To dread being perimenopausal

[arcticpandas]

Never heard about about it before visiting mumsnet. On here it seems like everyone is perimenopausal and it seems to be damaging on all levels : MH crisis, weight spike, fatigue etc. I always thought the menopause would be difficult and I'm now 45 waiting for this dreaded perimenopause and then after the menopause. A part of me wants to think this is made up, surely it can't be that bad? I mean we get older ofcourse which is not always a joy.. And how long is one on perimenopause before going into menopause and aren't they the same thing and you can just get hormones to help?

You'll mostly hear from people who have had an awful time. Unfortunately, I'm one of those. Many women can and do sail through it and therefore never post.

I thought it maybe just hot flushes and as I'm generally a tough cookie working in an all male environment I was in for a shock.
Reached 50 still nothing.
51 was dreadful Anxiety and I had to stop driving.
Mood swings hot flushes joint pain dry burning mouth bladder issues low mood you name it I had one thing after another and I was seriously uneducated as DM sailed through.
Insomnia, constipation dizziness and a morning sickness type feeling.
I had to take hrt to cope with my 12 hour days.
If you would be told me all this before I wouldn't believe it.
I didn't waste my 40s thinking about it.
58 now and ok.

Just get the coil and then you barely get periods at all. I'm 43 and I'm intending to have the coil into my 50s. I definitely don't miss them and wanted rid if them as soon as possible!

My friend is early 50s and its passed her by no issues whatsoever. She isn't even on hrt. Mil was the same, no problems. It effects everyone differently and most people only post the bad stuff.

Agree. I put it off having read scary stories but it's the best thing ever. I hope I'm allowed another when this one runs out no periods is amazing.

Get started now. U loose a ton of muscle after a certain age. So get urself to the gym to lift heavy weights will help with bone density loss which menopause causes. My sister found cold water swimming helped with the aching.

I am 49. And have adopted gym, clean eating lots of movement outside of the gym. I also keep track of my weight. I can see what happen when ur older and ur overweight. Not a chance that is happening to me.

I am hoping my proactive approach will help. But I’m not blind that there will be things I cannot control and therefore will need help her wise. Be prepared and knowledge are key things here.

Actually relieved to hear this as I thought I was the only person who didn't really get any symptoms

Everyone's experience is different.

I think the hardest thing is that it's difficult to recognise some of the symptoms as peri until you get them more severly or have very sure signs in terms of irregular periods.

With Covid jabs being known to cause cycle issues, it took me 18 months to realise what was happening to me was peri. Had I started HRT sooner, honestly it wouldn't have had to be a rough ride.

I'm now post, still on HRT atm, but honestly, pretty much just me again.

I think a lot of it is Mumsnet. Its great there is more awareness but the minute a poster says "I have a headache" 20 people will automatically reply "peri".

After decades of women's health problems being ignored I actually think assuming any medical issues 39+ year old women have is 'peri' is almost as damaging.

It's not that bad. The symptom I've most disliked has been brain fog. I found HRT gave me no side effects and worked fine; I had an enforced break for an unrelated reason and haven't gone back on it yet, but I might. My hot flushes (mainly after caffeine/ alcohol) have pretty much gone and the brain fog is slightly less, so I'll see if I need to.

Mid 40s I had one very long, heavy period and one huge flood event, but at the time it wasn't the end of the world. I went to the GP to check I wasn't anaemic over the long period (think Day 1 flow for 3 weeks) but I was incredulous rather than inconvenienced. I actually forgot it happened until I thought about it for this post.

This may sound daft but I'm assuming if I just keep taking the combined pill for as long as possible then I won't experience any peri symptoms as the hormones will be stable and regular? Late 30s and hoping to take it for as long as I'm allowed!

You are only going to hear the bad experiences on here. Not many people are going to post or ask advice about something they have barely noticed.
I had no symptoms whatsoever. Apart from the obvious periods stopped - and that was a non event.

No symptoms at all. No sweats, no change in periods, just completely stopped one month.

Afterwards though . . . I don't recognise myself in any way at all.

As someone with no older female relatives to ask about this stuff I really value reading about other women’s experiences regarding menopause.

Honestly for me I didn’t even notice it. And I had a horrible puberty and I have an autoimmune condition that very much fluctuates based on my hormones. I mean, I feel
older in my 50s than I didn’t in my 40s but I felt older in my thirties than I did in my 20’s. I’ve not gotten off lightly in life with my hormones so I lm not being a blessed woman who has no clue just skipping through the flowers but really … it was ok for me. I have a friend who is determined to blame any sneeze I have or anything that happens to me at all on the menopause and I find it really depressing so I pulled back from her because I’m just trying to find my way as best as I can. My advise would be don’t go looking for problems but if you have them at least there are millions of women speaking now who have a voice so you have a bank of knowledge to pull from. Just don’t go into the bank before you have the problem looking for it. X

I never had any symptoms, neither did my mother or my sisters or my sister in law.

We are all fit and active and none of us have ever been overweight. Weight seems to be a factor when I read about women who have had problems.

I had no difficulties at all,not everyone does

I'm 45 April and I've been on hrt tablets for 2.5 months.
The symptoms I've had are.

Low confidence
Feeling anxious easily
Put on weight easier.

No not necessarily.I was on combined pill and still got symptoms so I chose to come off pill and have hrt as the oestrogen is purer in that rather than synthetic

No progesterone in combination pill

A lot of my friends had no symptoms, I had every symptom going, apart from.Ive never had a hot flush.

My biggest regret is not going on HRT in perimenopause. It would have saved me a lot of misery.

That's absolute rubbish. There is no evidence of this at all. It's the luck of the draw how you are effected.

I was normal weight and had horrendous symptoms, my sister is a gym and yoga bunny, did sport professionally and had symptoms so bad she was sectioned. My grandmother was a size 10 all her life and had a breakdown during menopause. The most overweight person I know also got through with no symptoms at all.

Same. I'm 56 too. Only symptom is sore joints.

I'm slim and active and it was the worst time of my life.
I have mostly given up drinking and it is a special occasion thing now.
I had hoped sailing through 2 pregnancies without even morning sickness or pain relief menopause wouldn't be too bad.
How wrong was I.
Hrt stopped the dreadful arthritis though and anxiety.

Hair loss?? I have that as well, like 6 months ago it started. As for anxiety I'm already on Effexor since 2005 so it depression/anxiety has always been a problem. Still have my heavy periods though, would love for them to stop...