His and Her Health

I'm researching the impact on families who are experiencing perimenopause or menopause and adolescence at the same time. Needless to say, the physiological and emotional changes can combine to create an ... interesting... environment. Please let me know what your experiences have been!

Perimenopause and adolescence at the same time . . . in the same person? <grin>

Looking back, I think I experienced perimenopause while my youngest daughter was in her teens. I was not aware of being in perimenopause at the time. But I'm not sure exactly what you mean by perimenopause, or even by adolescence. I suspect different articles I've read have used the terms to mean s\different things. And I doubt my experience was typical, since both my daughters were hit by mono/chronic fatigue syndrome/neurally mediated hypotension at about age 14 (ninth grade).

But I have to say that my youngest was MUCH harder to put up with than her older sister during that 12-18 year old period. Whether that was due to my being in perimenopause, or just because the younger was more stubborn, opinionated, and in-your-face than her older sister is hard to say. ;P

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What a great research project! There certainly can be a clash when menopause meets adolescence. The majority of women have a difficult time responding to their needs and those of their adolescent. They both are experiencing physical, emotional and are on a wild ride of hormonal changes. Lot's of perimenopausal/menopausal women feel fatigued and have a difficult time dealing the needs of their adolescent. In addition to the typical hot flashes/night sweats, they often say they expereience memory lapses and are not able to concentrate. One perimenopausal woman I know said she left the house to pick up her teenage daughter and, when she was driving, she actually forgot what she left the house for. She further complained it's hard for her to "be on call" and this particular woman had to start writing notes to herself to remind her of her activities, and she also had to scale back on things that were expected of her, as she simply was unable to do them because she was feeling so tired and worn out due to menopausal symptoms. It is important for women to remember to nurture themselves. If they do that, the challenges of perimenopause/menopause will be much easier to deal with.