To be sick and tired of the fucking menopause?

[Miladymilord]

I'm in bed. Feel wide awake, alternatively hot then cold. I've got leg cramps, greasy hair (wtaf), I feel really grumpy. Can't relax. I know ill wake up again in about 3 hours, drenched in sweat with restless legs. It's totally shit.

Try evening primrose starflower capsules
Also switched to soya milk (phystoestrogens)
Insomnia is hellish
Getting quite forgetful
Feel down a lot - no joy in anything.
50 no period for 2 years except a random 14 day torrential bleed about six months ago.
Don't fancy HRT hoping to get through without it.

Absolutely knackered .

I went nine months without a period and started to feel relatively fantastic at month three.

Fucking bastard periods are back with sweats, insomnia, and crabbiness rising to loathing for the whole world and everything in it (except Dd) plus tits like throbbing watermelons as my period approaches.

Nine months! I thought it was over. Huge sympathy for everyone who is suffering.

I got to 55 feeling fine. No periods anyway as I’ve had a Mirena for years. Then Wham.

Oh shit, am 48 and well into perimenopause and hoping it would be better when periods finally bugger off. Read an article in New Scientists, the details of which I’ve ironically forgotten but it was along the lines that similar changes on the btrain are observed during menopause as with Alzheimer’s. My Mum had Alzheimer’s so that was extremely depressing.

Went to GP complaining of fatigue and the fact my periods were all over the place and at that point had been bleeding for a good couple of weeks. She immediately offered HRT but as Mum also had inflammatory breast cancer that was not a route am happy to go down. Am pissed off she even offered it reading this as also have a fibroid. Insisted I had a scan and fibroid had grown so am 5 weeks post Fibroid embolisation and hoping that helps a bit.

Keep going through phases of The Rage and there was an embarrassing incident with a van driver who got a lot more than he bargained for when he refused to give way and then swore at me. It’s calmed down for now but guess it will return. Wool duvet seems to help with night sweats and exercise does help if I go up steep hills and push myself. The other day I get nesting hormone surge and anything not nailed down ended up in a skip.

No joy in anything

And then

**Don't fancy HRT hoping to get through without it.

You. Are. Missing. Out.
That is all

According to Cancer UK, only three per cent of breast cancer cases in the UK are related to use of HRT. Meanwhile, nine per cent of breast cancer cases are linked to obesity, six per cent to excessive alcohol consumption and three per cent to physical inactivity.

@PostNotInHaste

Any increased risks to women are not applicable to women under 51

Why she suggested you go on it despite your history

It;s the exploding body fluid bonanza that ruins days for me.

• fibroid periods that have meant new carpet and mattress
• leaky bladder
• drenching, drenching sweats that last for 2 hours through 2 changes of clothing

Plus the sore, horribly swollen belly. It really is spoiling any joy in an outing these days - so miserable about triggering a drench that I'm starting to avoid exercise.

It’s bloody awful!

51 and despite my gynae saying it was unlikely I was menopausal as had random periods tests showed I hit it unusually fast. No HRT available in the country I live in so I pay a small fortune for bio-identical stuff that isn’t as good but helps. Still get a boiling hot head at night and bastard aching legs despite magnesium tablets. Also known to snap unreasonably.

No way am I quitting coffee though. I really would kill someone without that crutch.

Sympathy to all the hormonal ones.

It's the wet, really; the gushing, uncontrollable wet that ruins most days now. Going bald is a misery. A sore, swollen belly and aching exhaustion are added foulnesses.

Hear what you’re saying Lostandfound but additionally she was totally ignoring what I was saying about bloating, fatigue, bleeding and her go to was HRT straight away. I went away, thought about it and wrote asking for an ultrasound. The Sonographer took one look and said he could see I was probably well acquainted with local toilets as fibroid sitting on bladder. I’m hopeful the embolisation might help that (I think it already has a bit) plus help the bleeding.

Putting me on HRT would have been the easy option but I feel it would have ignored an underlying problem and if fibroid had got any bigger I’d be struggling to empty bladder properly. Plus i’ve Worked my arse off to not be obese, given up alcohol and gone from sedentary to pretty active.And she did that patronising thing which really made me cross.

I find black cohosh genuinely useful for temperature swings and poor sleep. I ran out recently and it was awful.
The thing is, very few women reached this age for most of human history. Widespread menopausal hell is a modern thing. Not that that helps.

@PostNotInHaste

I’m confused. So was the fatigue etc due to the fibroid?

Unfortunately, when it comes to the menopausal symptoms there is no alternative to HRT. This is because the symptoms are caused by declining oestrogen. So HRT replaces that hormone deficiency with... oestrogen.

Miladymilord
Get a kindle. Low light and doesn t disturb my DH at all

Hopefully yes it is, remains to be seen but Gynae thinks good chance they are. Despite fibroid being in notes and me mentioning it GP dismissed it and said the symptoms are all very common in perimenopause and just wanted to go straight to HRT option. Which has pissed me off somewhat.

HRT literally saved me. >>>>>Shudders at memory of pre-HRT

@PostNotInHaste

To be fair, night sweats, anger and brain fog are not symptoms of fibroids. They are symptoms of menopause.

I wasn’t complaining of those when I saw here. It was the excess bleeding, abdominal pain, fatigue , bloating and frequent urination I specifically mentioned. Didn’t mention night sweats, anger and brain fog as intermittent and although annoying, something I could live with.

Oh and nausea from abdominal cramp pain.

@PostNotInHaste
Agreed
But given your issues now, would you not say HRT would be appropriate? Or can you not have if you suffer fibroids?

No idea, no one has discussed HRT with me with reference to my fibroid.

Night sweats have currently pretty much vanished for now (I really do recommend a wool duvet) and I coped much better than expected durring the heatwave, the rage is intermittent and not happened since van driver episode a few months ago to any great extent. Brain fog annoying but under a lot of stress currently so would want to see how it is when outside stressors are reduced. Have had daytime hot flushes in past but weight loss anf exercise seemed to be helping that. I do get episodes of joint pain that seem to be related to periods but again they are intermittent generally a consistent exercise regime helps.

I’m suffering terribly from itchy skin at night and terrible sleep. I get that HRT is amazing but as a breast cancer sufferer I can’t take it!!
So frustrating.

HRT not for everyone.
For lots of reasons.
For those on it and happy with effects fine.
But not something to be undertaken lightly or feel pressurised into taking.

I just hit 49 so coming soon but not even pre menopausal yet. From what I see and hear not 👀 by forward to it at all