To ask about your perimenopause symptoms

[Midlifelights]

I am 47 and likely in perimenopause - I feel pretty shit for about 3/4 of the month these days to be honest.

My latest symptom seems to be feeling extra shit on the last day of my period- headache, feeling sick, very emotional, anxious, heart palps, only wanting beige food. It used to be that by now I was starting to feel better but no. Is it linked to rising hormones again? Anyone else get this?

Then I feel super shit around ovulation- same sort of thing. Then have a sunny week, then it’s pms & back to feeling shit again.

Aibu to ask if anyone else gets this joyful combination of hormone horror? It’s driving me nuts- I have had the pointless ‘there’s nothing wrong with you’ blood tests several times at the GP and been dismissed as anxious several times too 🙄

Yep it’s my worst symptom.

It’s also one of the symptoms that I wasn’t aware of and it worried me at first.

Hi OP I am 48 and have just been prescribed with HRT. As I still have periods albeit very irregular, my GP has given me the combi patches. I’ve put my first one on today funnily enough.

The last few months have been horrific symptom wise - low mood all the time, bordering depression, headaches, dizziness, nausea then wanting to eat everything and anything, periods all over the place for the last 18 months (and very heavy), forgetting things and generally feeling like I have lost my mind. I want to cry all the time and I have been really shouting at the kids. Just bloody awful.

I really do sympathise with you and hope you can get some help.

I turned 45 last month. For the last few years I've had breathlessness, nausea, dryness, feeling emotional, permanently swollen boobs.

Gp dismissed everything, now I've got va thanks to low estrogen. It is horrendous. I may have been saved all this if Gp had of put me on Hrt earlier. Using vagifem for 5 months along with ovestin. And now patches as well.

My body has clearly been estrogen deficient for a long time. Gp's know fuck all about menopause.

You poor things. I’m 49.5 and wondering if I’ve got away with it or have it all to come. Mum was 50/51 when her periods stopped. Mine are irregular and only 2/3 days now, sometimes skipped altogether but nothing else really. I always get ready before my period but that’s been normal for me all along, as well as fancying chocolate.

Teary not ready!!!

Oh yes, I forgot about the appetite. I have days when I feel sick and don't want to eat, and then other days when I can't stop eating and feel unfillable.

Started with swollen feet and ankles but I don't get that anymore . Then heavy periods, ended up buying period pants to use with sanitary towels.
Horrible headaches that won't shift. Found sumatripan helps a lot. Then missing periods and them arriving randomly. Some very light/some heavier.
Really tired and irritable

@Benjispruce2

Internal vibration??

Yeah, it's like an internal tremor. It's caused by the vaso motor response that triggers hot flushes.

I'm very short tempered. My ability to be patient with idiots is non existent. I'm hot all the time. I have a fan on me 24/7, sleep without covers and with the window open and I'm STILL hot!
My periods have always been hit and miss cos I've got pcos but they're even worse nowm I've maybe had 2 this year. Lots of false starts but only 2 actual periods. I get regular period pains (got them now) but no period.
I feel full and bloated all the time.
My skin has turned to shit. I have more spots now than I did over my entire adolescence!
When I meet my maker I have a few choice words for him!

Is there any correlation between when you start your periods and when you start getting symptoms? I'm 45 and started at 15, so wondering if it will all kick in later than someone who started at, say 10 or 11?

Now I've typed this out I realise it's probably a very stupid question

I'm 49 and confused by the description of peri symptoms because they sound exactly what I've always thought menopause symptoms are so is it not just the menopause? What is the difference between peri menopause and actual menopause?

I don't think when they started has any correlation with when menopause starts. I started at 14, I'm now in full menopause at 44.

Add to my symptoms, short temper, headaches, sweating at night and very hot cheeks. After a week on patches all these stopped.

Oh thank you for this thread! The comfort of reading it.

I'm 51 and my cycle is clockwork. I have to wear night-time pads with period knickers because the flow is incredibly heavy for 3 day.

My PMS has always been a problem, but now it's fierce and I have two lots of it, one at ovulation and another crack at it when I'm due on. I have about 8 PMS free days a month, I wish I was exaggerating. I have the internal 'tremor', palpitations, flashes of heat (but no sweats) , an insatiable desire for refined carbs, and ANXIETY. Dizziness. Tinnitus. Weight gain. Body aches. Night terrors. I feel I've aged 10 years overnight. I just don't recognise myself, I've gone from Blahniks to frump, all confidence leached away. I tried HRT last year but the progesterone nearly did for me, it was PMS on steroids. I'm on a waiting list for a swanky menopause specialist now as my GP was useless. I wish you all well!

@XiCi

I'm 49 and confused by the description of peri symptoms because they sound exactly what I've always thought menopause symptoms are so is it not just the menopause? What is the difference between peri menopause and actual menopause?

Menopause is when you've not had any period for 12 months. Peri is from the start of symptoms until you reach that 12 month mark and post menopause is after that

Once you’re past menopause, do the symptoms stop?

If you've got a mirena coil in and no symptoms can you assume you're not peri yet?

@Benjispruce2

Once you’re past menopause, do the symptoms stop?

Yes, once you're past it and post menopausal you just have brittle bones and shrivelled up vaginas to worry about. Hurrah.

Great. Can’t wait!

I’m 42 and for the last 6 months have been getting peri menopause symptoms.

The main one being migraines 3 days before my period. Literally could set my watch by it. Bed ridden vomit inducing migraines that I’ve never had before. Horrible.

Rage with my poor children and husband that was like a red mist descending. I could have done some real damage.

Spoke to the Dr at the beginning of lockdown and have been prescribed the mini pill as the migraines and rage were down to hormone fluctuations.

The pill is amazing in that it has stop the rage and migraines, but it’s made my hair fall out which is not amazing.

Oh. Blimey, I think I may have an answer, I thought I was going mad. Terrible anxiety, mostly evenings and night, night sweets, insomnia, itchy at night and moody unexpectedly. Very low generally. I'm 46.

Question though, would I expect peri symptoms whilst on the mini pill?

I am 47. Heavy periods and feeling tired and just a bit shit really. Also, feel really anxious and a short fuse - a lot of the time I feel this intense rage.

I’m exhausted all of the time
Moody
Bloated
Oh and the brain fog
What was I just talking about

Had blood tests waiting results. My periods are still regular 28-30 days and I still feel when I ovulate and get ovulation symptoms. My ovulation symptoms seem to last longer and so does PMT

I only feel good for about one week in the month

I do have a slightly under active thyroid and feel as though that has dipped but the symptoms are often the same

And often out of breath

I’m 48

Very few physical symptoms but emotionally all over the place . Feeling very lonely a lot of the time - ( sometimes tearfully so for no particular reason ) - so some def hormonal and some , I think , because of moving into new chapter . My memory is pretty haphazard - can totally hold it together fine at work but by the time I get home I feel emotionally drained ! BUT HRT is def helping

43 here, such a short fuse. No patience with anyone or anything, haven’t had a good night’s sleep or woken up feeling rested for months. Periods still pretty regular although cycle slightly shorter, but like someone upthread I now get ovulation grumps too. The day my period stops I am horny as hell and then that seems to be it for the rest of the month. Anxious, definitely, although not as bad as I’ve had it in the past.

I have had other issues going on that are causing me stress, not least losing my mum a couple of years ago, but I think a lot of it is due to perimenopause. Last GP offered me an anti depressant but I didn’t bother because it was treating a symptom, not the cause. Need to sign up with a GP in my new location and try to find one that won’t dismiss what I’m telling them.