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!

Sorry everyone is going through this - it’s so shit!
I am 48 and have had to beg my GP for HRT as they keep saying that my symptoms could be anything! My periods are still normal and I am not getting hot flushes but I am getting low mood, dizziness, headaches, sleep issues, gynae issues, no libido, tinnitus etc etc - it’s been a nightmare to be honest! Menopace plus has helped though but will def try magnesium & vit d too

HRT has transformed my life.

Those of you who have unsympathetic or uninformed GPs - and there are many - can you afford to see a menopause specialist?

My session cost £200 and was worth every penny.

Also watch the Davina McCall documentary that was on C4 recently.

So that is why I can’t lose weight no matter how hard I try but put it on at the drop of a hat! All makes sense now!

I watched them all put on weight and lose energy then lose weight and regain energy a few years later. I remember my mother doing the same - early fifties she was chubby and tired and lost. By late fifties she was skinny and focused and powerful

@Cowbells thank you for writing this

I’ve been awake since before 5am because of peri !!

I started the perimenopause in my late 30s and had finished everything at 45. My GP kept saying, you're too young, but eventually did the blood test that proved I was right. I hope things improve but get tested for hormone levels and perhaps iron too.

Bio identical hormones are made from plants, yams I think, and mimic our own hormones. Research so far hasn’t thrown up any links to cancer. And by the way, the original HRT research that spooked the cancer scare was apparently very skewed and inaccurate.
The Dr I go to, (Skype and phone )as she’s in London, is Dr Anu Arasu at the London Bioidentical clinic. She’ very knowledgeable about the thyroid as well and prescribed Novathyral to supplement my Thyroxine tablets and they have been a marvel. NHs won’t prescribe them as they are ‘so expensive’, which is rubbish as they are about £50 for a year’s supply. My Gp says they cost the surgery £500 a month! Go figure.

Im trying Menobalance by Starpowa. I think it's helping with my symptoms. I'm 49. It had good reviews. I did have HRT from the doctor. I got really bad headaches so stopped taking it.

Whilst I’m sad so many of you are having problems, I’m encouraged to hear it’s not just me. In my late 40’s I just started feeling like utter shit. So tired, aching, not sleeping, put on weight, brain fog, the usual. Went on HRY patches which helped a bit but the main thing has been losing weight, exercising, no alcohol unless a special occasion and being as careful as I can about what I eat. Some days I still feel like shit, but at least I have some semblance of control now.

I’m going to fight this as best I can and bloody well keep going. There’s no way I’m surrendering to this.

@Thecazelets

Similar for me. In my 50s and was denied HRT when I asked for it a few weeks ago; apparently I am 'not menopausal enough' as still have regular periods and am not depressed. Mood swings, palpitations, breast pain, rage, insomnia, weight gain, fatigue, joint pain, bloating and feelings of constant dread not bad enough apparently.

There are NHS menopause clinics, I think you can refer yourself. In a doctor’s training , the menopause part is optional and half of them don’t bother. Your Gp might be one of those.

The things I’ve found that have helped have been portable air con in my room. I also wasn’t able to tolerate duvets any more. I sweat buckets when under one. So I switched to a cotton top sheet and blanket instead and I rarely get night sweats now. I also got a jacuzzi mat for the bath. That’s worked wonders. It’s helped massively with my restless legs, I’d reached the point where I could have happily chopped them off! I have less aches and pains and sleep so much better.

The weight gain has been horrendous. It’s all gone on my stomach, which sticks out further than my boobs! So I’m an awful shape. But I am hoping that once my periods fully stop it will even out. I don’t want to consign myself to food restrictions for the rest of my life at only 50. So I’m just hoping for the best on that one!

@BillieSpain - peri doesn’t last forever and then the symptoms decline over time. I’m two years post menopause and am much calmer and the brain fog and many other weird symptoms are gone. For those with less than helpful GPs try to get referred to a menopause clinic or see a menopause nurse. The best treatment is oestrogen gel and body identical progesterone, recommended by NICE but not always prescribed by GPs.

I've basically got no joy left in my life, can't drink, can't eat cheese or ice cream or bread, cant eat after 6pm, can't stay up late, totally shit. Plus all the pains and feeling like I've got dementia. DP thinks I'm a hypochondriac and I feel like I'm always moaning about something. Who even am I?

I had lots of symptoms - the worse one for me was actually not having a physical period but the aches, cramps and dragged down feeling that lasted for weeks. I had early morning waking, irritability and rage.
I was also going through a difficult marriage that was coming to an end - a friend recommended “menopause ok” which helped a lot with the cramps.
My GP prescribed me a tablet to bring on my period - well the reality was there was no period to come - I was 50 - I was prescribed an anti depressant which helped with sleep, irritability, low mood and concentration.

@ArabellaScott

Can't eat too much salt! Can't drink too much coffee! Watch the cheese, don't sit in one position too long, don't think too hard before bedtime, write everything down, lose the fucking list, swear far too fucking much, wake up at the arse crack of dawn, don't eat sugar for god's sake, or too many nuts, or breathe wrong.

It's shit.

Part of me is dying to go on a bender and stay up all night drinking strong tea, eating blue cheese on white bread and smoking fags til I puke, but I feel shit just thinking about it and can't even countenance feeling any shitter.

YES YES YES (FFS )

@Edenspirits
feel a bit like a shadow of my former self at the moment
I think this sums up totally how I feel as well.

@tillyandmilly

Am I unusual I am turning 53 and not started peri menopause yet - have periods still?

You have periods throughout peri. This is one of the things you're never told. I had periods - absolutely regular - until I was 55, so I had no idea that my exhaustions and sudden onset anxiety and low mood and terrible sleep patterns and weight gain and complete loss of confidence were biological. Nor the deep bone aching pains in my hips and knee joints. (Another classic unmentioned symptom.) I had never even heard of peri menopause until I was almost out of it. So if you have any symptoms like these with no explanations @tillyandmilly, you might want to see GP for HRT or research supplements.

My people! My periods never came back after extended breastfeeding of DS. I am on patches but can emphasise so much with many of these symptoms. The worst flushes, night sweats, etc have been dealt with but I’m not myself anymore.
If I have enough estrogen I also have massive bleeds, which makes me anemic. If I don’t have enough I get hot flushes, rage, dry vag, low sex drive and thrush. I really hope at my next appointment I can go on conti rather than sequi and never have a bleed again.
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Are there any good books on the subject? The symptoms seem to be varied and it’s just not fair!

And whoever mentioned clumsiness. Oh god yes. I’m nurturing a fractured toe from tripping down the stairs, and I’m constantly dropping things.

Really annoyed reading this thread and seeing the word 'beg' used in relation to HRT on the NHS.

We are all HSC patients and most of us are tax payers and this should not be happening. Not in a country where male sexual dysfunction is treated like a medical emergency.

Then when more women demand HRT, there is a huge dip in supply and treatments have to be changed or interrupted.

Think the govt and the Dept of Health could do with a Menopause Czar, frankly.

Get HRT if it’s appropriate and acceptable to you. I got it primarily for shit sleep and it helped immediately, literally.

I’m furious on behalf of posters whose GPs are unhelpful.

and ArabellaScott you are my soulmate

This is so hard to read. Some of you sound so miserable.

I've spent my whole 30s pregnant or with small children and still in that phase. I had sort of been looking forward to my 40s as a chance to return to work, get the kids to school, rebuild friendships and my marriage, and also maybe be fit and look good, after the decade of everything being about babies. The thought of having to deal with peri instead is utterly shit.

I hope everyone on the thread can get the medical help they need and that unsympathetic GPs are being educated. Slowly I think that will take a long time...