To ask for your experiences of perimenopause?

[Youknowitmakessense]

The penny has dropped..
For a few month now I've been experiencing :

• night sweats

• painful cystic acne on my chin ( usually just the odd PMT zit)
• brain "fog"
• teariness and worse than usual PMT
• a shortened cycle ( 24 days instead of my usual 28)

I've just realised it all adds up to the perimenopause. My mum started hers at 30.

I feel pretty low. I'm 39 with one DS (4). Stressy life ( full time job with commute, no family to help nearby, sole earner whilst DH retrains). I'm also awaiting the results of a recent BRCA1 genetic test ( NHS).

I take sertraline already for anxiety, normal BMI, good diet and general other health. But this is making me feel awful.

Anyone have any experience of this? Advice? Suggestions?

Thanks

I'm 49 and started with flushes at night in December. I started taking menopace and by February they'd stopped completely. Like a dim wit i didn't replace them when they ran out. End of May the night sweats were back good and proper. I started back on the menopace. I feel teary quite often and cross within myself but I've had a lot of stuff to deal with due to my dad, Alzheimer's so I put most of it down to that. I've been in the mini pill for years, the first three I didn't bleed at all, then they started up for a while then stopped, not had one for two years but not sure that's anything to go by. A while ago when I went for a pill check I asked the nurse if they did a blood test to check on the menopause and she said no as they're not reliable. I assume you can't have hrt and the pill so I suppose I'll keep on with menopace and see how I go but a good nights sleep wouldn't go a miss.

My periods were every 26 days an always regular. In my mind thirties they became really heavy. So heavy I had to have my uterus checked thin case there was a problem but everything was normal.
In my forties I started getting hot flushes that were really bad at night and meant even in winter I couldn't bear having a duvet on me and had to have a fan by the bed.
I became tearful and emotional and angry outbursts that came on at the slightest trigger.
It wasn't bad all the time...but when it was, it was bloody awful!
My periods stayed at every 26 days until the last two. I had one about 36 days after the one before and then none for a few months when I had the very last one at 51.
Still had hot flushes and still do but quite rare now. The moods have gone though.

I have friends who had no symptoms at all and their iPods just stopped. It's different for everyone.

Periods....not ipods... !!!

Ha ha at ipods stopping! Oh if only we just had to worry about ipods!

I'm 39 and have had hot flushes and cycle changes and this month a whole month of light bleeding. Also dryness (tho I had put that down to breastfeeding dc3). I can no longer wear my overnight wear contact lenses.

I think my mum went through peri menopause early 40s so I'm guessing it's likely. I am trying to be accepting of it but it does make me feel older than I should.

Shameless place marking...

Age 44 - periods still regular but having breezed through them am noticing them getting heavier and more symptoms in the last few months (back ache, stomach pain).

Nothing else of note but this thread has got me wondering.

For me:
Shocking weight gain
Difficulty concentrating at work.
Fatigue
Dry, itchy skin

Go to the GP and ask for hrt. If you don't feel better within a month th, go back.

My gp flatly refused to prescribe hrt, saying it is only for those with debilitating symptoms

I'm 50. No period for almost a year and then three in two months. Flooding (what a nightmare!). No hot flushes and sleep OK mostly. Memory is terrible and ability to finish sentences......poor. My vocabulary seems to shrivelling up. I cant remember the words for anything! Am addressing weight gain by being strict with diet. Not seen a GP yet and head in the sand re HRT. I thought migraines i was getting were part of it but when I saw GP about them she diagnosed thyroid imbalance and after taking pills the headaches have stopped. Mood swings not toooooo bad. PMT a bit. Anxiety a bit. The irregular periods are the worst thing I think.

I've been on HRT for a year. It has helped with regularising sleep and somewhat hot flashes. On the negative side, I've put on a stone and my bloody norks grew (I wasn't small to begin with). The biggest change I have noticed is that I just can't be arsed with work or people. I show up and do my job but that's it. I make an effort with the DCs but otherwise I'm socially lost and I don't even care much. I used to have so much fight in me. The forgetfulness drives me to distraction Sorry, I'm not helping much

Soyvanillalatte - please go back to your GP S/he is a twat and you deserve the right to consider all the options available to you

My periods stopped for eight months, I had three months of hot flushes,one period then haven't had a period now for two years and no more flushes and no other symptoms although some weight gain around my middle that I'm working on. I'm 48 so appear to have breezed through it thankfully.

Agnus castus has really helped me. I've been taking it for 4 months now and my cycle is back to normal, no more sore breasts and hormonal spots but the biggest benefit by far is that my mood swings have gone. I was an emotional wreck before taking it constantly in tears or irrationally angry. My GP offered me HRT but I have had so many problems with the contraceptive pill that I decided to try alternatives first. Obviously it won't work for everyone but it's definitely worth a try.

