I
can strongly identify with this, from personal experience (which I will
recount in some detail) and what I've seen in my work. Women should
question everything, IMO, and have confidence that they can be experts
as far as their body is concerned.
My
Experience as a Patient
When
I was 42, I started getting episodes of very rapid heart rate. The GP gave
me Verapamil tablets, which didn't work, and I ended up in hospital having
IV meds after my heart rate had been 180 - 200 for over 6 hours.
I
saw a cardiologist, who completely dismissed my suggestion that there might
be a hormonal connection. (I'd noticed it only happened in the week before
a period). He said the rapid rhythm was supraventricular tachycardiaI (SVT),
short episodes were harmless but prolonged bouts wern't good. If they continued
I'd need a "microwave ablation" to zap the part of the heart that
was causing the rhythm disturbance.
This
scared me so much that things got worse for a while, and I needed to take
cardiac meds which made me feel terrible. I researched cardiac microwave
ablations and didn't like what I read.. Then I began to find out about
perimeno, and found some (albeit limited) research that linked SVT with
reduced estrogen levels.
I
began to feel less anxious, and tried out self-help methods. I stopped
the meds when I perfected the "Valsalva Manoeuvre" (holding breath and
"bearing down"). It mostly worked, and I could do this fairly unobtrusively
in public. But sometimes the only thing that stopped a *resistant* bout
was to go somewhere private, lie down completely flat, and do slow abdominal
breathing. But it always worked, and I found that exhilarating. I made
it a priority, and there were times when I walked out in the middle of
meetings, or cut short a group teaching session and inconvenienced a lot
of people. But *my* treatments were effective, and after about 2 years
the SVT's stopped. And other perimeno signs took their place......
I
still feel angry about the way my views were dismissed, and this has coloured
my attitude to doctors in general, perhaps unfairly so. I try not to be
too antagonistic with the ones I work with because I know they care about
their patients and mean well!
But
I wonder how many women have had to undergo operations and procedures unnecessarily,
because they had more trust in their doctor than themselves? Theresa
But
I noticed I got hot flashes when I was having to deal with authority
figures (court, etc) and there was this slow dawning on me that I was now
old enough to be an authority and I no longer had to "defer" to them
and feel bad about them.
Going
against the stream would surely be stressful. If one was used to
deferring to those considered to be superior, it's quite a turnaround to
suddenly base your actions and decisions on your own knowledge and intuition.
Perhaps a bit of guilt until one adjusts to trusting one's own judgement
and realising that that is a good thing.
I
also came to the recognition then that half the people were now younger
than me, and the ones that were older than me were getting a bit
"senile" and/or out of touch, so that left me as much as a proper
authority as anyone. This very much was a shift in thinking and I
had to readjust my normal reactions to things. It was pretty neat
in the long run.
Age
should command some respect, but so should actions and deeds well earned.
I'm sure that many women deserve that respect, but are themselves are not
feeling that they deserve it. It's a shame that it takes half of
one's life to actually feel that they are worthy contributors to society.
Becoming
one's own authority figure can be exhilarating and scary, and then
fundamentally sound.
Yes,
taking responsibility for oneself can be frightening, but believing that
we are capable is the biggest step. Erika.