Suddenly I can’t drink alcohol

[skybluejo]

I have been quite a regular wine drinker until recently and used to enjoy a glass but I just can’t drink it, all of a sudden, I don’t like the taste and feel like I just can’t enjoy it or force it down.
I have been forced to stop drinking it by sudden unexplained aversion.

Has anyone else experienced this?

It's your age

Those are you agreeing with OP, can ask if you were big wine drinkers beforehand? Like another poster would quite like if I get this through peri-m as nothing else seems to curb my love of a glass or few

Menopause for me. Started off with alcohol having zero effect (no 'buzz') but givin me the most dreadful headaches, then progressed to only one small glass rendering me on the bathroom floor all night vomiting so hard that I nearly suffocate, plus crushing headache. Seemed to be a sulphite allergy, but also got it from gin (did some cautious experimentation). Now don't drink anything at all because the effects were so horrific.

I wouldn't say a big drinker, but I could easily have two or even three glasses when out. Or a glass while making dinner in the evening. And then no issues the next day.

Then into my 40s I felt like shit the next day even after one. If I had a bit more when out, I would get terrible anxiety the next day. On top of getting a stuffy nose when drinking wine. None of these were an issue before.

And I don't even miss it. If I'm cooking and I fancy something I jazz up some ginger ale or something similar. It was more of a habit when cooking to be really honest.

Perimenopause / covid / a medical issue which affects your sense of smell.

This happened to me 7 years ago and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I now cannot drink any alcohol at all or I have a horrible reaction, even a small glass of wine or Baileys. This was after about 20 years of being an absolute lush. I'm teetotal now and absolutely love never being hungover, never having shame or anxiety about what I did the night before and just generally feeling only positive things! Don't get me started on Sunday mornings- I love getting up early for a walk. I wasn't pregnant by the way; my body just knew it was time for me to stop caning the booze and now rejects anything more than a sip of my husband's beer. Considering the fact that I used to be embarrassed leaving my bottles in the recycling bins, this shows how much my body wanted me to stop drinking! At the time, people were suggesting different types of alcohol I could try to get around it but I just quit everything and took it for the wonderful gift that it is.

Edited to add, I was 36. Not even in peri at that stage!

Perimenopause. Try organic wine, I can still drink that (so it must be the additives that are getting to me.
I enjoy beer much more than I used to though

I absolutely bloody loved it when I was younger, but I’ve never had the same buzz from it since I had children. I do sometimes wish I could just experience a fun drunken night out again.

I went alcohol intolerant during perimenopause (started 2017). Really over the top hangovers. I barely drink alcohol now, sometimes I can get away with the odd glass, other times the same glass gives me 24 hours of raging headache and vomiting.

Long covid stopped it for me - it feels like I’m being poisoned. Given I now feel terribly hungover on a good day it’s an ironic kick in the teeth!

Sounds like ageing/menopause.

Me too. I'm quite a keen drinker, I enjoy my 3 bottles of beer every Thursday. Love a party with a bar, etc. But with all 3 of my pregnancies I just didn't want it, couldn't drink it, didn't miss it one bit.

Since I've become peri I still have my weekly beer, but sometimes I only have one or two bottles, not 3. I even turn down an after work drink bc I just don't fancy it. I can imagine completely losing interest.. eventually.

I’m similar since I started perimenopause. Used to have fairly high tolerance. Now more or less overnight I seem almost allergic to it: if I have more than about one unit I feel it the next day: feel sluggish, paranoid and depressed and unmotivated and my intellectual capacity falls off a cliff to the point where I find it hard to work. It ruins sleep for me now too.

I still drink occasionally and I enjoy the taste of alcohol and the initial sensation but the downside massively outweighs that momentary pleasure. I mainly only do it in order to not offend people or to have to explain why I’m not drinking.

Out of interest, are you on hrt? Have you found it's made any difference to your tolerance/dislike of alcohol? And is is all types of alcohol you've gone off, or some more than others?

This has happened to me I am 48. I spoke to the doctor about it she said it was likely hormones and it was quite common.

This thread makes so much sense to me. I simply cannot drink more than 2 drinks over the same amount of months. And no wine, ever. I might as well put my head in a vice the next day, it's the same outcome as one glass of wine. And I used to love wine!!

I really loved a lovely glass of cold wine...not now.😪

Probably just as well. Mounjaro has a risk of pancreatitis. Adds to the risk of you drink alcohol

Same. It’ll be the ol’ cougar puberty. I still get the periodic urge to drink but feel sick and suffer heartburn almost immediately. I can’t believe I used to drink daily, my insides must have been in tatters without me knowing (or caring lol).

I love wine but have been unable to drink it since my late 30s. It wasn’t sudden. White wine was first then red wine followed. I would have an awful reaction after drinking even half a glass, felt unwell and had sweats. Apparently I became sensitive to a chemical used in the processing of most wine. I can still drink organically produced wines though. It’s likely that I’m intolerant of sulphites. Organic wines though don’t contain them

@101WaysToFailwas possibly THE big wine drinker. I love it, in theory, but I have had a lifetime of not really feeling any the worse for wear until I got actively wasted and now the after-effects begin almost as I’m drinking it, so it’s just not happening. It’s probably my imagination but I feel like my body is having to work really hard to metabolise it. Possibly my liver has just gone on strike (joking, mostly)

no doubt age etc but I noticed similar and coincidentally had liver bloods done which were a bit raised. Apparently difficulty processing alcohol can be a sign your liver is suffering. I really cut down on booze for a year and when they were repeated they were fine and my reaction to alcohol was “normal” again. I’ve started noticing the hot face, reflux etc start up again and for sure my drinking had crept up over the warm summer. So I’ve ruthlessly cut down again.

I think there's more than one reason this can happen, clearly, but i also think it can happen to men, too. Especially the wine thing. I know two men who stopped drinking wine, one who said he went off it (he's about 60), and one who said it started having a bad effect on him (50ish). Both were also quite big drinkers, they stick to ales now but drink far less.

I am on HRT yes and I have wondered if this could be a reaction to this, although the lower alcohol tolerance kicked in before I started HRT.

I am not prepared to stop the HRT though: would rather this than alcohol, so have not been able to try a control scenario to see whether its the HRT or something intrinsic to menopause.

Interesting to hear from others.

Sorry that was in response to @Muffsies

And my tolerance has gone down across the board. I notice it most with wine as that was my poison of choice but it applies with all alcohol.

I am more likely to have a beer these days because they are lower alcohol and easier to drink.