Have you noticed that those times in your life when the hormones are stormiest are also life-changing events that move you from one phase to the next? First, there is puberty, where you go from being a carefree child to being an angst-filled adolescent. This is when you get a new body, and learn to manage your new adult sexuality. For the first time you are expected to make decisions about your adult life. Big decisions -- like sexual partners, jobs, education and life roles. No pressure there.

Sometime after puberty there may be pregnancy. Once again you are thrown into a world that no one can really prepare you for. Once again you have a new body to get used to, important decisions to make, and once again you enter into a different life as a result of those decisions. Your body changes, your hormones take you on a roller coaster ride and after it's over, there is a new person in your world to deal with. Even if your pregnancy decisions are different than the married-with-children variety, it's still a crossroads that you will remember and that will change your way of viewing life.

Then, the childbearing wanes and you get close to menopause. Without much warning you discover yourself in another developmental phase that opens up your life into a series of new hormone swings and life decisions. Your health decisions are suddenly really important, lifestyle habits are beginning to show (good and bad), and you are reassessing your choices.

Stormiest of all is when one type of hormone chaos meets another – say when you are in the perimenopause and your daughter is entering puberty. To give your adolescent some clues about how to handle your menopausal years, here is a little tutorial from E-How. Both of you are getting used to body changes, new sexual priorities, crazy mood changes and expectations that being older makes you a different person. Talk about a recipe for turmoil. Watch Lauren Mayer sum it up in her own playful way, singing “Hormone Hell.”

The way to handle these hormone squalls is to remember three other important P-words: Patience, perspective and playfulness. Have the patience to cut each other slack, keep your perspective because this will not last forever. When in doubt, find a reason to laugh. It just might get you through.

Did your mom smoke when she was pregnant for you? If she did, it's possible that you will have an earlier menopause than someone whose mother didn't smoke. Researchers in Boston followed over 4000 women through menopause and obtained detailed histories, including whether they were exposed to prenatal cigarette smoke. Women whose mother smoked were 21% more likely to be postmenopause at any given age than unexposed women.

It's hard to say exactly what the link is, but one theory is that prenatal exposure to smoking has an effect on follicle production and thereby plays a role in your age at menopause. One interesting note was that this affect on menopause timing held for women who were not smokers themselves, but not for women who smoked. It's long been known that smokers tend to go through menopause up to two years earlier than non-smokers. But smoking seems to have an effect on menopause age even if your "smoking" happened in utero. So talk to your mom, and ask whether she smoked while she was pregant. And if you were a smoker during your own pregnancy, give your daughter a heads up.

Photo courtesy Daniel Berehulak/Staff, Getty Images