To ask for Perimenopausal horror stories and ask if there's any respite?

[celestialbows]

We touched on this subject in the hideous wedding story thread and I think that the responses and shared experiences warrant their own thread.

I believe that I started perimenopause 5 years ago aged 35. My periods became heavy and erratic. I was ttc and the only solution GPs could offer for the erratic bleeding was to put me on the pill.
Luckily I saw an amazing locum who referred me to the fertility clinic and I now have two beautiful children.

Since having the kids my cycle has got worse, periods are either really late or bunched together. I have embarrassing flooding, crazy mood swings, inappropriate crying at work and in public places as well as 'middle aged spread' dry hair and skin (dry everywhere...) and the list goes on.
Once again the. surgery has been unsupportive, my GP says that I'm too young for menopause and I'm only presenting with PMT and it is the same for all women!

I resorted to private hormone testing which showed that my oestrogen is persistently low. The GPs won't acknowledge the tests as they are notoriously unreliable and have offered me anti Depressants and the pill to counteract the mood swings and irregular cycle.

Has anyone else tried these methods and found them helpful or do you have any experience of other things which helped you?

Please wade in with your tales and help me to see I'm not alone!

[celestialbows]

Joshandjamie that's the sort of thing. I feel like a sex goddess at the time of life when I'm at my least sexy. I feel like a slave to my body with the lack of control over the emotions, emissions and aromas.

It makes me feel quite bestial and I guess the horn Is just part of the process!
I felt similar when I was breastfeeding but in that scenario I just felt bovine rather than now when I feel like a crossbred jungle animal.

[celestialbows]

Hey just thinking about the sweat situation : we are super sensitive to our own sweaty aroma, do you think it's noticeable to others?
When standing talking to people it's all I can think about, sometimes the smell is so strong and mammalian I am convinced that they can smell me! It's probably worse this time of year because I'm wearing thin summer clobber.

Today I am apparently ovulating (according to an app!) and the feminine smell is so apparent to me.

Yikes I am turning into an over sharer. Sorry for tmi but I have no other outlet for this.

[KatyPutTheCuttleOn]

I hope it isn't. I have some body spray in my bag all the time but I dread using it, it's only cheap and cheerful. I will be so glad when it's all over, my family is complete so bring it on.

[DidoTheDodo]

Oh you darling girls! Just when you think you're the only one and no-one dares talk about these things there is a life-affirming thread like this one.
Feeling most fluffy for all meno and peri-meno women!

[mignonette]

Dear Christ will you all (those of you w/ these terrible symptoms) please go to the doctors and demand proactive Tx including a referral to Gynae if necessary.

Seriously why do we tolerate this? WHY????

[KatyPutTheCuttleOn]

All my GP could suggest was either mirena (tried it, it didn't help) or a hysterectomy - which I am not prepared to consider.

[ovenchips]

As for Mirena coil being the answer to your woes: I had one fitted for a non-stop unbelievably heavy period (flooding and clots size of palm of hand) which went on for 30 days until I killed it with high dose Norethisterone.

Consultant said only time coils come out is if you're unlucky and get gush of blood and clot which it comes out with i.e. exactly the symptoms I had come in with.

Sure enough, 3 weeks later, pass ginormo clot and nestled in it is Mirena. I guess I should be grateful I spotted it coming out and was not blithely thinking I was contraceptively fairly bullet proof.

[Badvoc]

I started taking 100mg vit B6 and 200mg magnesium and HRT 2 months ago for peri menopausal symptoms.
It has definately helped me and levelled out my mood and odd periods.
Your gp sounds dreadful.
Switch.

[celestialbows]

Mmm mega gut and hairy chin! Well I don't have the hairy chin yet and fortunately my mega gut is the perfect hiding place for my outstandingly hirsute fanjo.

[Beastofburden]

What annoys me most is I want to take up swimming to deal with the weight gain. Swimming is the only sport I don't hate. But you can all picture the problem....

