledge that I can't have any more children gave me quite a big pang. I know it's just a reaction to the news. I know my limits and my limit is two. Then I started thinking all the what if's. What if I hadn't met R when I did? What if we had waited to have kids? I know we were very lucky to have been able to conceive quickly and have problem-free pregnancies and deliveries. I know.
It is hard to hear that your woman-ness is failing. Some of my friends say I should be doing a happy dance! That, hey, by the time I'm 40 I won't have a period anymore and I can just be FREE! I guess that is true, but I haven't wrapped my head around it yet.
On to the next phase: meeting with the Infertility Specialist. I wasn't quite sure why I was seeing this particular Doctor since I'm not trying to get pregnant. According to my GYN, he is an expert when it comes to hormones and menopause and all of those types of things. I met with Dr. K about a week and a half ago. We spoke for about 45 minutes. He said that only 1% of women go through menopause at the age of 36. He told me about some other tests he wanted to run. Fragile X to see if I'm a carrier. This can lead to learning disabilities and Autism in males. If I am a carrier, my girls will need to be tested before they try to have children. It can also cause some soft-neurological problems in females which I need to remember to ask him about my vertigo. Another test is to look for an auto-immune deficiency that may be attacking my ovaries. This is supposedly rare and not likely, but if it's there it would explain why I'm headed down menopause lane. There are a few others, but I can't remember them now. I go tomorrow to have the blood work done.
The other test I had to do was a Bone Density test, which I did last week. Dr. K wanted to get a baseline on my bone mass. He said your bone mass peaks at around age 35-36 and once you go through menopause, it can decrease somewhat rapidly. I will have to have these tests repeated every few years so we can keep an eye on how my body accepts the changes that are coming.
That is all I know for now. I will meet with Dr. K in a week to go over all my results and come up with a plan. I just want to be able to make it through the process as painlessly as possible.