To think perimenopause is an overused buzzword?

[Furning]

My friends and I are mid to late 30s. A lot of them are now claiming they’re perimenopausal, and if I mention I’m hot, or I've forgot something, or cant concentrate, they rush to tell me it’ll be perimenopause.

If they are struggling to lose weight, or forget what they’re saying, or anything at all negative happens, it’s because they’re perimenopausal.

I know some women might be in their 30s, but surely not most? Why is everyone suddenly obsessed with it?

That’s because they ARE two different things, not new replacing old.
Shiny Peri rage makes regular PMT look like a relaxing spa day massage. When you dry up on every single part of your body, anywhere there’s moisture from your eyes to your feet, then your periods skip a month…then start up again…then skip…you’re still in shiny peri. When your partner gives you the ick just from breathing and your periods skip another month, you’re still in peri…when your periods finally stop and don’t return at all, then you’re in plain old menopause (or possibly unexpectedly pregnant).

Women are ignored medically enough, just let them discover their symptoms and advocate for them selves when the time is right. I’d rather hear it daily the go back to generational ignorance and poor women being dismissed for awful symptoms.

Menopause is the lack of a thing. It's when your period stopped. It takes a year to backwards diagnose it.

Perimenopause is what we used to use the term "menopause" to describe. Like "the change". But menopause is not a process. Perimenopause is. It's the process leading up to when your period stops. Which is menopause.

I have a sneaking suspicion that in some influencer quarters it's partially being used as a signifier that someone is not old enough for the actual menopause...

When I was a child saying the word Pregnant was a bit out there. Things have moved on, we no longer use In The Family Way, using language is important. I think it's excellent to recognise that your hormones will go down the shitter at some point in your early 40s or before, and if you're one of the ones lucky enough not to notice it, then good for you.

For everyone else, talking about perimenopause helps people join the dots, refuse antidepressants ad advocate for themselves in the face of a woefully undereducated system, (the stats on this are depressing in themselves) and forwarned is forearmed.

Womens healthcare is slowly clawing itself up, talking about perimenopause, because it's a real thing, it doesn't just exist on tiktok or wherever you've seen it, and is distinct from menopause.

Why would you want to shut women up?

The symptoms are so weird and random
itchy ears, aching legs. It covers so many things you don’t realise. It’s why we talk now when it wasn’t before, I’m not sure people put the two together. It’s almost a “WTF, that’s controlled by hormones too?”

some people sail through, everyone’s is unique

Yep. How dare we put a name to something many women struggle with.

.

I'm 57, I find it hard to talk about periods, perimenopause and the menopause...I have tried to feel less uncomfortable about it...I suppose it's a generational thing and it wasn't really discussed when I was a teenager, I just felt embarrassed.

So any discussion I realise is good.

i feel sad for you

Nine years ago I was early 40s and in tears at the doctors - bloated, gaining weight, insomnia, down, forgetful, not myself - when all my blood tests came back normal I couldn't believe it, everything felt so wrong. I was perimenopausal but had never heard the word and didn't know it existed and it wasn't mentioned by the doctor as a possibility. So thank god it's now entered the mainstream conversation and hopefully no woman will ever spend three years wondering what the hell is wrong with her the way I did.

I haven’t said I doubt that perimenopause is real. I’ve said that most women are not perimenopausal in their 30s.

I don't think there's anything wrong with discussing peri symptoms but it's unlikely to be perimenopause for most women in their thirties so they are being inaccurate . It's more common mid 40's to mid 50's I think.

These women are in their 30s. It would be unusual for them to be experiencing perimenopause. It was be extraordinarily unusual for them all to be.

Yes, but what I'm saying is it seems to have replaced menopause at least in online chat. So I'm assuming that what people would previously have called menopausal is now being called perimenopausal. When really it's two different things. I could be wrong - I don't get to interview and examine everyone who uses the word.

And most in their 30s are not experiencing it.

Many women in their 30s?

I was a smug twat, thinking FFS ....SHUT UP about bloody perimenopause.

Until I got to 48, started a new job and been absolutely floored by the perimenopause.

I was told for years that my gut symptoms were due to IBs and perimenopause - including by doctors. It turns out I have ulcerative colitis. Sorted that, funny how no more perimenopause symptoms then.

Brain fog - attributed to perimenopause. I even tried HRT for several months. I stopped that and discovered environmental allergies. No more brain fog.

Told I"m tired because perimenopause. Nope, low ferritin. Addressed.

It's happened with other things. Fobbing people off with depression and anxiety has always happened to women, now it's happening with perimenopause. It can be dangerous if they do it for the wrong condition. Always check symptoms before assuming they are perimenopause. I'm not saying they can't be but you want to make sure.

Maybe not most are but a lot can be as I found out myself when I found out I was menopausal at the age of 47 having never known what the hell was wrong with me from my mid 30's with weight gain, rages, insomnia, horrible skin, itching everywhere, dry vagina, unexplained UTIs, zero labido. Was offered anxiety meds, asked if I was depressed, recomended therapy until I mentioned at 47 it had been about 3 years since I had a period and THEN I was told oh you were peri all this time. Brilliant news having been totally bewildered by my body for over a decade.

Exactly. All of these women in their 30s are blaming everything on perimenopause. It is very unlikely they’re perimenopausal! It does my head in.

Good. Talk about it. Get prepared. Excellent.

At least they won't be thinking they're losing their ever loving minds and considering checking themselves into a mental health facility, while simultanously having eyelids like sandpaper, and a fanny to match and not having a clue why, while sitting in front of an even more clueless GP. One of you is going to need to know what's going on and how to help, and it's likely not going to be the GP.

The list of symptoms is long. Talk about it. Be ready.

Ohhh its definitely isn’t new and shiny, its new and most definitely unwelcome

No one mentions irregular periods as symptom of peri? What? That, along with hot flushes, is the only one we ever heard of before people started taking about it.

How will we know if everyone’s spent the past few years blaming everything on perimenopause?