Terrified I’m going through an early menopause!

[Pearandstilton]

I’m 35 next week and I’m scared I’m starting the menopause already.
My mum started it at the ‘average’ time. And stopped bleeding officially by early 50s.

The symptoms I’m getting are:

• Itchy vulva particularly before a period
• Itchy skin in general including armpits that are really itchy sometimes
• Very early (a day or so after my period) and sometimes non existent ovulation
• Extreme breast tenderness
• Occasional hot and cold flushes, usually before my period starts
• Loss of sex drive
• IBS

I also suffer with PMDD so every month for about 10 days before my period I’m a wreck anyway. However these other symptoms are creeping further throughout the month now.

Is an early menopause common? As I’m only 34 (soon to be 35) it feels like this is too soon. I’m feeling gutted if it is, as I wouldn’t mind another baby at some point soon, I’ve only got the one DS at the moment, I thought I had plenty of time but seemingly not.

I ent through early menopause (sometime between mid-20s and early 30s - I don't know as I only realised when I came off the pill as I wanted to get pregnant). I had no symptoms, and I am not sure anyone can tell you for sure whether you need to be concerned or not from your list of symptoms.

However, in my opinion the best thing to do would be see the GP, tell them your concerns and that you may want to have another baby in the future and ask them for a blood test to check your hormone levels. That way you will know for certain amd can maybe plan to try for a baby sooner rather than later if the results suggest you may be heading that way.

Could be any number of things....you wont know until you go to your Dr and get some blood tests.

BTW, I think 34/35 would probably be fairly unusual for menopause if there is no underlying cause (though I'm no doctor). In my case, it was probably due to medication I had taken in my early 20s rather than spontaneous.

I will go to my GP but I’m just wondering what else it could be if not early menopause with all these symptoms.

Some of these symptoms could be related to thyroid dysfunction, could be the beginning of peri-menopause (which can go on for years with fluctuating symptoms) or could be a combination of things. The only way to find out is go to the GP and get blood tests done & tell them what you have written here. Take a list of symptoms with you if you are worried about forgetting something.

Vitamin deficiency can cause all sorts of similar symptoms. I had itchy skin in 30s due to lack of vit d or it might have been B12... Was a long time ago. Definitely ask for blood test to see if it's something easily remedied.