[Lovecat]

Thank you for this thread, it's made me realise that I'm not going mental but may well be peri or even full on menopausal. TMI alert - flooding, plum-sized clots, 2 weeks or less between periods, dry, night sweats, constantly anxious/ragey... I've had a lot of stuff going on in the last year and I've put the moods/feelings down to that but am now wondering if it's menopause-related. Reading that back it seems obvious, but I hadn't really added it all together

[LJL69]

Haven't had a chance to read all posts. Just wanted to add my tuppence worth. My GP is an angel and has got me on Tranexamic Acid which really helps at night with what used to be flooding. The most annoying thing (which is apparently a common symptom) is burning tongue. It comes and goes but is horrible. Also my cycle was exact before - 28 days almost to the minute. Is now 42 days or 21 with no pattern to which to expect. The only indicator is the headache I have the day before...excrutiating and very specific in its pain (ie no other headache like it and I have migraine and TMJ) the only word that fits for me is a "dry" headache but that means nothing to anyone else.

[FoxyHarlow123]

My turn to over share!! Brace yourselves! I'm currently on a mega period, after 5 months of nothing, and the smell is utterly revolting. Like everything has been rotting inside me for those 5 months and is now coming out. It literally makes me wretch. Anyone find the same?

[flossymuldoon]

I have had the same and it got bad enough since the start of the year so I went to my GP. Constant dull ache, constant bleeding and occasional flooding (usually when I was out and about!), shooting pains, extreme tiredness, horrendous mood swings, constant heartburn.

Turns out I have fibroids (which I knew about from my IVFs but it wasn't causing me problems at that point), a large polyp and an ovarian cyst.

I have an appointment at the hospital in Oct but GP suggested that in the meantime I go on the progesterone pill. I wasn't in favour but i agreed to try it and have been taking them for 4 months. The bleeding is now just occasional spotting, no flooding, has sorted my mood swings. I still have many of the symptoms but the regulation of my hormone mood swings has been life changing!!!

Roll on my appointment where I hope to talk them into giving me a hysterectomy.

[KatyPutTheCuttleOn]

ask GP about the progesterone pill.
I also have fibroids, though I know next to nothing about them, I found out when I was pregnant.

[HalfSpamHalfBrisket]

Well saw a gynae at the hospital this morning - he has suggested I try the pill/depo to see if it solves my problems. If that doesn't work, it would be investigation of the womb under GA, with possibly a mirena being fitted, & then surgical options.

He said I was "too young" to be thinking in terms of perimenopause (I'm nearly 42).
To be honest, if it fixes the rage, exhaustion, weight gain, spots, hairy chin, flooding and spotting I don't care if it is called PMS or perimenopause, as long as something can be done for it.
But would it not have been an idea to check my hormone levels at least?

[KatyPutTheCuttleOn]

What age do they think is the right age for perimenopause then?

[Abra1d]

Magnesium helps me a lot. Plus vitamin D, vitamin B12 and iron. Oh, and omega 3.

Trouble is, all this stuff costs a lot of money.

[celestialbows]

Oh crikey Halfspamhalfbrisket that's a shitty outcome. Can you request a second opinion? I have pinned my hopes on demanding a gynecologist referral! I'm 40 and am pretty sure I'm in perimenopause ad have been for five years!
It's not fair to have to diagnose ourselves because nobody else wants to.

I have had a few hot flushes, few and far between but yesterday I had a weird experience where I felt hot but my face, knuckles elbows and knees went red and itchy, it started like pins and needles. I thought it was an allergic reaction and took antihistamine and it went away quickly.

I wonder if it was a form of hot flushes?

Also I'm finding it hard to determine whether it's normal to feel outrage with misbehaving toddlers or if it's all due to hormones? My patience threshold is pretty low at the moment but my eldest dc in particular (3.5) is really pushing the boundaries right now. I have raised my voice a few times and shut myself in the kitchen because I've been so wound up.

[celestialbows]

I thought that the gynecologist would check hormone levels as a matter of course.

[27cats]

Another member of this un-great club.
Not got the night sweats yet, so there's something to look forward to, but most others are present.
Had an endometrial ablation earlier this year, which gave me a few blissful months of hardly any blood loss. But now it seems to be increasing again, don't know if this means the endometrium is growing back again already. Hope not. I know they say it can take 6months to settle, so am trying not to be too despondent. And at least the break from flooding allowed me to build iron stores up a bit. But on the whole it's the pits, a very difficult time of life. Really do not feel like myself.
Think it's time for and all round!

