My Balancing Journey - Part 2 - The Nerve to Ask

July 7-9, 2006, I had the joy of spending the weekend with a wonderful group of women who have a combined knowledge pool on women's health issues that would blow you away. They are also a terrificly diverse group of dear friends, and this weekend retreat with them has been a life-changing event both years that I have gone.

On Saturday evening, I got up my nerve to ask about the things that were going on with my body. This roomful of wise women looked at me, then looked at each other. You know when folks look at each other like they know something you don't know? Aggravating, isn't it? Well, then they asked me how old I was (setting off alarm bells - yikes! It couldn't be that!), and when I told them I would turn 33 at the end of the month, most murmured that I was too young. However, my dear friend Mary was in the back of the room, shaking her head, so I asked her what she was thinking.

Mary shared with me that she had been doing a lot of research lately, and was learning that it is becoming more and more common for women to be showing signs of pre-menopause early - even in their early 30's! This is due in great part to the huge amount of estrogens and xenoestrogens (chemicals that act just like estrogens in our bodies) that are present in our environment. Indeed, my symptoms were typical pre-menopausal symptoms, and were probably due to an hormonal imbalance.