I'm not sure where to start to offer you any help. But suffice it to say that menopause completely changes your entire system. All hormones work together and support one another. While the sex steroids of our younger days are a minor hormone system, they certainly do work with insulin, cortisol, adrenaline, and thyroid.

For all of us in menopause, the imbalance and lack of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone cause problems and symptoms that are far reaching into every part of your body. As one example, it is well known that there are estrogen receptors in 400 different locations in the body. So is it any wonder that woman have trouble with sleep, dry eyes, dry mouth, hot flashes, vaginal atrophy and the sensation of bugs crawling under their skin. There isn't a piece of our bodies that doesn't feel the lack of this hormone. And yes, even a bad cholesterol profile is also a lack of estrogen. Proven repeatedly to completely reverse with estrogen replacement therapy.

Apparently, you are having hot flashes. And yes, many of the changes you describe can be related to menopause. So the question becomes, are you interesting in replacing the missing hormones, or simply looking for the options available to combat some of your symptoms? Only you can answer that question.

I would just like to lead a normal life. Not feel depressed over the smallest of things, not walk like I was 100yrs old instead of 50 and start to enjoy life again. I've always been a practical one doing as much DIY as I can, spending time in the garden lifting and digging etc without feeling that I need to sleep for the rest of the afternoon when I stop. I just feel as though,

'I want my Mo Jo back'!

Another thing you mentioned about your skin feeling like there are creatures crawling I have that to sometimes wonder if I've been bitten with a mosquito that has laid eggs ore something, you see these documentaries on the tv! Horrible thought.

I'm so glad that I can converse on this forum without feeling silly with my (complaints/symptoms)

Thank you.

LE Ford,

You aren't being silly. And your symptoms are very real. For a starter, get yourself a copy of the book by Elizabeth Vilet, Screaming to be Heard Hormonal Connections that Woman Suspect and Doctors Still Ignore.

Excellent, well documented information. All these things you describe have very real chemical answers. Your body is feeling the lack of those chemicals, which will also effect all the other hormone systems in your body. This is why woman become hypothyroid or diabetic or have adrenal gland problems after menopause. This is why our skin sags, we can't sleep, get irritable, and have no energy.

Another powerful author and teacher is an endocrinologist from California, Dr. Diana Schwarzbein. She says her mission in life is to change how we treat menopause. She firmly believes that we set ourselves up for the degenerative diseases of aging, by not treating menopause correctly with bioidentical hormone replacement. In fact, she has a list of 100 top symptoms for menopause. Even the foot pain you mention is on her list.