Maureen57 I know exactly how you feel. I joined this forum 4 years ago and it saved my sanity. I haven't had a period for 3 years and before it stopped I had had at least 7 years of awful menopause symptoms. I thought I was beginning to get back to normal but in the past month I've been having nausea, dizziness, irritability, mood swings and sweats again! When I see how many others this is happening to I feel like just giving up. As I type this now I am in tears. I have never taken anything the doctor prescribed and only gone down the natural route. I have spent thousands of pounds on vitamins(which I regularly take)and hormone creams. I watch what I eat.What else can I/we do? I said to my husband just the other day that I preferred having periods to this! I'm 53 and don't want the rest of my life to be like this. Its a truly depressing thought. Once again, this forum will be my saving grace as I know I'm not the only one.

I am taking Remifemin Nighttime and it has helped me sleep. My naturopathic doctor told me to try it because I was turning into a zombie from the lack of sleep. It took about six weeks to kick in. You should be able to find it at your local health food store or at someplace like Whole Foods. I get my through VitaCost.com. I hope it works for you if you try it.

I found that the Estroven, which has black cohosh, seemed to make me gain some weight. I was taking daytime AND nighttime. When I cut out the daytime, I felt lighter....but also had more hot flashes at night. You may be onto something. So much for my "weighing" in!

Obviously what you consider significant and worth seeking treatment for is not what I consider significant or worth seeking treatment for. (You did notice that the statistic referred to no problems *or* ones so mild they did not seek treatment for them?) Had I sought treatment I would have asked for treatment for the specific problem of depression which would most certainly not have been hormones. Do you think my taking hormones would have brought my beloved canine companion back to life? Would my taking hormones have made my kids younger so they could have stayed home instead of going off to college leaving me with a huge empty house? Do you think my taking hormones would have cured my wonderful father's lung cancer? Would my taking hormones have saved his life or brought him back? Those things were going on at the same time as perimenopause and menopause. Those things were causing the depression and depression was an appropriate response to them. Taking hormones would have been stupid for two reasons. They weren't going to change the underlying cause and instead of learning how to cope with inevitable rough spots life hands out and growing from them I would have established a habit of running for a pill bottle to fix my life.