menoapuse and apnea (lucky me lucky me)

I am trying to adjust to my cpap machine but usually masks comes off (i pull it off) after a couple hours. I am going thru menopause so it seems like I cannot stay asleep because of hot flashes, night sweats .. you get the idea. I am takin Ambien to try to get me to stay asleep so I can adust to wearing the mask all nite but I still cannot sleep steadily with the Ambien. My sleeping goes from sitting up in the recliner , taking mask off moving to couch, watching Leno or whatever in wee hrs of morningshutting tv back off going back to sleep on couch and then crawl up to bed to sleep with my husband. I am 55 and feel like my life is over. I don't enjoy thinking about going to bed at nite because it is such a nightmare every nite. I am about at my wits end on how to deal with all of this. I am soon getting ready to retire and I am not looking forward to it because of all the issues I have going on. I also take medication for depression but how can you not be depressed with everything that my body is going thru....Help....

Hi Sleepless, and welcome to this wonderful place! Your life is far from over, and I promise you will find an incredible wealth of help and information here from folks who can hone in on every aspect of helping you to solve your cpap difficulties. Please go to the User Control Panel above, and fill out your information so that we can be of help without you having to answer the same questions over & again about your equipment. It's not required, but it sure helps us get down to the specifics more easily with you. I am in the huge group who share your description of how bad it feels before we get it all figured out. And we will sure work with you to do just that. Hang in there and look forward to progress if you keep at it. For starters, read as much as you can, starting with "Our Wisdom" at the yellow lightbulb above, and the Announcements thread of "Where A CPAP Newbie Should Start" at the top of this posting list. Tons of helpful information that you need to manage and fine-tune your therapy. Keep the most inquisitive and open attitude you can, to learn new skills. You will benefit, if you do.

Have you considered hormone therapy to help with your other symptoms - they now have a kind which will not give you the same side effects as the old ones did, far less harmful to take, so you might want to look into them.

The best thing about going through menopause is that it is we do go through it! I've been on the other side for a few years and sooooo glad. I'm not sure if my hot flashes mostly stopped about the same time I got my cpap therapy working, or if some of those hot flashes were the a stress reaction to the severe apnea events. If my hot flashes hadn't already calmed down I would have bought a pillow I read about that has water in it. I probably would have used ice water! When my doctor put me on a heart/BP med and said it would make me feel flushed and hot, I felt like screaming NOOOOO!!! But it's not nearly as bad as going thru menopause.

You'll get used to using the cpap at some point. Persevere for as many hours as you possibly can. By the time retirement comes, you should be reaping the rewards of your efforts. Don't know what else is going on with your health, but getting thru menopause and effectively treating your OSA should make your retirement surprisingly much better than you expect. Time is on your side.

Kathy

I have had similar problems with sleep and menopause. I have found also that the hot flashes greatly diminished after I started CPAP. I think hormones play a huge role in sleep issues. I still do not sleep well but the sleep I get is so much better. Try to use the machine and build up tolerance to it. I was waking up with headaches and also had to get up every hour to go to the bathroom. Now, no headaches and only get up once during the nite so big improvement. The quality of my sleep is so much better that I can actually get by with less sleep and function the next day. Hormone Replacement Therapy might be a solution for you but my Dr. didn't recommend it for me because of family issues with breast cancer. I might inquire about this new therapy if its lower dose although it has been awhile since menopause so they might not want me to start it now. I think hormonal issues are a whole lot bigger than even the sleep drs. know about. They should definitely investigate that aspect of sleep apnea as mine didn't manifest itself until I went through menopause. I think this is true for a lot of women. Hang in there and I feel for you with the menopausal symtoms. It will get better, trust me.

Menopause is just temporary - like pregnancy there is a wonderfull other side once your through it. Do some research on herbal therapies like soy and dang quoi. They helped me. They might or might not help you. Acupressure also helped me. One thing to note about alternative therapies - they work on the individual person - not the issues so much so what helps one person might not help another - so keep trying different things. Another thing that helped me was exercise - lots of weights and running to raise the adrenaline levels to flush my system. Not to loose weight - you need an extra 10-20 lbs on you during menopause - it hold extra estrogen.
Take your time getting used to the machine - it took you many years to get to this state so it may not help over nite. Even a couple of hours of deep sleep will help your body deal with things that you may not feel yet.

ya ever see how it's spelled????

men-o-pause

Do you realize how many men wake up drenched in sweat at night because of their own sleep apnea?

O,

I know it sounds goofy, but many ob-gyns are recommending a very very small dosage of an anti-depressant to manage menopausal symptoms instead of hormone replacement. And it seems to be having good results, without the deleterious impact of hormone replacement.

Being able to use your CPAP all night will probably help a lot with your symptoms. One of the symptoms of Apnea is sleep sweats so you could be getting that on top of hot flashes. If you can get rid of one of them, I would think you would feel better. So I would work on whatever issues are causing you to remove your mask during the night. Also, if you have a data capable machine, I would pull the data and see what is happening with your apnea during the times you are able to use the machine.

Best of luck!

I suffered the same symptoms and found Estroven, which is OTC, helped me greatly! Give it a try it is herbal.
Good luck

I agree with the others who have suggested that you get the menopause hot flushes reviewed by your Doctor- a vist to your OB GYN is really worth while- there are lots of different medication options and they are usually only required short term until the hormone levels even out- a quick blood test can assess roughly where in the menopause you are- I went rhough early menopause as a side effect to medication use and unfortunately i developed quite severe osteoporosis (i did not know about it until i started having agonising back pain and scans showed i had 3 crush fractures L3 4 and 5! they were spontaneous- not even hint of of bump let alone a fall! anyway i am too young to qualify for the usual osteoporosis medications under our prescription scheme here in australia so the endocrinologist said the next best option was HRT- it has been really worht well and has well and trully stopped the hot flashes, i had had some issues with depression off and on and had been on medication for that too- since going on HRT i have been able to cease that too- so after being a bit of an anti hrt advocate (i always felt the menopause was a natural process rather than an illness to be treated) but i am now a convert- i think there is aplace for it short term while the hormone levels are erratic which is what seems to cause the troublsome effects such as the hot flushes- its definately worth talking to your DR about it