By AMY SHANKLAND
Sandwiched
It’s been a while since I’ve discussed one of the topics in life that people usually don’t talk about – menopause. It’s a valid thing to bring up for many of us in the sandwich generation, as the typical caregiver is a woman in her late 40s. Most women start to notice perimenopause symptoms at this stage of life. Perimenopause is what we experience in the years leading up to menopause.
As I’ve shared before, I’m definitely in this rather insane stage of life. I say insane because the symptoms are all over the place. They include loss of sleep, night sweats/hot flashes, dizziness, heart palpitations, and many other “fun” things – and yes, I’m dripping with sarcasm.
I’ve recently battled a more serious menopause issue – constant urinary tract infections (UTIs). I went to the ER with one of them last summer. And another even popped up on my birthday (of all days!) last August.
After my ER experience, I said “Enough!” and began some research. I had talked to doctors – like you should do, dear readers, if you are battling frequent UTIs – and gotten the usual advice about drinking lots of water, increasing probiotics, etc. Nothing was helping me.
I shared in a column that I was going to try products from a company called Uqora. I was impressed because the founder had suffered from numerous UTIs herself. Even though I wasn’t thrilled about taking another supplement, I was tired of the pain and trips to the doctor. One of my Facebook friends saw that column last summer and told me she’d had great luck with their Control product. I ordered it immediately.
Before starting Control, I noticed that my bladder felt inflamed and irritated even when it wasn’t infected. After about five days, that feeling finally went away, and I’ve been UTI free ever since.
While that issue is gone, my battles with sleep have slowly returned. I’ve discovered that some menopause products can stop working over time, and that’s been the case with what I was taking for sleep problems. I’m not wide-awake all night like I was in 2020 (thank the Lord) but I find myself waking up often.
When we’re in the sandwich generation, we need our sleep! We must have our energy to juggle the demands of family, elderly parents, work, home, etc. It’s also important for our overall health.
So I’m back to trying new things and hope to write a column shortly about my success with a better product to help with sleep! In the meantime, I’m thrilled to finally be UTI-free.