What were your first signs of peri?

[Cloud44]

I’ve not long turned 40 and I’m wondering if I’m in the early stages of peri or if I’m too young / over thinking it.
The symptoms seem to come and go: not as much energy as my mid 30s, lacking a bit of motivation, occasional aches, lower libido than five years ago, occasionally forgetting things then I remember.
What were your first signs? Any recommendations of little tweaks I could make / vitamins to research before the symptoms become more regular?

Monthly migraine having never had a migraine before. New anxiety in random situations such as open spaces like stadia. Every one hates me, over sensitive paranoia in the days before my period. General feeling of discomfort in my body that was pretty constant. Too bloated, too fat, too sweaty, too hot, too itchy. Waking up at 5am every day. Funnily enough it's only post meno and feeling so much better I realised how I felt and why.

Tips: squeaky clean whole food diet as close to vegan as you can manage. Lose any weight that troubles you. Little to no alcohol. Excercise in the fresh air. HRT.

Thank you @5128gap , I have actually pretty much cut out alcohol just because I started to hate the hangovers after even one glass! I have also been having anxiety on and off in situations I’d never have had it before. I’m on the pill so it’s hard to judge what my periods are like. I don’t want to start HRT too soon because I feel if anything I’m more in the early stages of peri - is there anything I could take in the meantime? I’ve come across DR Vegan peri menofriend for example would anything like that help?

I’ve been in peri for a few years now but started mid 40’s. I’m a healthy weight, rarely drink, don’t smoke and exercise frequently so do a lot of things recommended to help ease symptoms but the first symptoms I noticed were night sweats. I would wake up cold and drenched and would have to get up and change my nightwear
on HRT now whcih is helping

Peri was really really flooded periods

Rage and stress, with added horrendous memory loss!
A healthy diet and exercise helped. Along with a kind doctor who signed me off for a short time which really helped. I also took vitamins D and B12. I swear the B12 helped with the memory problems.

Acne, really painful, lumpy acne. I've had really clear skin all my life and now I've got a constant strip of pimples on both cheeks. I also have a lovely side effect, where everyone says "have you changed your washing powder" as if I'd not considered it.

I'm 43 and just been for the blood test to check the hormones as I've been having peri symptoms. Longer cycles and heavier periods, night sweats, hot flushes, quick to anger, waking in the night and then insomnia for hours. Exhausted from not sleeping.

Irregular periods and hot flushes.

The hot flushes were the main and worst symptom.

Erratic periods, forgetfulness, mood swings. No hrt but one very kind doctor tried acupuncture to help with the symptoms. Had symptoms for 10 years

Heavy periods, itching, and achey knees. Hrt had been great.

Anxiety, intrusive thoughts and health anxiety. It gradually crept up but really ramped up last summer. I genuinely thought I was dying. the intrusive thinking was just awful. I’d never experienced anything like that before. It went to a head when one day I was walking through the woods and you have to go over a footbridge about 30 metres. As I was approaching the bridge, I just had this overwhelming feeling that I was going to jump off it. Not in a suicide way, but in a ‘I’m completely at the mercy of this madness’ way. I basically ran across the bridge as fast as I could so my thoughts couldn’t get me. Looking back now it was a truly horrific few months. I started HRT in August and I am now so much better.

I had such health anxiety I kept feeling like my heart was going to stop.i was actually quite low In iron which was making me really breathless and having palpitations (I still have those but not as bad) and the combination of those just made me feel so weak and breathless I was convinced I was dying.

other lesser symptoms included brain fog, memory problems, poor sleep, irritable bladder.

Terrible anxiety back in the summer of 2021 (i was 48) But looking back it has been on and off since 41 Shaking and crying. A couple of hot flushes. 51 in June and on Mini Pill since October of 21 so no idea if periods have stopped because of that or menopause

My first symptoms were that I thought I was having some sort of early onset dementia. I had serious brain fog, and became so forgetful that I was actually putting myself in danger - not locking the back door, forgetting to check the kids had their seatbelts on etc. I said nothing to DH or family because I was so scared it was dementia I would cry with worry at night. Then I kept thinking the heating was on when it wasn’t everywhere I went, at one point I had to check DH hadn’t sneakily installed an electric blanket.

It wasn’t until I watch the Davina McCall documentary it all made sense.

Im just so pleased I don’t have dementia! It sounds so melodramatic but I’m younger than most peri menopausal women and it really frightened me, I had no idea brain fog was a symptom. We need to start teaching girls about this in school IMO, menopause education is woefully lacking in the UK

Started in my late 30s with much heavier/more frequent periods and also unexplained boob pain. Followed by joint pain and exhaustion the like of which I’ve never known. Night sweats. Forgetting what I’m saying in the middle of a sentence and totally spacing. Perimenopause sucks!!!

I find Vit B complex, magnesium and iron help with the tiredness, but don’t fix it.

Have you checked out the No 7 Derm Solutions range. They do a whole range aimed at hormonal skin including for eczema psoriasis and acne.

Anxiety was the main one, then brain fog, forgetting names etc, night sweats, needing a wee more often at night and therefore not sleeping well, hair loss..but yeah anxiety was the first.

Periods started coming every 3 weeks 😔 and then after a couple of years of periods coming every 3 weeks or every 5 weeks, they got really heavy. Had to take progesterone only pill back to back. That stopped my periods

yes to weeing. Ive always had an overactive bladder but its got worse.

Rage, irregular heavy periods, craving sugar

My very first symptom, which I had for more than a year before anything else, was a creeping feeling that - for no obvious reason - the joy was draining out of my life. It was only several years later that I read a tweet by a doctor specialising in peri&menopause observing that ‘anhedonia’ - the absence of joy - is indeed one of the major symptoms. I was about 44/45 when that started.

Thar was followed eventually by increasingly bad anxiety and insomnia, and that’s what got me onto HRT, which has been amazing.

Oh and the night weeing too - that’s so annoying!!!

Just the last few weeks I’ve struggled to sleep at night. I sometimes try to nap in the day but it’s pointless. I fucking hate it. Being a woman is shit sometimes

Flooding periods without a doubt. I struggled to separate the other symptoms from peri as they could have been caused by stress / grief / over doing wine / not exercising enough.

Mine were random. ::

Needing a nap desperately after lunch.
weird erratic blood sugar spiking/crashes
Constant humming anxiety about going here or there (not really anxious)