To be over having to give up EVERYTHING due to perimenopause

[Edenspirits]

• Can’t tolerate alcohol anymore- even a couple of drinks give me a massive hangover
• Bread makes me massively bloated and I have to really watch what I eat as I get piled really easily 🙄
• Chocolate gives me a headache
• Tea gives me a massive headache
• have to watch everything I eat as the slightest deviation and I put on half a stone by barely looking
• the slightest deviation to my routine and I don’t sleep 😴

I feel like I barely recognise my own body!

Sigh- it’s SO dull!
Aibu to be really really really over perimenopause! Waiting for HRT from the doc and ready hope it helps!

Same here, it’s shit. I have discovered the day after my period ends I can have 1 G&T and not get ill. It’s the highlight of my month.

Peri since 2012. I’ve found I sleep better,less anxious if I don’t eat delicious food such as burgers or sweet things.

I take Menopace which helps with the sweating... if I miss a day OMFG I pay for 3 days sweating like a piggy, waking up through the night, worrying about everything

@EscapePeaBoo firstly age, over 45. Blood tests to rule out other nasties. Then by vasomotor symptoms and a few others. It seems to be harder for younger women to get diagnosed but the NICE guidelines help you here.

I had loads of classic signs and somehow hadn't put two and two together.

Go to your local health shop seek advice for supplements to support hrt/menopause

Try reflexology, acupuncture dietary changes honestly I have had amazing results with menopausal ladies x x

My periods have all but stopped. Until I visit mil. I'm not joking, I've had 3 periods in the last 2 years, you know, those awful clotty menopausal ones (I'm 50) and they've all 3 been when we've gone to Belfast for caring reasons (fil dementia) and have stayed with mil. Last time it came out of nowhere and we had to buy her a new mattress.

I can't have hrt as hormones have a niche poor affect on my kidneys and the less renal colic the better. So I'm stuck with the menopausal crap. Sage has helped with the flushes and I'm on b12 injections. Going to look into magnesium spray, and my vit d is also supplemented. I just feel so old and creaky and angry.

Can relate to all this… I am 43 and feel like most foods are out of bounds for me now, especially the last year. Feel like I live on fruit and veg. I should be as thin as a rake (I’m not)! Add to that horrid hormonal spots, melasma, and now hives when out in the sun… all thought to be hormone related. Lack of sleep and moods all over the place. I am normally so chilled and happy but can strop now at the drop of a hat! Was watching repeats of The Harry Enfield Show recently and recognised elements of myself in his teenage character Kevin! 😬

I'm so fed up of it going on day after day(had pretty much every symptom you can get, and a few that I'm sure have been made up just for my pleasure!) that I've stopped thinking of it as perimenopause and refer to it as the longest drug detox known to (wo) man

Following with interest.
All very familiar.

HRT has been a life-saver for me.

I am now in a place where I can start to appreciate some of the good things that come with this time of life. But fuck me there's a lot of shit comes with peri. It took three kinds of HRT and some major counselling to get to this place - without those things I think I'd have gone totally off the rails.

I didn't sleep last summer. Finally went to the gp, got a new coil (the last one was coming to the end) and oestrogen gel and I kid you not I slept the first night I used the gel. I was a new woman overnight.

As for when is the right time to think about HRT, I'm not there's a set age. If you get a GP who listens, anytime can be the right time to at least have the conversation.

HRT has really helped my sleep but now apparently my blood pressure is too high for it so I'm trying to give up caffeine and alcohol (well, cut way down) to combat that 🤦.

This is all very familiar.

I’m mid forties. My periods got horrendously heavy about 5 years ago and my cycle has been getting shorter and shorter - down from 30 days 5 years ago to 23 days now. Or so I thought. It’s randomly really late this month, but I can feel it brewing and have had about 2 weeks of bloating, aches and PMT rage/tears…and counting. Just hurry the fuck up and come!

I’m also spotty, after 40 + years of clear skin. My hair is thinning. My skin is dry and crepey. The rain fog at work is awful around this time of the month.

It’s just non stop glamour and laughs!

For the pp who asked...
I use neom magnesium body butter and sleep spray

I've tried the lot..
Mirena
Depo
Pop
Hrt pill and patch
Endometrial ablation

None of it helped and the hrt actually made me quite ill

If you can use hrt that's great but not everyone can and there ARE risks as with any medication

I think acupuncture is worth a try too if you're suffering

I hear you. and weep.

I've never understood why women don't just take the pill continuously and not have periods, especially those really suffering from them. If you can tolerate the pill then there is basically no risk.

I got told in my early 20's by the GP it was fine to do so (I was going on holiday and didn't want the faff whilst I was away). She did say I should 'probably have one 3-4 times a year'. In my 30's my GP told me not to bother with the pill free break unless I got break through bleeding (I never did).

