What were you’re first peri menopause symptoms?

Feeling anxiety at approx 2pm every day. Pouring with sweat every morning when putting my makeup on. Fatigue. Suddenly finding it hard to spell words and remember nouns, saying the wrong words. Constant congestion in my nose. Periods a few days closer together, then suddenly 10 days late. Fatigue. Stopping caring about things that used to be important. Evil RSI in my right wrist and elbow. Dry, weeping eyes. Balance problems and walking into doorways. Waking every night at 2am. Fatigue.

HRT resloved the night waking and sudden anxiety cycle, sweating and dry eyes. The fatigue and brain fog doesn't completely stop tho, but i can cope with it.

This! I’ve just turned 50 and my periods have recently gone from 23 day to 30 day cycles but the itchiness, especially inner ears, has been a year or two now. Drives me mad!

Exhaustion and total brain fog. I thought I was getting early onset dementia. Also digestive issues. The exhaustion was like I had at times during pregnancy. You can’t push through. It floors you.

Perimenopause starts in mid 40's for many, even earlier for some. Menopause just means you've had a year with no periods.

Clumsiness. Itchy ears. Gum disease. Then all encompassing rage. I should have gone in HRT, I was stupid. My symptoms were debilitating.

I'm late 40's now and for the past 6yrs, my periods have gone from a very regular 32 day cycle to now a regular 26day cycle. Period seems a day shorter to what it was previously too. That was my 1st sign.

In the last 3yrs I haven't always slept well and feel stiff and achy most mornings.

The last year, my hair feels much thinner than before, but not patchy and doesn't seem to be coming out any more than before. I'm obese, and I'd read that menopause can start later due to the excess fat and hormones. I'm on mounjaro and so far lost 10kg, so expect symptoms to ramp up at some point.

These are all very young i thought it only started in your 50s?? I'm getting bad sleep in my late 40s though i thought it was the kids

I was 42 when my peri started, though I'd never heard of the term at the time! I also didn't equate my symptom with the menopause or peri at the time. My one and only symptom at the time was I'd get severe sweats whenever I exerted myself. I would be soaking and my hair wet. At the time it was summer and I put it down to that.
If you are starting early, can I be so rude as to ask if you started your periods early? I was asked that by a lady in the NHS doing reasearch. She seemed to think there might be a link. I was 11 when my periods began.

I forgot about itching. I just get randomly really itchy skin very often now. I thought i was allergic to something but apparently that it a peri symptom. Also my inner ears itch and I feel like my tendons inside my limbs are itchy which is so frustrating as can't scratch the itch!

First thing for me was a frozen shoulder - out of the blue, age 43. Then anxiety, brain fog and vaginal dryness and itching. The frozen shoulder was awful but fixed with hydrodilation. The other symptoms have all been fixed by HRT. Periods have continued to be completely regular throughout all of this.

My "get up and go", got up and left.

Really shit sleep starting age 40. Also feeling light headed/a bit spaced out, and a bit hot. The low point was going to work after just 1hr sleep. Went to the GP to discuss HRT, just before I was 43, they did blood tests to rule out other things (thyroid, anaemia etc). Then they started HRT. It has helped a great deal. My symptoms have crept back a few times and I have to jump through the same hoops to get my dose increased. This time driving anxiety has come out of nowhere and I'm in the verge of giving up driving. Waiting for an appointment to increase my dose, 4 weeks after first discussing it. I'm nearly 46.

I'm 41 and periods are heavier, PMT and rage worse, I'm more tired, I feel queasy sometimes, I get really stingy eyes that come on suddenly then stop and I'm definitely shedding more hair. I'm presuming perimenopause...

I'm 44. For about two years I've been having more brown spotting before and after period and my cycle has gone from 28 days to 25. Yay more periods. 🙄massive blood clots fall out at times and I have to rush to the loo. I do have adenomyosis though so that could explain some of it. I have one sweaty arm pit that sweats even when I'm not hot. My skin is disgusting, both dry and spotty at the same time. I've had alopecia in the past but even so my hair has gone so thin this last year its all very depressing. I've yet to experience hot flushes but I'll look forward to that as I'm not allowed to take HRT because of another medical condition. My rages are bad but I've also had a lot of counselling and found my voice so I think a lot of people are a bit shocked, especially my poor DH. The mouse has been replaced by a giant mutant man hating lion its genuinely scary. Roll on menopause. 🤣

Stiff joints and migraines - oh, and weirdly, I’d get an agonising pain in my right ankle while I was asleep. I’d wake up thinking my ankle was broken it was so excruciating.

All of that has passed (to be replaced with brain fog and no mental or physical enthusiasm 🫩).

Well I didn’t recognise it at the time but looking back, irritability, low mood, not feeling like me, followed by sleep problems, brain fog

Horrendous anxiety, going bright red every time anyone looked at me, heavy horrendous bleeds , sometimes weekly with no warning. This progressed including night sweats, hot flushes, acne, depression etc over a ten year period until I was given hrt in my early 40s, over ten years later still on hrt and still have menstrual issues , so it’s been over twenty years so far since early peri days

For me it was splitting headaches and joint pain. The night sweats didn’t start until much later.

Heavier periods that were closer together, then further apart than before. Very bad PMT.

I stopped sleeping and was crippled by anxiety. It wasn't until 3 years later that I had my first hot flush. Can't take hrt.

I’m firmly in peri now (very long gaps between periods, which go from flooding one day to spotting the next etc),
Intense hot flushes that last a few hours. But a couple of years ago I developed frozen shoulder, and it lasted about 8 months. I never knew there was a peri connection until I read your comment!

Massive anxiety, insomnia, lack of patience.

My boobs hurt like they did when they first started developing in puberty. I have never had a very big chest, so could go without a bra if not wearing tight clothing,l but suddenly the slightest movement hurt and I went up a cup size.

Then my periods went from clockwork regular to nothing for months, then a wee dribble. I was only 40, so first thought was pregnancy, but it wasn't.

Brain fog and insomnia