Not every symptom, feeling or reaction is caused by peri/menopause

More and more threads where it seems to be the first thing posters mention when describing their issues . Plus, anyone between the ages of 35 and 90 asked “could it be peri/menopause?” before any other question/suggestion.

Probably because every woman will go through peri-menopause. So it makes sense for middle-aged women to look at that as the first possible cause to either confirm or eliminate.

I blame everything that goes wrong in my life as the menopause , I would say maybe 80% is responsible, the rest is my incompetence 😂
Do not underestimate how utterly horrendous/ life-changing this period can be for some women.

Also, find a GP that you trust. I previously felt dismissed by a GP and found another one who was more supportive and thorough. She was also in her 50s so maybe that gave me confidence that she would understand menopause well

I would encourage people to keep track of symptoms though, and share these with your GP rather than just assume it’s perimenopause. I am 44 with low iron, night sweats, tiredness and slowing bowel transit, and it turned out I have advanced bowel cancer. Not to scare anyone, but I genuinely never suspected anything other than peri and maybe IBS.

You lose your point when you start exaggerating and saying every woman from 30 to 90. That's just not the case and you know it. However, a decline in hormones when women arrive in the peri years can cause a vast array of symptoms, many of which have previously not been associated with menopause. Increased awareness is a good thing.

Completely agree, OP. I have a brilliant GP who was very pro-active about picking up on a post-menopausal problem that I have and treating it appropriately.
The experience made me start to question the scepticism I have about the current social preoccupation with the menopause, and I asked her whether it had been a mistake for me not to have gone down the HRT route ten years ago (in addition to , or even instead of, anti-depressants) as a strategy for dealing with anxiety, brain fog etc. She said no, the evidence just isn't there for the relevance of menopause and HRT to some of the very many issues it is now roped in to explain.
It is insane just how many phenomena are discussed within the menopause framework on MN. I do understand it though, I suppose,. If you have diffuse and troubling issues it is natural to want to grasp at labels that gather them together and hold out the possibility of a plan of action for resolving them. We do it with our children as well- teething, terrible twos, teenage hormones, etc., all offered as frameworks for understanding problems that we need reassurance and support with.
EDITED TO ADD: The preoccupation with the menopause, though, is turbocharged in a way that other frameworks aren't, because of its capacity to make money for influencers and for anyone flogging any product that can be 'menopause-washed' and pushed by advertisers at women of a certain age. Should be called the moneypause for all the cash it brings in

When a woman of 40 posts she is exhausted all the time and deeply unhappy, it's almost always one or the other at the root of it, so that's to be a expected.

Iron deficiency is also missed a lot of the time because a lot of GPs seem to be merrily ignoring the NICE guidance. Iron deficiency can cause lots of symptoms that get put down to peri or menopause such as tiredness, irritability, anxiety, lack of concentration, losing your hair etc.

Yet lots of GPs don't seem to bother treating or investigating the cause in the absence of full blown anemia.

Of course not. However, its certainly not just a mere coincidence that as soon as I hit mid 40s my periods started flooding, my hair got brittle, I became horribly anxious, I couldn't sleep etc Nothing in my external world had changed and the moment I started HRT things got better. My GP tried to prescribe me an anti depressant which did jack shit because it was all hormonal.

In my experience, doctors are woefully ignorant about hormonal changes in women and tend to misdiagnose women with depression or other things rather than admit it might be hormonal.

I think it’s more a symptom of this message board, and the sort of community that are attracted.

same with the gender disparity perception that every man is to blame whatever the question etc.

Of course not, but if you are a women 40+ when you experience a sustained change in how you are feeling or an increase in a particular unhelpful emotion and you don't have a clear reason then it is helpful to consider where peri menopause is either the reason or is at least part of the reason.
I know for myself a couple of years ago I was feeling utterly dreadful, HRT was part of the answer, it absolutely wasn't the magic cure, there were other things I needed to address but it was an important thing to get right. It can be difficult as often in our 40s we have lots of pressures and challenges and we can attribute increased anxiety, troubles sleeping, decreased motivation etc to those issues solely. They may be playing a part but if you are peri-menopausal and not on HRT there's also a good chance that will be making things more difficult and I think it's positive people suggest considering it now as part of the answer.