It hasn't helped with my memory though!

I've been having mild symptoms for about 3 years. My tips are:

Glass of Soya milk daily - had an immediate impact on the hot flushes
Cut right back on alcohol
Increase exercise - helps with energy levels
Limit coffee - helps with sleep
Supplement - I've tried a couple (whatever's on 3 for 2 at Boots doesn't really matter as they're pretty much the same and it's largely for a placebo effect anyway)

Only had one flooding incident - astonishing amount and I thought it would never end but it did after about a week. Felt pretty anaemic for a while after!

Does HRT make you gain weight?

If so why?

Just seems to be a common post and am not sure if the MP is what makes you gain weight or HRT or both.

Any other side effects from HRT?

I found the biggest helps to be:

HRT patches - within days I was remarkably less anxious and mad, could remember my own name and wasn't randomly sobbing in butchers etc.

Within a few months is lost the two stones that someone slapped on me while I was sleeping.

Pilates worked wonders for achy stuff joints and also introduced me to wonderful full of life women in their seventies - a potter, a dog breeder, a golf fanatic.

Caffeine makes me imagine the world will end so it's a gamble each morning if the insomnia has been chronic. Not drinking coffee makes me calm but narcoleptic.

I am struggling with irrational red mists of rage. I say sorry a lot and have an account at the local florist.

Some days I can't see a point in my own future, but those days are fewer. There is a creeping sense of optimism, like spring.

And I so completely don't care what anyone thinks that in skipping about in my 50s in a bikini in the garden. Very liberating.

I had a blood test a couple of years ago (I'm 50 now) my GP mentioned in passing that my hormone levels were 1% away from peri-menopause.

So now at 50. I haven't had any bleed for 2.6 years.
I get flushes (worse this Summer) that sometimes has sweat dripping off my face.
I get feel hot flushing if I'm just sitting.
I get a flush about 3pm.

Night sweats
Thiirst. I drink pints of water.

Sometimes extreme fatigue, like Fall Down Tired.

I'm taking Red Clover and multivitamins.

I've posted here before, but I'm 45 and my last two periods have been about 15 months apart, so I think I'm heading that way. I'm currently taking a supermarket brand menopause vitamin and mineral supplement, plus iron, calcium + vit D and also 6g daily rosehip extract, the last because I read good things about it helping joint repair. I just seem to be so much less well oiled in the last year or two, and every little twist or wrench is sore for weeks afterwards, even if there's no visible injury or swelling. Only been taking RH for a few days so fingers crossed it helps.

I went on HRT after two years of hot flushes that got worse and worse. It made huge difference.
Tell worst part of menopause was he quickly my body changed after periods stopped. Aches and stiffness and no one told me I would lose hair from places I didn't want to lose it and gain it where you definitely don't want to!
Vaginal dryness and everything going droopy!
If you having bothered before I would definitely recommend exercise...lots of walking and yoga.

After my Hysterectomy, everything went; ovaries, cervix, tubes I didn't go onto HRT but used a supplement by Higher Nature called Soyagen Super Potency or something similar. Great stuff and I felt terrific. I recommend them if you choose not to take HRT.

I'm having a flood day. I feel like crap. I have loads of things to do and places to be and a class (art) to run. Early morning trip to the supermarket to stock up in hugely expensive and fairly bloody useless sanitary products. The biggest fattest absrobantest tampons will last an hour maybe. And dont even get me started on towels. All the money they spend on designing and marketing towels and I cant find one that is the same shape as my undewear! The wings are always wonky and the sticky stuff is aweful and teh material they use is so sweaty. I need to source some affordable and reliable cloth towels I think. I did used to use a mooncup when I had 'normal' periods (O those where the days) but I dont think I'd have the confidence for a mooncup now. A sink plunger maybe.

Hi humblesims, for the last two months I've been using Cheeky Mama's reusable sanitary protection. What they call a "Night" does me 2-4 hours on a heavy flow day. For the first 1-2 nights I use two layers of underwear, one with their "Heavy Flow or Urinary Incontinence" and then an additional "Night". I now have so many less leaks and bedding bloodbaths. They feel so comfortable it doesn't feel like you're wearing anything. They smell so much cleaner too (not sure why that would be? Perhaps not mixing with the chemicals in the pads?). No sticky tape catching and rubbing either. Wish that I'd been brave enough to try these earlier.

I am 41 and I have Mirena so I have no periods but occasional spotting.

I worry a bit as my Libido has dropped dramatically recently and I am having weird spotting - but I thought I was a bit young?

My mum was 50 when she started here.

GP said I can keep replacing my Mirena when it happens until it's over -does anyone have any experience of this?

My GP told me I was almost perimenopausal, but my symptoms aren't as bad as most posters here.