My youth is gone!

I have been waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat for the last week. All throughout the day I would get hot and break out in a sweat and then it would go away. I went to the doctor on Tuesday so I can get some antibiotics to get over this cold thing I have. They did some blood tests (of course..they always want blood from me). That was that. I was on my merry way. I get a call the next morning only a hour after I get up and it was my doctors office. She tells me they got my blood test back and it shows I am in menopause......... I sat there listening and thought to myself "I think she called the wrong patient". I asked her to repeat herself. Unfortunately she said the same thing as the first time. I was shocked. She was babbling in the back round about coming in to pick up some medication to help with "hot flashes" yes.... they have a name for this too....hot flashes. My head was spinning. My youth was stolen and I am not getting it back. So I got up and drove over to the doctors office to see what all this medication was all about and I asked her how long is this going to last? A week? Two weeks? She said it could last up to 5 to 10 years. WHAT! I was mortified. I cant do that. I hate to sweat, much less doing it for 5 to 10. Sounds like a prison sentence doesn't it. I went to work all upset about this and decided I would tell Bonnie about this horrible thing that struck me. All she said was welcome to the club. Ugh. I don't want to be in this club. I feel like I don't know who I am any more. I am just the menopausal lady now. I feel like I have a sign on me..better yet a neon sign saying menopausal lady alert. This cant be good. What else is going to happen to me besides these horrible hot flashes? Is this it? Somehow I doubt it. I have to do some research on this medication she wants me to take. Its some mist that has estrogen in it. I would like to know what men have to go thru? Us women have to go thru so much and it looks like men have it easy. I'm just saying. See I am already sounding like a old bitter menopausal lady. I will have to have some time to wrap my head around this. Will revisit this topic at a later date.