shortening cycles, heavy periods. Perimenopause?!

[isitnearlytime]

I'm 47 and until just over a year ago had been on the pill for most of my adult life, except to ttc of course. I was then found to have fibroids for which I had surgery and a mirena coil fitted at the same time.

Unfortunately, I had almost constant spotting and light bleeding for the whole 9 months of Mirena so had no clue what my normal cycle was. The Mirena was finally removed last October and I am currently using no hormonal contraception. I've now had 3 natural cycles. The first was 25 days, the second 23 days and I've just started another period today following a 22 day cycle. The last time I had natural cycles was around 10 years ago when ttc and they hovered around a textbook 28 days. The periods have been very heavy with flooding and clots and lasted well over a week, although only really heavy for 2-3 days. I"ve never had particularly light periods, even on the pill, but not like this.

Does this sound like Perimenopause? I'm assuming nothing more sinister as I've had ultrasound, hysterocopy and biopsies due to the fibroids.

TIA

[DontEvenPoint]

I'm 42 and the last year or so my cycle has definitely shortened and become more irregular - between 21 and 27 days when it was pretty regular 28 days prior to that. I've also had some very heavy periods in that time, one of which was truly horrific! I mentioned it to the doctor in passing and she didn't seem concerned, said it was my age, I got the feeling that bleeding mid cycle is a concern but not cycles getting shorter. It might be worth talking to the doc though to check your hormone levels. I think perimenopause can last a few years though...

[boxoftissues]

I'm 45 this year. My periods used to be 28 days on the dot. Now they are 24/25/26 days and last 2/3 days as opposed to 4/5 days. I am sure it's perimenopause.