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What were you’re first peri menopause symptoms?

83 replies

Fancycrab · 02/09/2026 17:51

Sorry, not AIBU but I was unsure where to put it and wanted replies! I’m 43 and I think peri menopause has begun 😱 my period has started being 4-5 days early and occasionally late and last month it was a whole 10 days late! It’s been pretty regular all my life. For the past year I’ve also been getting night sweats starting about a week before my period every night till the end of my period, but now I’m getting them inbetween too and in the last few days I think I’m getting hot flashes. I feel boiling hot and start sweating but it can last for 1 or 2 hrs, not the few minutes I thought it was supposed to? I kind of just feel hot all the time. I didn’t think all these symptoms would start so early, my mum didn’t go through the menopause til her early 50s so if this is peri is it going to be like this (and get progressively worse) till the actual menopause starts, potentially when I’m 50?!

OP posts:
Traitorsclaudia · 02/09/2026 18:34

Heavy periods, rage and massively increased libido. Poor DH he doesn't know whether he's coming or going. 😆

TrojanDonkey · 02/09/2026 18:26

I stopped sleeping, my hair fell out, my mood was atrocious and my periods were non stop.

I went on HRT, it’s great!

ThreeB · 02/09/2026 18:24

My periods dropped to a regular short cycle for the first time ever and my sex drive disappeared overnight.

SeriousTissues · 02/09/2026 18:22

Rage.

Topjoe19 · 02/09/2026 18:19

Irregular periods & constant headaches/migraines. But mostly feeling very very low, like I was standing on the edge of a massive black void and knowing if I fell in I wouldn't climb back out.

ThatLemonBear · 02/09/2026 18:13

Suddenly crippled by anxiety was the first sign for me. I was 45. Looking back, my periods had got a bit erratic in the preceding couple of years. Had my final period aged 50 and was so glad to be done with it all!

teaandtoastwithmarmite · 02/09/2026 18:11

I remember waking up in a sweat a couple of times but put it down to illness. I realised when I had heart palpitations and brain fog/forgetfulness. Then my periods went even weirder than normal. More recently I had crippling anxiety around my period, feeling flat and grumpy and short tempered. In 45 and was diagnosed a few months ago. In the last week I’m starting with the flushes

SilverGlitterBaubles · 02/09/2026 17:56

For me it was night sweats although this was just every now and then initially, then it was a frozen shoulder which I have only recently discovered as a classic menopause symptom. Along with this heart palpitations and breathlessness but at the time my GP never flagged or mentioned anything. Everything was treated in isolation but in hindsight that’s what it was.