Menopause And Pregnancy:  Miserable Together

You think you might be pregnant.  But you’ve been having menopausal symptoms for years.  Your period even stopped six months in a row, then started up again, only to stop again.  Menopause and pregnancy – it couldn’t be possible, could it?  Yes, it can, although it’s very rare.  Go for a pregnancy test as soon as you can.

Just A Little Bit Menopausal

Although you can’t be just a little bit pregnant, you can be a little bit menopausal.  One of the main reasons menopause and pregnancy occurs is that women go through different events that differs for each women.  Although missing your period for six months while having other menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, insomnia and mood swings usually means your body is through changing, it is not always the case.  Sometimes there’s that one straggler egg that just hangs back for attention.  So you really need to continue any birth control practices until you start getting Social Security, just to be on the safe side.  Either that or get your man to have a vasectomy.  But keep in mind; accidents do happen, especially in bed.

Now You Tell Me

If you discover you are pregnant, then make a thorough and careful decision, just like you would have to do if you got pregnant when you were younger.  You must take into consideration your health history, your financial situation and whether you have had children already.  If you have never had children and are over 40, the chances are huge that you will have a miscarriage.  Your body is under the tremendous strain of menopause.  Menopause AND pregnancy might really hurt your body permanently, as well as the health of the baby.  The choice is yours, depending upon where you live and what your religious attitudes to abortion are.

Can both mother and baby survive menopause and pregnancy?  Very rarely, yes.  Usually that happens only to older women in good health who regularly exercise, eat healthily and who have had children already.  It is up to you to decide whether to take the chance or not.  It’s not entirely your fault that you have both menopause and pregnancy.  You are just like the person who lives in a flood zone or in Tornado Alley.  Don’t beat yourself up over this.

Prognosis:  Grim

The only way to deal with menopause and pregnancy is to not get pregnant during menopause or pre-menopause (also called “perimenopause”).  Unless you are Ms. Olympia and have more kids than you’ve had hot dinners, menopause and pregnancy tends to end in heartbreak.  But this baby could also kill you.  I’m not trying to scare you – I’m telling you the truth so you can make the best decision for you.

Goodbye Menopause, Hello Post-Menopause

Congratulations!  You’ve survived menstruation, maybe pregnancy, and have now completed menopause.  Post-menopause is usually when you haven’t had a period in a year.  For some women, they go into post-menopause at only six months of no periods.  Some women may need more than a year and a half before their final flow.  Every woman is different.  But post-menopause can be a time of freedom from the cycles of the reproductive organs.  It’s a sort of return to childhood.

I Can’t Wait

It can be hard to tell f you’ve moved from menopause to post-menopause.  The body always seems to try to surprise you.  If you had a dollar for every time you heard a doctor say, “I’ve never seen this before”, you could buy your own island.  Even if all of the other symptoms of menopause have gone for years – the hot flashes, the mood swings, the food cravings, the headaches, the insomnia, whatever you had — you could still have a period and still be considered menopausal.

Post-menopause begins a year after your last period.  But was your last period your last period?  It can be hard to tell.  Was that spotting I had last month a period or something else?  Unless you had a hysterectomy, it can be hard to determine when your last period was.  This is normal.

The only somewhat reliable medical test to determine if you are, indeed, into post-menopause is called an FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) level blood or urine test.  This checks how much of each hormone is still left in your body.  This is a controversial test as it doesn’t seem to be accurate for a lot of women, especially if they were or are still on any kind of hormone replacement therapy.

One of the big advantages of post-menopause is that it usually is no big deal when you start.  It doesn’t require a huge change of lifestyle.  If you’re not sure if you are still in the least bit fertile, don’t take any chances.  Still use birth control.

Party On

So, you have no more eggs for babies.  So what?  You are still a worthwhile and valuable member of society.  Many women love their post-menopause years.  They have more freedom to be themselves, to pursue hobbies and volunteer work because they don’t need to worry about keeping children or a boyfriend safe.  The sex drive doesn’t go entirely away during post-menopause, but your knowledge of sex leads usually to better quality sex, if less quantity.  Your sex life is only a fraction of what you are.