I was not, in any way, prepared for the sheer HELL of menopause. What is wrong with our society, that no one discusses how seriously bad menopause can be? I thought it meant that periods stop, maybe a few weeks of hot flashes, meh.

What I got instead was years of hot flashes - so bad, I began to isolate. Anxiety/worry/panic that ruined my existence. Nothing helped. Nothing. Tried 15 meds...nothing helped. All the damned meditation, being in the moment (what moment? This moment of living hell?) - all of it, BS.

And so on. Finally, after 7 years I have a measure of stability. Nothing dramatic in the way of stability, though. I do have bipolar disorder, which probably complicated all of it, but menopause itself was the reason for the terror I have been through.

It's great that you have a good GP, but hat about a gyn? A pdoc? I understand that you are in a rural location - is it within reason, though, that you would be able to see specialists? GP's, after all, are not trained to and do not have experience with going into specific areas of medicine as deeply as a specialist does.