I need advice from people who've been through the menopause.

[Fatmomma99]

Happy to do it on PM if too personal.

It was like something out of "Carrie". Please do feel free to stop reading now - it gets way, way worse!

I'm currently having a period like no period I've ever had. Mine ALWAYS stop on day 7 (like someone is turning off a tap). I'm on day 10 at the moment. That's a post in itself.

Last Saturday night (day 8, so already unheard of) between about 6pm and 10pm I had to change my clothes 3 times because of the flooding. At one point the sanitary towel actually floated free from my pants - the glue became unstuck because of the quantity of blood floating around. As well as the sanni, I had a super tampon AND a wad of loo-roll in at the time. I stained chairs! There were these globules of blood - like I was having some kind of miscarriage.

Is this the beginning of the menopause? I'm 45 1/2?
What do I do about it?
How long does it go on?
I have a GP appointment for Weds. What do I ask for? Is there anything that can help?
I don't seem to have any other symptoms. This was unexpected.

Any advice gratefully received.

I talked to my mum. She said that in her 40s her periods got horrendous. But then she saw an invitation to be a guinea pig in an experiment, an advert that said "if your periods are bad and you've had children and don't want any more..." so she did that, and had an operation and never had another bleed again.

Is the menopause just about the end of eggs though? I've had no other symptoms - no hot flushes or anything.

It was bad enough on Saturday. But what do I do if I get this at work? It's like someone has taken a bucket of my menstrual blood and just poured it out!

Sorry I've not been through the menopause yet, but I think it's called peri-menopausal flooding, might give you something to google. Sounds horrible

It's not no more eggs its eggs stop getting released I think. Hormones change etc. Are you certain you weren't pregnant?

As an endo sufferer I'm dreading it as my first periods were 14-16 days long and very heavy anyway.

Poor you, I feel your pain.

I had a similar experience but we were in Harry Ramsden's in Bournemouth. We tried to leave by the back stairs due to the mess I was in but the staff said no, we had to walk through the restaurant. I was too embarrassed to explain why we were going down the back stairs so DH walked immediately behind me, left me in a corner and fetched the car. He was wanting to take me to hospital, so I know just where you are coming from.

The answer for me was the mirena coil. I know a lot of people complain about them for various reasons but like you, I was afraid to go to work. It transformed my life and if they ever want to pay anyone to shout from the rooftops about how good they are I will gladly do it. I had a bit of spotting for about 6 weeks then nothing. That was 5 years ago (I think) and I have not had a period since.

The only possible drawback is that I haven't been able to have HRT as the Dr said there were enough hormones in the coil and he didn't want me to have any more. I have had hot flushes and night sweats, but nothing unbearable.

Good luck. x

OP I'm perimenopausal. I'm sorry to be a mumsnet cliche but I have really found that a moon cup is the only thing that can deal with my flooding.

worth a try?

I had something similar, which I put down to peri-menopause (although yours sounds even worse). The gp gave me tranexamic acid tablets. You just take them during your period and they reduce the bleeding by making the blood clot. There were other (non surgical) options but I can't remember what they were.
My periods also became irregular / unpredictable - generally further apart but could also be more frequent.
You might want to get your iron levels checked - mine were very low after a few months of it and I was prescribed iron tablets.
You're definitely doing the right thing going to the GP. In the meantime you can try Googling perimenopause as a pp suggested.

There's a menopause board over in general health and a site called menopause matters, v good.

Same happened to me, 40, peri menopause and anaemic. Low iron can cause it do ask for iron levels to be checked, and you've probably lost a lot of iron too. I use a moon cup and that did nothing to stop the flooding. I was frightened by it, staying abroad in hotel at time and due to go on a 8 hour train trip, the hotel bed looked like I'd been horribly murdered. So I have do much sympathy for you.

I went to my GP and said I never want that to happen again. In my case he put me on HRT which has been brilliant, once I found the right one, managed pretty much all symptoms, and I've never flooded again. I'm actually on qlaira which is the pill but can also be used as HRT, after trying an older HRT which turned me a bit loopy.

There's also noristherone, which I hated, made me horrible, transenamic acid which didn't work for me (all tried for inconsistent periods prior to flooding) and the coil. Which I haven't tried. So there's a number of things which might work.

Don't be fobbed off and to some reading before you go.

My periods have pretty much stopped altogether now - I am 50. I get a sort of pathetic half-arsed dribble/smear that goes on for a day or three some months and then goes completely AWOL on others.

