" ... eating lots of tomatoes (along with a properly balanced diet) is a far better solution than popping a pill." Taking another look at the article, we see ... "Lycopene is an antioxidant contained in the skin of tomatoes which gives them their red colour. But lycopene ingested in its natural form is poorly absorbed. Ateronon (in the pill) contains a refined, more readily absorbed version of lycopene ..." So, maybe the pill form of lycopene will prove more beneficial that eating copious amounts of tomato skin? Time should tell.

Before subjecting yourself to genetic testing, I think you should ask yourself how much you want to know and what it will do for you. My Dr. wanted to know if my high cholesterol was coming from my food or was genetic. He didn't tell me that I was also going to find out my risk for alzheimers and heart attack/stroke. I already knew that being diabetic I was at higher risk for those conditions. I didn't need to know that my genetics put me in a high risk catagory and there is not much I can do about it that I wasn't already doing. My kids weren't thrilled either.

So far, I have seen 4 different cardiologists, 3 of which are electrophysiologists who specialize in arrhythmias. I have had every test under the sun. I even wore a portable heart monitor for a month. I do not have A-fib, I have "ventricular tachycardia" and PVC's -- they have seen it on the monitor so they know exactly what the abnormal rhythm is. When I ask why it is happening, they say that some people are born with abnormal pathways in the heart that can get irritated and misfire, especially when exposed to things like caffeine, adrenaline (from exercise or stress) and hormonal changes. I have had bouts of palpitations on and off since I was in my 20s, but each time, cutting back on the caffeine fixed them. This was the first time I've had the VT as well as the palps, and while cutting back on caffeine helped a lot, it hasn't made them totally go away -- and like I said, they seem to be related to my menstrual cycle. So I'm guessing that if I was prone to palpitations my whole life because of some inborn tendency of my heart, menopause may be rough going for me....which is why I would consider the HRT, even though I am normally very anti-hormone meds in general (like I said, I've never even taken the pill). I did see the endocrinologist for a thyroid workup after one of my thyroid numbers came back abnormal. But apparently, it wasn't an important number because they tell me my thyroid is fine -- all the important numbers like TSH and T3 and T4 are right in normal range. I do have an appointment with a second endocrinologist in a couple weeks -- I made it a few months ago (she was out on maternity leave) before I saw the first endocrinologist and I figure it can't hurt to get another opinion on both the thyroid and the menopause stuff. Thanks for all the suggestions so far, and for the links. I will spend some time checking out those sites today and see if there's something I can try supplement-wise that might help before I go the HRT route. Please keep the feedback coming if you have any experience with any of this -- supplements, HRT, or menopause in general. I am so not ready for this, LOL!

I do have some of those symptoms, but they are not in any way associated with post menopause. I think my dizzy spells were caused by stress of caring for my husband who had AZ. I had heart palpitations but it was just a fluke and before menopause. As for painful legs....do you take a lot of calcium? I hurt like ***l when I first get up, it's arthritis and it helps to walk more during the day. My husband had that problem following surgery and it was just sitting to much. My grandparents said, "I'm stove up this morning". LOL And, I feel it is just part of the aging problems, the people in the neighborhood that I talk to are going through the same thing. If you were 20 and having problems like this you wouldn't think anything of it.