I've been doing a LOT of research about this - I've been having some awful symptoms for the past 2 years (since turning 40) -- some of which are typical menopause related stuff and some are not, but I suspect all are related to hormonal decline. I've been getting bloodwork and basically, my estrogen and thyroid are both circling the drain --- my last bloodwork showed the estrogen level of a 60 year old (I'm 42! WTH!) I am pursuing bioidentical hormone replacement via cream. I don't have it all figured out yet (I get the feeling that there's a lot of experimenting on yourself til you find the right combo) but from the reading I did, I am pretty confident that this is what I need. Those of you saying you can't take HRT because of pre-existing tendency to blood clots or migraines or whatever might want to investigate the bioidentical stuff via transdermal cream. Blood clots are only an issue when estrogen is taken orally and passes through the liver -- if you are delivering it via skin or patch, there is no increased risk of blood clots (and in fact, your risk of other heart issues goes way down). Migraines are also one of the things that estrogen can help. And even the connection between estrogen and breast cancer is not as cut and dried as I thought -- I feel safe taking the bioidentical estrogen. I have read probably 20 books on the subject of menopause and HRT and the one I found most clear ad helpful is called Screaming to Be Heard by Elizabeth Vliet. I would recommend reading it - it pretty much debunks a lot of the things that I had heard about HRT including the results of that women's health study that caused everyone to abandon HRT -- did you know that whole study was done with synthetic hormones, not bioidentical? And that none of the horrible side effects found in that study have been found in studies that use bioidentical hormones? They are all related to the synthetic stuff like norethidrone and premarin. Because the pharmaceutical companies can't patent a naturally occuring substance and therefore can't make big bucks of bioidentical, there have been few efforts to educate doctors or do controlled studies on bioidentical hormones, but the studies that have been done show amazing benefits without the scary side effects. (Of course, the pharma companies don't want you to know that, because they want you to keep taking your premarin....)

Firstly let me say - those of us with a low body temperature who have always had this - it is nothing to worry about ath0ugh it does have its problems. Anyone who has only recently become 'cold' there may be another reason for it so do get it checked out. My daughter is in her final year of a nursing degree and was talking to one of the docs about this. It is unusual but not unheard of - I think most people who are colder than usual are not aware of it, nurses very rarely put down if you have a low temperature as they fear it would make them appear sloppy by not checking properly. The real difference for most people is our 'immunity' to bugs - bugs are very temperature reliant and they do not like our cold bodies. However when we come across a bug that is less susceptible to temp changes we effectively go down 'like a ton of bricks' and take longer to recover. We don't feel the cold quite as much but we feel the effects - so even if we don't feel cold we can get problems like Reynards where the fingers and toes go white and numb. Unpleasant but as long as you are aware of it and don't get too cold for too long it can be controlled. I also find heat to be a problem - I am not really sure why but I will try to find out more.

Oops, forgot to respond TNLady! My first visit, blood was taken and he more than tripled my dose of PTU. Started feeling better within a week. Just went again today, and my levels are down, and that was on the old dose. New dose blood results will be in Tuesday. He was encouraged that one side of my thyroid is now back to normal. The other side is still somewhat swollen. I'm going to be taking these meds for 18 months and then hope for remission.

May want to read this for safety: http://www.mclaughlin-air.com/lennoxpressrelease1.htm When is the last time you had the furnace inspected? The Lennox Pulse furnaces were some pretty efficient furnaces from what I've read. For replacement there are some nice modulating furnaces out there from Rheem and York. Other than that there is always the Carrier Infinity.