[sheridand]

I am perimenopausal and have been for 4 years. (!) It comes as a result fo having autoimmune thryoid disease, it and relatively early menopause go hand in hand. I can't tell if most of my symptoms are thyroid or menopause though, as they are basically, the same. Dry hair, hair loss, weight gain, mood swings, sweating, constipation, the opposite of constipation, endless, neverending periods,weeping at adverts of small children, weeping at gameshows when people win, complete death of libido, joint pain, what hair is left is mad hair and grey, tinnitus, it goes on.

I did feel better when my thyroid medication was adjusted, but as it binds to female hormones to work, and mine are in freefall, the medication keeps going out of whack. So I have to go to the hospital every few months to have it all adjusted again.

My biggest problem is lightswitch rage: literally, at the flick of a switch I am She Hulk. Not fair when the kids are 4 and 6. Probably easier me doing it now though, than when they're 13 and 16.

Also, does anyone else have wee teeny blood spot like freckles appearing? I have convinced myself they are age freckles.

[HalfSpamHalfBrisket]

celestial Well, next stop is back to the docs to get the aforementioned pill/depo so I may try asking nicely (or shrieking at him, depending on which day of the month it is...) for my hormone levels to be checked anyway.

Sheridand re: blod spot-like freckles - that is one thing I haven't got. Yet.

Definitely time for and all round.

[LookingThroughTheFog]

Hello thread. I need a hug.

I've thought I was peri-menopausal for a while, and about 2 years ago, my pituitary hormone level was shown to be high (we were testing it to see if it was causing the general mentalness). Only just high, so possibly the start of something, but not enough to consider intervention. Plus, I have major problems with hormones anyway, so can't have any form of HRT (being on the pill made me self-harmy).

Fast forward to this year. I'm now being treated for severe depression/bipolar (we're still not sure). All was 'well' until the doc put me on venlofaxine. It stopped my period (I'd vaguely started the day I started taking it) and then when it happened it was joyously light. I then started reacting to the venlofaxine in the way young people do - I'm nearly 37 - well outside of the danger range for it, but I was suicidal, self harming, the rage was getting more and more passionate and uncontrollable.

On the other hand, I was turned on almost constantly - I went from having a hard to reach g-spot (tucked behind my pubic bone; thanks a lot, Mother nature), to one that was so prominent I could orgasm just by lying down on my front and breathing in.

Still, not worth it for the rest of the gubbins, so with discussion with the doctor, I came off it. Felt better.

Until, oh good God in heaven, the first real flooding experience of my life today. It's like 6 months worth of period have just turned up. Fortunately, I was walking down the stairs at work having finished for the day. I thought I was probably a bit sweaty because I'd just put a super tampon in and was wearing a sanitary towel so couldn't possibly have leaked. Just in case, I nipped into the loos at the bottom of the stairs. As I took my jeans down, the force of blood pushed the tampon out. Blood everywhere. I was sat there, blood all over, dripping into the loo, thinking, in a detatched way 'I have no clue at all what to do now. No clue at all.'

It took two flushes to get rid of the pink tinge of the water.

In the end, I realised there was sweet fuck all I could do but go home. It's a hot day, so I didn't have a coat to wrap around myself. I just walked out to the car trying not to move my legs too much, hoping that the general passers by wouldn't glance at my crotch for no reason at all. Navy blue jeans saved my dignity entirely.

Got home. Instantly shot into the shower. Salted my jeans (oo, tip for anyone who doesn't know it; cold water and table salt for blood - mustn't be hot or that cooks and sets it). Wrapped myself up. Felt a bit sorry for myself. Remembered this thread and hoped I'd get some sympathetic solidarity nods.

And the kicker is, because of the head-meds I'm still on, I can't have any alcohol. And I've eaten my bodyweight in biscuits already, so now feel queasy. I'm hoping DH agrees to curry tonight because holy cow I really don't feel like standing next to the hob for half an hour.