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I have my yearly appointment with my OB-gyn tomorrow, and my big question for her will be whether we can draw blood to check all my hormone levels to try to figure out whether I could already be menopausal. Technically, a woman isn\u2019t officially deemed to be in menopause until she has gone an entire year with no periods. But it can be tricky in women who are on oral contraceptive pills, because the birth control pill provides hormones to your body that mimic, to a certain extent, the natural hormonal cycle that the body goes through, where at the end of each 28 day cycle there is a 4 day period of time (no pun intended) when the progesterone-like hormone is missing. This \u201cprogesterone withdrawal\u201d is typically what triggers a woman to bleed. So women could theoretically already be in menopause, where their own bodies aren\u2019t producing the hormones needed to ovulate or create menstrual cycles anymore, but the birth control pills are making them continue to have cyclical bleeding. I started having hot flashes several years ago, and at first had no idea what they were – because what woman in her early 40s with a 2 year old at home thinks of herself as perimenopausal? But after it happened a few times, I researched it and found that hot flashes can begin up to 10 years before a woman is menopausal. At the same time, I felt more anxiety than usual, and I also noticed continued declines in my sleep quality and quantity. I spoke to my OB-gyn about it all, and she put me on an oral contraceptive called Lo LoEstrin Fe to help \u201csmooth it out.\u201d I\u2019ve been on them more maybe 2 years now, and indeed, they eliminated my hot flashes and I no longer felt anxious. My sleep quality improved too (except for that 4 day window when the progestin disappeared each month). But oddly, I never got my period when expected. I might spot in the middle of the pill pack and then have no period during the time when it would be expected, or I might go for 6 weeks with nothing. I realized that I am only 2 years younger than my mother\u2019s age at menopause, and I got my period at a very young age (11), so it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if I spent my egg reserve sooner than someone who got their first period at age 14. So now I am wondering whether I could even already be menopausal but just don\u2019t know it because or the birth control pills.<\/p>\n
Who cares? I do, because 2\/3 of late onset Alzheimer\u2019s patients are female, and the sex difference is thought to possibly be related to the loss of female hormones. The menopause transition is a time in a woman\u2019s life when her brain is suddenly more vulnerable, and brain imaging studies<\/a> have shown that there are dramatic changes in the structure and function of women\u2019s brains as they go through perimenopause and menopause.<\/p>\n