To ask how tired are you on your period?

[ButterflyTable]

I’m early 40s now, it’s the first full day of my period today, I started in the night so got woken up about 4am, although I’d put a normal sized pad on it had leaked, usually the very first couple of hours is light for me.

I have about a 4 or 5 day period and my cycle varies from 23-27 days.

On the run up to my period I’m generally ok, the day before I have a headache and feel dizzy. Today though I’m exhausted. Like I could genuinely fall asleep. I take an iron supplement every day.

Does your period surprise you? Do you carry on as usual or does it exhaust you?

I found as I was going through perimenopause that I started to get almost flu like symptoms before my period and would be absolutely knackered, in bed at 8.30pm knackered. Some of that was low iron and I needed 'proper' iron from the GP in order to get my iron levels up - it might be worth a blood test.

But it carried on to some extent even after my iron levels were back to the right level.

Mine often surprises me, as it's getting irregular in my early 50s, but it always starts very slowly, so not really a problem.I have other symptoms with it, but tiredness has never really been one of them, except that I generally sleep really badly for one or two days beforehand, so am a bit tired from that. I have a tendency to low iron, but don't tolerate iron tablets well, so I don't take them.

Mine are regular and I track them and still...

I'll be craving sweet stuff, crying at nothing and clumsy and then 24hrs later I'm "oh THATS why"

I'm always very very tired just before and during period.... I just have no energy for anyone or anything. Fun

Days 2-3 are the worst ones for me. Cramps, nausea, bloating - vomiting if it's a bad month, plus extreme fatigue/exhaustion. I'm on iron tablets which help a bit.

It only lasts about 36 hours though, then suddenly I'll feel much more awake and the cramps go and I feel almost normal again. It's very odd.

I could have written your post op. I'm 42 and like you I get a headache a day or two before and the second day (last Saturday in this months case) I was exhausted. I went for a lie down at 2.30 and woke up at 5! I had no intention of sleeping but I was shattered.

Weird thing is my stomach cramps have become lighter than what they were. Also periods are shorter both in length and cycle.

My mood is terrible at ovulation time (wasn't a year or so ago) but not as bad as it used to be a day or so before my period. I've been tracking it and making notes as I had noticed these changes.

I started getting night sweats about two years ago but the GP did my bloods and said all was fine. Tried taking iron and it didn't do much.

No advice I'm afraid, only solidarity!

I'm generally exactly like that, with the addition of having a ravenously hungry day the week before...

Since starting peri menopause I get exhausted the day before my period arrives, I cannot function normally and need to sleep for hours. It doesn’t fit into life so I try to crack on but it’s so hard.

Bone tired. But I think it's partly because I don't sleep well on the first couple of days, because I'm sort of aware I might leak.

I'm 42, periods have got lighter and shorter - usually all done in four days, but the first two are very heavy. I have a constant headache 2-3 days before my period starts and sometimes feel a bit fluey. Very clumsy and scatterbrained the week before, crave carbs, and often have a few hours of what I think of as 'doom' - I feel like everything is wrong, my life is terrible, I'm useless etc. It passes as soon as my period starts.

When I had periods I could get tired and sometimes have a nap in the afternoon. But in perimenopause a friend mentioned to me at 40 (she was 2-3 years older), you’ll get more tired in perimenopause and want to sleep more. She was right. I think you have to factor it round your life and take iron tablets if your levels are low.

In the day or two leading up to it I get very tired, brain fog, headaches, which tend to last through the first day but then ease by day 2 of my period.

I could literally sleep the day away on the days before hand.

However I approach the perimenopause and I have pmdd

I’m usually exhausted a couple of days before, feel a bit nauseous the first 24 hours and sleep badly for a night or two, and then I feel fine. Always been that way, some changes now I am approaching 50, but nothing intolerable. I don’t take HRT.

I am on the pill and don't have periods as such, but do occasionally get breakthrough bleeding. The night before I will invariably have bad insomnia. It isn't always the case insomnia = bleed, but bleed = insomnia the night before.

I am absolutely wiped on my first day. No energy at all and thick brain fog. I used to work for a company that gave all women one day a month off for their heaviest day.

It knocks me out completely. I literally work and sleep.

I fall sleep in evening with before or day or to of it - also ravenously hungry and head achy before hand. Last 40s so probably peri.

Was worse in my 20s - used to work and sleep - but had incredibly heavy periods and was fobbed off by GP or at best shoved on pill which gave me other issues - it became my normal wasn't till I moved in with DH I realised it wasn't normal.

No where near that level now just find I fall asleep one or two evenings earlier than usual. Haven't noticed iron supplements impacting it either this time.

Exhausted every period. Been like this for years. I get wiped out with exhaustion. Just as well I don't work as I couldn't cope. On strong painkillers to get through it.

on day 2 now and I could sleep for a hundred years like rip van winkle. It’s the kind of tiredness that goes beyond wanting to sleep though, I feel weak and swimmy.

I dont have mine any more, but Inused to have heavy periods and could sleep standing up (I actually dozed a few times standing on the tube) exhausted was putting it lightly. I retired very early, so I just went along with it. I would get bloods done to check your folic, b's ets... mine were always low.

Thanks everyone, I have been getting night sweats but also started sertraline!

I was deffo very teary yesterday.

I relate to a lot of the symptoms you’ve all described. Bad sleep sometimes a couple of days before and angry around ovulation.

@Kwasi what an amazing company!!

I still track mine and they’re every month. Dr said not yet perimenopause I disagree,

Mid 40's here & though my periods are regular, all manner of weird shit happens around them now. My teeth & gums hurt in the week prior. Stomach upset during the period. Headache at the end. Shakey & exhausted as I finish. Not to mention the weird warm-meat-sweat I get before & during now. Much less rage, though.

Exhausted but I have endo and other issues.

I am on iron, b12 and folic acid supplements to counteract it.

Have you had your bloods checked?