Hey Jack
I think this post is pretty much what I have found in my research on this subject.
So as you have found out some women think that menopause is just nothing at all but a blip on the radar screen.
Others find it very turbulent.
This all applies to men and andropause also.
I went through a trying time in my 40's that I can look back on and see that it was the start of my andropause.
It did not get me divorced but maybe that contributed to my ex wifes issues that caused me to end up here.
Anyways I have split off this to a separate discussion and I might even participate if I have time.
I'm glad to hear that we aren't abandoning this avenue. I think there are many people who believe MLC may be tied to hormonal changes. I posted a link to a female MLC article from Oprah a few months back, and it definitely covered the theory. In it, a doctor who believed there was some connection, said he told his patients not to make any major life decisions for
10 years when they were diagnosed with menopause.My W was
definitely peri-menopausal prior to going off the rails: she'd been diagnosed, she was having hot flashes, she couldn't sleep and it was driving her crazy. Our bed was stained from her sweat on her side. She was 44 when it started. She told me, once OM was discovered "I told you women in my family had bad menopause and to be ready for a bumpy ride." (I don't recall ever hearing this prior.) On my way out the door to move out, she said "You know I had to grieve the relationship with OM. And my hormones are messed up. I've probably got more testosterone in me than you."
Was she just making excuses? Perhaps. Not owning her behavior and choices, I guess. But I know that menopause was a cloud hanging over us for several years before everything blew up. I also know my D attorney, a woman, asked me several pointed questions when we first met: "Is your wife menopausal? Is there an OP? What do you know about mid-life crises?" 30 years of practice in family law lead her to believe hormones are definitely related in both men and women.
Take this for what it's worth and I'm sorry some of the female LBS's here find this topic, or the way it's being presented, as triggering. We should definitely be sensitive to that. However, I find the argument "I had menopause and didn't have an MLC, therefore there's no relation" to be about as effective as "I know people who smoked until they were 90 and never got lung cancer and therefore cigarettes don't cause lung cancer." What if andro/menopause + bad FOO = MLC, and andro/menopause - bad FOO doesn't? Simplistic I know, but I think the search for possibilities is one way to gain further acceptance by the medical community. Does that mean that knowing what causes MLC can stop it? Well, no, I don't think so. But knowing is half the battle, isn't it? I believe my W was searching for an explanation as to why she felt the way she did. Perhaps, had there been more specific causal analysis out there, she might have known there was a reason she was hating me and falling for another man and been able to weather the storm. And then again; maybe not.