Menopodcast Season 3 Episode 6

Menopodcast - Menopause For The 21st Century

Good Menopause to you! We start out chatting about the weather in Los Angeles, because weather happens so infrequently that it’s remarkable! Julia’s daughter is about to have a birthday, so she recalls her experience in the hospital and how she took advantage of the Nurse’s offer to keep her daughter in the Nursery overnight so she could get sleep. Sarah’s youngest son was a Buddha Baby when he was born, so she was able to keep him with her in the bed and watch tabloid TV while he nursed and slept. And we note that kids love to hear their birth stories!

Bible Study - Menopause Confidential by Dr. Tara Allmen - Chapter 10 “Fifty Shades of Gray… Hair” Sarah had been really looking forward to this chapter, but was a little disappointed to not hear more about her gray hair. It turns out it’s not Menopause-related, it’s age-related. Both Julia and Sarah have stopped coloring their hair - and Sarah’s is growing out with a very distinct line of demarcation between gray and color. She’s frustrated with the slow growth and transition. Ugh! Julia’s hair has all grown out and it’s an all-over light brown/dark blonde - she calls it Dishwater or dirty blonde - but she doesn’t have much gray. The Dr. recommends not washing your hair as often and moisturizing it more. Just like our skin. We both talk about our Grandmas and how they used to get a Wash N Set once per week. We fully support that and want to do it, too. We are fascinated to hear about a laser light brush existed or that it *could* help with hair loss!

Chapter 11 - “It’s All About the Breast” The Dr. talks about how confusing it can be to talk about Menopause treatments and Breast Cancer. And the changing guidelines about when and how often you should get mammograms. Sarah indeed found it confusing, so please read it carefully yourself - and of course consult your own medical professional to get advice. It has to do with whether early screening can lead to false positives and unnecessary procedures. It used to be - get a baseline mammogram at 35 and then get one every year starting at 40 - then every other year at 50. But now they’re saying that can change to every other year, even in your 40s. Breast Cancer stats: approx. 230,000 American women are diagnosed every year with Breast Cancer, and only 40,000 will die from it. (Compare that to Heart Disease deaths - 400,000!) Oh and by the way, breast self-exams basically do no good, despite the way they used to push it on us. Leading causes of death in women: Heart Disease #1, then Lung Cancer #2, then Breast Cancer #3, then Colon Cancer #4.

Chapter 12 - “Hooray for Colonoscopy” Have you had your 50-year-old colonoscopy screening? Both of us had ours at age 50. Sarah wonders if she was supposed to get a 2nd one at age 55? She needs to follow up with her doctor. People traditionally hate the idea of getting a colonoscopy because the prep is gross and no fun. You have to have a very clean colon for the screening to work, which means it has to be Thoroughly Cleaned Out. Often that means drinking a foul-tasting liquid that makes you sit on the toilet most of the night, but Dr. Allmen has a special system that sounds much more pleasant. Julia did a similar prep herself when she had her procedure, which was much better than what Sarah went through. Yay! And even though it’s not the most fun thing you can do, it’s important.

Note: tiny technical glitchy weirdness at the end of the episode with some echo.

How Hot Was Your Flash? None for us this week! Sorry.