I went through a brief stage of having heavy bleeding and passing clots just like you describe, but it was donkey's years ago in my early thirties. I have no idea why it happened but it did seem like a fairly isolated thing for no apparent reason.

My Dsis (49) has recently had periods that have gone on and on and one and on……….and she went to the GP who gave her some sort of medication to stop the bleeding. I am not aware of any operation other than a full hysterectomy that will stop the bleeding altogether though and that might be a bit drastic at this stage.

Crosby it's interesting that you say you were abroad when you had the horrendous flooding, because so was I. I do think sometimes the act of flying does weird things to our menstrual cycle.

Flying does do weird thing to periods, , but I was actually doing a holiday by train, just in Europe.

Mine was peri menopause, with a lead up if continual light bleeding for a couple of years, it was hard to get GP help as I was a early fir peri. But there's definitely stuff that can be done before surgery.

Yes I had that too .. thought I was bleeding to death (it had been a long time since I'd had a period). I had a mirena coil taken out at the end of its 5 years but after that incident (at a Xmas party 60 miles from home of all things) got another one put in (I'm on my third which should be the last).

Yes I had that too .. thought I was bleeding to death (it had been a long time since I'd had a period). I had a mirena coil taken out at the end of its 5 years but after that incident (at a Xmas party 60 miles from home of all things) got another one put in (I'm on my third which should be the last).

Sorry posted too soon.

Also now on HRT. Sage tablets helped with the sweats and flushes at first but HRT now for 3 years. We are all different but there are many different things to try too.

ahem ... yes it makes you very stupid too!

I had a phase like this about 5 years ago, ended up anaemic and with palpitations from the anaemia (I was 45 at the time) - periods had been getting closer together for a while and were awful heavy things about 24 days apart for a couple of years. Just when I thought I would have to get something done, they became less regular with longer gaps and some light ones; when I was about 49 they almost stopped and I started other menopausal symptoms; aching bones, hot flushes, insomnia, etc. I have been on a low dose of patch HRT for about 4 months now (am 50 now) and am feeling better than I have in ages. So my take would be that yes, it's perimenopause, yes, it's normal, or at least common, but there is no reason why you shouldn't try some of the excellent suggestions others have made rather than suffer grimly for ages like I did ;)

So,.... mirena coil - how does that affect peri-maybe-meno? i'm about to hit 44 and have had coil for about 13years, and v happy with it, anything i need to know?

I adore tranexamic acid, it has made my life liveable again. If that hadn't worked, step two would have been the mirena coil, but the tablets have done the biz. Now on second year taking them.

I tried not taking them about four months ago, but went back to the pre treatment levels of flooding etc.

Best wishes OP.

Could it be fibroids? My wife and one of her friends have had them, the symptoms sound quite similar. Definitely get it checked out at the GP.
Hope it gets sorted for you soon

It's always worth going to see your GP when you have a change to menstruation - never put up with something because of your age.

But yes, abbatoir periods do happen during the perimenopause. One cause is adenomyosis (inconvenient, but benign) but you need to see if they can establish an underlying cause for you individually as this might make a difference to what treatments are available.

BTW, the MN menopause topic is here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/menopause and you might find it worth a browse.

www.menopausematters.co.uk/periodtreatments.php

Here is a list of the treatments available from the Menopause Matters website. It is definitely worth seeing the doctor.

If you are ok with Mirena, that seems to be the best option at this age, because it reduces bleeding, provides contraception and can be used with oestrogen to give the progestogen part of hrt, and makes it more flexible to your needs.

Hop over to the menopause forum here or have a look at Menopause Matters website.

You don't have to put up with heavy periods - there are various treatments from the Mirena, to an ablation, to medication. Best see your GP just to be sure it's nothing else.

You might also have a fibroid which makes bleeding worse. Adenomyosis is not usually the cause of heavy bleeding. Pain yes, but not bleeding. Adeno is where the lining of the womb grows into the muscle of the womb which can be very painful during a period but the blood doesn't actually come out IYSWIM. I know- I had it slightly and never ever had heavy periods.

abbatoir periods!

I had this. Passed some large clots which were just awful - awful. Always happened on worst days - long train journeys, board meetings, when I was speaking at a conference. It was just like a tap being turned on as pp says. Only lasted about 6-8 months and then I had nothing for a year, and then two periods 12 months apart.

GP's advice was to thole it out.

The main symptoms of (normal, not 'slight') adenomyosis are heavy, prolonged periods with clots and increased pain.

Useful links www.healthline.com/health/adenomyosis#Overview1 and m.adenomyosisadviceassociation.org/Symptoms.html