[Peri]Menopausal @ 33...

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Permalink Reply by Lisa M on June 20, 2008 at 7:35am

Hi
I am a little older than you. Buttt it still stinks. Like you I had my one little guy he is 3.5 years old. Thank God. I was trying for my second when I got diagnosed. It all hit me how hard radiation is on the body when I was handed a vaginal dilator after the 6 weeks was over. Then I was told my ovaries are so shrunk they barely show up on a cat scan. For me I was so busy trying to live and get through cancer that 1 year later is when I get sad. So far menopause is not so bad yet.

Anyway nice to meet you .
Lisa

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Permalink Reply by Doreen on June 20, 2008 at 10:30am

I was already in perimenopause before radiation, but radiation sealed the deal. I have younger friends who also went into menopause because of it. Menopause was easy for me, because I followed the advice of a woman naturopath and kept my blood sugar stable through diet and took supplements and herbs like dong quai. Now occasionally I will get a night where I wake up at 2 am for no reason. But that is pretty rare.

I have a friend however, who got a vaginal fistula as the result of radiation. And two botched surgeries could not fix it. Another friend has permanent damage to the rectum. Both have said if they had known what life was going to be like after radiation, they would have opted out of it. I wish radiation oncologists would inform their women patients about the potential side effects, and spare us the grief!

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Permalink Reply by Lisa M on June 20, 2008 at 10:44am

I agee. Not to mention it causes other cancers. We have to hope that the benefits of the cancer cells not spreading outweighs all the problems.

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