The Midlife Nurse

So in the years I have been peri menopausal I’ve had all the usual symptoms and lots of aches and pains and bowel issues. This year I’ve spent most of the time in and out of tests and after being diagnosed with microscopic colitis – apparently most prevalent in women over 50, I have been given a diagnosis of osteoarthritis in my neck and lower back. Too degenerative to be treated.

And so there’s nothing that can be done except spend my life on heavy duty drugs.

So, my question is …. Osteoporosis is a widely researched condition associated with menopause. Is osteoarthritis a thing to research or am I just unlucky? 🙄😂 Dr Google obviously links everything tentatively with everything so please don’t make that your first point of call for medical answers but I would ask is stating “prevalence of disease that occur more commonly in women aged between 40-60” just a blanket term because there’s no money to research the vast majority of conditions that present themselves during menopausal age or is or just the normal age for the body to begin deteriorating? Men age the same but have different health issues – each gender has different makeup so will have different concerns. Does everything have to be relayed back to menopause just because I’m female?

My daughter reminded me that cavemen and women died early in age, so won’t have had the issues we are experiencing and since then we’ve lived longer and longer so our bodies are pushed to their limits.

So I guess the take home message is to appreciate that our bodies are amazing, but be gentle with them.

Oh and don’t over focus, over analyse, over research, or “become” your condition.