I knew that menopause caused grumpiness, but I was unaware of some other little factors which have cost me much needless worry and money this past year.

I was teaching a class of eighth-graders this past Spring when I felt my chest pounding, and I felt sickly weird. My first thought was that I was having a heart attack, and was going to pass out. I imaginied it would be like a scene from Gulliver's Travels where the Lilliputians (in this case, the class of 8th graders) left me on the floor and proceeded to go wild! I would not be found until the janitor came by in the afternoon to sweep my classroom.

After barely surviving that class, I literally ran to see the school nurse. She took my blood pressure, and found it ot be 170 over 103. Okay, high blood pressure... not a heart attack. From there, I went to the ER (my over-protective husband forced me to go). After noting an irregular heart beat, they sent me to a cardiologist. After an EKG and a stress test, he put me on blood pressure meds, but said my heart looked fine. The mystery continued.

I was having memory issues, and still wondering what was happening to make me fall apart all at once, when a friend suggested it was a hormone deficiency. After going to the gynocologist, he agreed it WAS a lack of estrogen causing everything from the high blood pressure... to the forgetrfulness... to the lack of energy... to the inability to lose weight...to the feeling like I was going crazy! Who'd have thought that hormones would be SO powerful?

After a couple of months on hormones, I can now remember better, feel better, and... I can NOW lose weight again!

Don't end up paying needless amounts of money like I did! If you are in your 40's-50's, keep a check on your hormones! This is YOUR wake-up call!