Perimenopause: The change before 'the change'

USA Today ran an article yesterday on perimenopause (and it's actually from the Associated Press). Nothing earth shattering in the article, but I did find it a bit curious that Dr. Ken Holtorf was quoted about how thyroid levels can affect mood and weight, but no information was provided about bioidentical hormones (Dr. Holtorf is an outspoken advocate for BHRT). It also saddens/angers me that the article talks about estrogen like it's the only hormone that women need to have replaced. We have far to go in educating people (including much of the medical community) that true hormone replacement and balance involves the three sex hormones (progesterone, testosterone and estrogen) as well as thyroid balance.

This is the scene outside my condo door about 5 am yesterday morning, and the snow came down for quite a while after that before changing over to sleet and freezing rain. Now, I am from Upstate NY (north of Syracuse) and up there, no big deal. I now live in an area north of Charlotte, NC where this much snow shuts the city down!!!! I'm on day two of being housebound, fortunately, I have a lot of hobbies and interests to keep me busy. I am reading two different books (one of which will be reviewed here on the blog sometime next week), knitting (just finished a pair of fingerless mitts for me) and working on making some notecards and greeting cards (I'm a recovering rubber stamper----now I just fool around with a bit of papercraft using my computer.) I can work out at home on my balance ball and I just got a new exercise band (complete with DVD). So far, so good. Most of the freezing rain has moved out, but it's still so cold out it's dangerous (our average daily high this time of year is about 52 degrees, we won't see anything near that until at least the weekend----yikes!) I am really hoping that tomorrow it will be clear enough to get out, I want to get in a workout in the swimming pool (helps my back) and get to my knitting group (helps keep me sane). Wherever you are, if you are being affected by this storm I hope you are staying warm and safe. Spring is in 68 days!