So, today I changed the name of this blog to “One Quarter of the Way to Menopause.”  Oh, and since you read the word menopause in the last sentence and since it is a key word in the new title of my blog, you are likely to encounter talk here now about periods, hormones, hot flashes, and other things some men [& some women or young people] might be uncomfortable reading about or at the very least, uninterested in reading about.  So, here is your warning to leave now if you don’t want to hear about the last time I had a period. I understand that I am narrowing the focus of this blog pretty sharply and that is entirely okay with me.  I am writing in order to help navigate this new territory I seem to have stumbled into, and if you are stumbling round the same territory, you might be somebody I’d like to share information with.

One symptom of this new phase is that when I become tired, I literally cannot keep my eyes open, so I am about to have to go and sleep, but first I will explain how I came to decide I am one-quarter of the way to menopause.  It has been about 2 1/2 months since my last period, I think.  I have an app on my phone that could tell me exactly, but about 2-3 months seems about right.  According to what I have read lately, menopause is actually a state that is achieved after a woman has had one straight year with no periods, so I figure I could very well be one-quarter of the way there right now.  After I mark that one year point, I will be considered post-menopausal, which seems really unfair since I won’t get to spend much time being menopausal.  I have apparently been peri-menopausal for quite some time, but things kicked it up a notch here lately.  A sneak peek of some of the new symptoms I will write about when I can again keep my eyes open:  dry, red, tired eyes, dizziness, loss of muscle strength, irritability that can lead to occasional to frequent irrational anger/rage, fatigue, night-time tiredness that can literally result in eyes slamming shut for the night and not wanting to open right away in the morning, or random occasional insomnia, and fuzzy thinking that has made me forget the rest of the new symptoms.  So, if you are a woman some place between ages 40 and 59- welcome.  Let me hear from you.