Where did it all begin?

I've wondered about when this "transition to menopause," as it's now called, began.

I first started experiencing unsettling, life-disrupting symptoms in the summer of 2006. But most likely things started happening in March, 2005 when I had my hysterectomy.

And so I'll begin there. After telling you that I am 46 years old. I am happily (actually idyllically) married to a wonderful, caring husband. We have two sons, ages 17 and 12.

Are you starting to get the "mania" part of "menomania?" Yup. Mom menopausal, older son exiting puberty, younger son entering it.

So. The hysterectomy. Fibroids. Very many, very large. One had attached to an ovary and so when they did the surgery, they removed it from there, but it would not stop bleeding. So I lost one ovary too. Leaving me with one.

The migraines I'd been experiencing for a few years disappeared immediately after the surgery, and they stayed away for several months. Then in the beginning of 2006 they began creeping back, a migraine every few weeks.

I think that's when the remaining ovary started thinking about retirement.