In my position, would you speak to GP about trying an anti-depressant?

[ShadesOfPemberley]

I took ADs back in my early-mid 20s, combination of depression/anxiety and an eating disorder. They helped. Therapy too.

I am now 50 and though I haven’t taken anything since my 20s I’m wondering if I need to ask my GP to prescribe something.

I have been keeping a track of my peri symptoms and have realised they are ENTIRELY mood related.

I range from grumpy to furious a lot of the time, it definitely gets worse in the 2 weeks before my period but even when I’m not angry I have low mood and low motivation A LOT.

I think I might have suffered some form of PMDD a lot of my life but as my periods weren’t regular for most of my 20s and 30s (a separate medical reason) I never made the link between my mood and my period. My mum definitely had severe PMT which I think at the very least I do too.

I am horrible to my husband a lot and I don’t want be. But I feel like I can’t help myself. He’s a good man and though we’ve had a huge amount of job stress with him he doesn’t deserve my moments of rage.

My teen DD is awaiting ASD diagnosis and things have been very difficult with her for a while. Better actually since she started ADs but it has been many years of stress and it does wear me thin sometimes.

I know I am the age for peri symptoms and I know low mood/rage etc ARE peri symptoms. I am perfectly happy to consider HRT but I just have this nagging feeling my moods are the issue in a separate way from my hormones. I am able to manage other peri issues currently with changes to diet (less sugar, caffeine etc) and trying to do yoga and lots of walking. But the mood issues persist. I’m so sick of feeling semi-permanently either furious or unenthusiastic about everything (it’s become a sort of joke with DD how my general response to a lot of stuff is that I just can’t be bothered… I do force myself to do stuff DD enjoys but it makes me feel suppressed rage half the time! This can’t be right!

I feel like I just had an epiphany looking at my period tracker and seeing that ALL my peri symptoms are about feeling low, angry, grumpy, unenthusiastic etc.

Should I speak to the GP and say I’m wondering about ADs? I have discussed HRT with her recently and she was great but after bloods came back fine (I am aware they can be fine and that I can still start HRT on basis of self reporting symptoms fyi, as was the GP) I sort of dropped it a few months back and didn’t follow up.

Thanks v much for reading.

Yes, talk to your GP.

Peri menopause sliced through my previously very effective anti depressants like a hot knife through butter.

Personally if I could back back again I’d try the HRT first and add the anti depressant after if still needed to “top up”.

Massive hug, cos I’ve been there and it’s rough.

I’d try HRT first if I were you

My GP gave me ADs for mood swings and crippling anxiety in my 40s. When I started getting night sweats and brain fog a different GP said I should have been offered HRT not ADs and she switched me over. I was feeling like my old self within a few weeks (after very little effect from the ADs)

Thanks everyone. I will ask about both.

I think it’s only just occurred to me though that the anger/low mood aren’t a new thing (or even a recent thing) at all. I think with hindsight I’ve had regular periods of real mood issues for the last 20 ish years. Which is why I wondered if ADs and not HRT were the place to start. I have no other peri symptoms whatsoever apart from poor sleep but that’s vastly improved with less sugar/caffeine.

I’d be happy to have the conversation with you about a trial of either and see which you think has more pros than cons.

on mumsnet ad’s get a bad rep for menopause aged women but it’s often the time in life when circumstances are hardest - kids growing up,, elderly parents, job changes, relationship changes that we’ve not had to navigate before!

Thank you, that sounds a good idea actually. Trying one or the other and seeing what helps. I hadn’t thought.

i think it’s all coalesced today; we are off on holiday tomorrow somewhere nice and I’m just thinking I can’t be bothered, I don’t want have to be pleasant to DH for a week, I haven’t the desire to do anything when we get there.

Sadly can’t speak to GP until we’re back! 😳☹️

Definitely try HRT, it’s replacing the hormones your body no longer makes but also has long term benefits such as protecting against osteoporosis and dementia. At 50 you should be able to get it without needing bloods done, which are often inaccurate anyway as hormone levels fluctuate throughout the day. That’s not to say you don’t need anti depressants but often women are fobbed off with anti depressants by unsympathetic GPs when they actually need HRT.

Thank you DuckWrap. And everyone else who has posted 🙏

I would consider them but I would also consider HRT for the bone and heart protection. You may want to try them both at once or just try the HRT first so you know which one is helping .

FYI - A large number of women with eating disorders have ASD and 90% if children with ASD with have at least one parent with ASD and peri can hit autistic women harder.

Thank you. Interestingly I am starting up suspect I might have ASD. Or that I might be NT in another way. The realisation is quite hard tbh. I have also, now that I know much more about ASD in girls and women, realised that my mum is likely also ND and it’s bringing a lot of my on-going issues with her to a kind of head. It’s a difficult time!!

I know HRT can be protective against dementia and heart disease so I am keen for that reason. I have had an NHS gynae consultant really push me away from HRT however (about a year ago, when I was seeing her for a different reason) and her odd reluctance to agree that HRT might be appropriate (for a 49 year old!!) was very strange. It probably has put me off HRT in a way, as I couldn’t explain why but I felt she was steering me away. She did suggest ADs (when I mentioned my moods) which I was very annoyed about at the time as I know it’s not NICE guidelines. But now I’m wondering if she was right.

I went onto 50mg setraline when my Dd went to uni. I am also on HRT but I found my anxiety was ramping up and making me a bit unhinged.
My DD is neorodiverse and I suspect I am as well and I think we can start to fall apart at key hormonal changes in life.
The HRT sorted the rage and moods out and somewhat helped anxiety but the Setraline is fab it's just smoothed me out.
No real side affects so why suffer. Worth a try.