However whenever I talked to friends about it I'd always get some horrified responses and for some of them no matter what information I gave they'd howl me down that it was dangerous, unnatural etc. As if being on the pill isn't already affecting hormones anyway? The 'break' is not a real period.. Tried recently with a younger friend who has horrific periods really affecting her quality of life but she just won't entertain it or even read the science behind it. Genuinely baffles me

I kept on with it pretty much continuously until one day in my late 40's I thought, mmm wonder if peri-menopause has started as some other symptoms had cropped up. Stopped the pill, no periods. Started on HRT to stop the night sweats and panicky, tearful shit and all good so far. Won't be going off that unless they prise it from my cold dead hands.

Sorry I don't know to do proper nice links but here's some info -
qz.com/1530684/women-get-unnecessary-periods-on-the-pill-because-of-the-catholic-church/

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/23/medical-advice-pill-pope-bleeds-women

www.contraceptionchoices.org/did-you-know/taking-break

www.gponline.com/contraceptive-pill-seven-day-breaks-outdated-says-family-planning-expert/contraception/contraception/article/1447513

@romany4

I had to stop drinking alcohol completely. Gives me an instant migraine. Even with just a few sips..

Me too.

perimenapause is something to separate women from transwomen!

@Sixsillysausagessizzlinginapan

Omg how old are you. I feel like this but I'm only 32 🙊 Please tell me it stops soon. I'm a horrible cunt at the moment 🤦🏻‍♀️

Ok if you're 32, and having perimenopausal symptoms you should be at your GP, quick smart.

I miss the odd period now

The periods I have don't really follow the usual 21 day cycle

Since the ablation they are lighter and don't last as long but very disappointed that they didn't stop as happens for a lot of women who have one

I've been quite unlucky with my peri I think
I've had just about every symptom there is!
Also tried 2/3 medications which have actually made my health worse!

I see a chiropractor regularly as my bones and joints feel like rusty nails sometimes 🤔

I find I'm quite impatient/cross/psychotic in the week before my period or as we call it in this house "hell week" 😬

I'm only 36 but it's starting I can feel it.. periods in to 20 days from 28 day cycle and the clots and pain like I've never known.

Brain fog that was already bad cos I have young children is enough to make me consider giving up work. I didn't think night sweats were something I'd have to deal with until my kids were out of nappies at least 😕
Hormones have a lot to answer for.

All of this, yes!

I finally caved after 6 years of trying to tough it out through the worsening storm, and am on month three of HRT.

Hideous bloating still, weight gain despite eating less, can’t drink alcohol, or coffee. Can’t tolerate various foods, including cereal with milk, and pork. Joint pain, and intense, awful facial pain. Oh, and silent reflux eroding my throat tissues and causing a horrible cough with fever and vocal damage. Nice bonus!

But at least the hot flushes have gone away (I think) with the hrt, which is a massive relief. They were really breaking me.

Frankly, it sucks.

Anyone who's been refused hrt shouldn't accept that.

www.menopausedoctor.co.uk/

46 and just started hrt.

I have never bothered with skincare; wash face with water. Swim lots, never use sunblock. Always been fine.

It's as if my skin has deflated overnight! My arms were smooth and now... crepe? I have chicken neck and the skin on my face is so dry it's getting itchy and sore.

What can I do? Will the HRT help
..?

@CheerfulBunny

Clumsiness and rage. I am all about clumsiness and rage these days. I make myself bloody furious most of the time. If I tried to recreate the stupendously stupid things I do, I wouldn't be able to. Everything annoys me. Plus the anxiety - waking up full of dread for no reason is no picnic either.

oh I so remember this. I was like a teenager in a grandma's body and the joint aches and the brain fog and the flushes and dizzy spells AND the HRT that made me worse and the expensive complementary stuff that DID NOT WORK. What did work was wearing and sleeping in natural fibres....all hail tencel (lyocel) drinking more water and watery drinks and swearing a good deal. It does end...kind of....27 years after it kkicked off I still get the dizzy spells and flushes but they are like old friends now...and a walk in the park compared to PMS and the cramps....but yes I still can't drink much alcohol :(

@EssexLioness

Can relate to all this… I am 43 and feel like most foods are out of bounds for me now, especially the last year. Feel like I live on fruit and veg. I should be as thin as a rake (I’m not)! Add to that horrid hormonal spots, melasma, and now hives when out in the sun… all thought to be hormone related. Lack of sleep and moods all over the place. I am normally so chilled and happy but can strop now at the drop of a hat! Was watching repeats of The Harry Enfield Show recently and recognised elements of myself in his teenage character Kevin! 😬

yes this! My late beloved husband used to call me Kevin.