Increased hair growth is a sign of perimenopause. One of my Caucasian friends said, “Oh my goodness, now I get hairs on my chin.” She looked horrified. Hairs on your chin, you say? My family only realized how fair I was when I started waxing my face and body. When i was 14 years old, my legs looked like I was wearing 60-denier black woolen tights. I wasn’t but from a distance it would be hard to tell. Have i started growing hair in new places? No, the speed of my hair growth everywhere but my head has increased. So is it a problem? Not a new one!
Brain fog and forgetfulness—yes! Definitely something I’m experiencing more frequently than before. I went for a quick food shop and came back. After putting everything away, I spent the next hour looking for my phone and keys. I gave up and got distracted. That evening, my husband pulled my phone and keys out of the freezer.
Another time, during a school pick-up, I was standing in the playground with all the other mums. I felt in my pockets for my keys to put them through my fingers, in case things kicked off. As much as i may joke, school run car park wars is next level, the fight to park closest to the school gates. My friend and i refer to the road as jungleton road. I started patting myself down—fuck, where are my keys? I quickly retraced my steps back to the car, thinking maybe I’d dropped them. My keys are on a bunch, my neighbour affectionately refers to them as caretaker’s: keys. I rarely take keys off, I just add more on, making the bunch so bulky to make it impossible to lose them.
I got to the car, and the car door was wide open, forcing pedestrians to walk around it. They were too polite to shut it, so there was plenty of tutting and eyerolling. I looked inside the car. My keys were in the ignition. The engine was still running. What?! Needless to say, this story is only being shared between me, you, and my best friend.
The one that hit me like a freight train was the smell of my body odour. It was in direct competition with my 14-year-old son’s prepubescent stench. The first time I smelt it, I thought maybe I’d eaten too much Indian food. It smelled like thurka (the process of tempering spices in hot oil or ghee to release their essential flavours and aromas). Basically, cooked onions.
Even after washing my pits, the smell would linger. The only thing that neutralized it for about an hour was my really expensive facial cleanser. Combine this with me using natural deodorant, and I stank. There are times that i smell the inside of my top and dry heave. To date, I’ve thrown away two t-shirts because even after a wash, the armpits have never recovered.
The surprising one was frozen shoulder. I thought I’d worked it too hard in the gym. For the life of me, I couldn’t lift my right arm without pain and sleeping was a nightmare. It was only when I went to my osteopath that she told me it was a symptom, and she had loads of women around my age suffering with it. I guess it helped the smelly pits issue since I couldn’t lift my arms.
The last symptom to date is, motivation is at an all-time low. Especially for work, housework, and getting up from a stationary position. All i want to do is sit the fuck down and stare at a wall.
You may be wondering what i am trying to do to alleviate my symptoms. I am going to share with you what I am doing. It may be worth a try, or it may not. Whatever takes your fancy! Let me know how you are dealing with your symptoms.
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