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?

You seem to be mixing them up a bit. It's best to be clear on it. Its not common to have been without a period for a year aged 45. But its common to experience perimenopause in your 30s and 40s.

But who is measuring those numbers? As I said, I’d had symptoms for years that doctors didn’t put down to perimenopause but they obviously were with hindsight.

Clearly something in this post has suggested I was mixing up perimenopause and menopause. I wasn’t.

Can. It would be unusual to hit menopause before 45. It would be unusual to have perimenopause symptoms for 10 years. Not many women in their 30s are perimenopausal.

Hear, hear!!!

Honestly I don’t know why people WANT loads of 30s women to be in perimenopause. Millions of women that age are still having their kids! It’s like they’re desperate to be older than they are for some reason.

Exactly!

Not sure why you’re swearing. You are the one who can’t seem to grasp it.

Loads of people have tried to explain it to you on this thread but you reply whining about what your ‘friends’ (are they really your friends?) are experiencing

not sure medically but any time a woman acts irrational or deluded or wants and excuse to get out of something like taking responsibility for anything it is 'I must be perimenopausal' or hormonal or on my period of ttc or just had a baby they never want to take responsibility

Rest assured, in the last 10 years I've been referred to rheumatology , more recently over the last 3 years I've been under endocrinology and had multiple blood tests covering oestrogen, testosterone, shbg, fsh, lh, tsh, t4, t3, acth, serum cortisol, prolactin, thyroid antibodies, hba1c etc etc.
5x 24 hour urine collection (cortisol test)
Multiple salivary cortisol and cortisone tests at various times of day
Dexamethasone suppression test
MRI of my pituitary.

And in the end ALL it was was perimenopause starting young and being dismissed for years causing such physiological stress that it push me into non neoplastic hypercortilism (pseudo Cushing's state) and then just before i finally started HRT into sick euthyroid syndrome.

Sometimes it really is JUST perimenopause, and that needs to be acknowledged and it needs to be acknowledged quite how bad it can be in the more extreme cases, and i will talk about it as if it saves one other women a decade of suffering then it is worth it.

I’m not mixing them up. It is not common to be perimenopausal in your 30s. Although many people appear to really want to be.

No, that was more an attempt at railing at the absurdity of what I'm going through right now. Honestly, it's like I'm in some sort of mega-puberty (but with a side of insomnia) and thought of future vaginal atrophy, beard growth, crumbling bones and weeing myself absolutely terrifying. So if I want to yell, "you'll never understand what I'm going through!" I feel like that's an appropriate response.

That was all meant to come accross in a jokey way btw (as was the original post).

Next you’ll be calling her hysterical.

Like I keep saying, women aren’t listened to (as evident on this thread…)

First we had to stop burning them at the stake and now we are supposed to take their reproductive issues seriously? Where will it end?

Cleveland Clinic, Harvard Health, Collaborative Women's Care, BUPA.

Exactly! One friend has a one year old and three year old. She’s 36. She forgot what day it was and declared it was her ‘perimenopausal brain’. Absolutely drives me mad.

And there’s some evidence, wonderful!

The NHS also suggest that peri-menopause "symptoms can last for months or years, and can change with time." They also suggest that menopause "usually affects women between the ages of 45 and 55", https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/menopause/ Perimenopause can last from 2-10 years, averaging about 4.

Much research suggest that "The perimenopause can last for up to 10 years before your periods stop altogether and it most commonly occurs in a woman’s 40s." Dr Lucy Ward, Consultant in Pain Management, at the Royal Free Hospital in London https://www.lscft.nhs.uk/services/service-finder-z/community-pain-service/perimenopause-menopause-and-pain

So yes it would be possible for someone to be going into the menopause at 45 having been peri for 10 years since they were 35. Obviously that's very early menopause and very long peri, but late 30s to 45 would be a shorter peri, and late 30s to say late 40s would be again longer, but more typical menopause age.

I don't think what you are saying is nearly as strange as you make out!

Loads of people on this thread are explaining that they had bad perimenopausal symptoms in their 40s, declaring that perimenopause usually lasts 10 years and therefore half of women have symptoms before 41 (ie. Making things up), explaining that women’s health is underfunded and under researched (of course), or repeatedly saying that perimenopause and menopause are two different things. A couple have said that they had symptoms in their 30s.

None of this changes that it is unusual for women to be perimenopausal in their 30s and that it is incredibly unlikely that the majority of my friends are, and that some women seem to want to blame anything on perimenopause.

So much misinformation on this thread.

Median span of perimenopause symptoms is 7 years with 20% of women experiencing symptoms for up to 15 years before they reach menopause. Source, British Menopause Society. Menopause Practice Standards, published 2022.

The lucky few only experience 4 years or less of perimenopause symptoms. Either that or they have gone into early menopause which is worse!

It’s something 100% of women will experience it to some extent. So I don’t think it’s a new buzzword. It’s something that’s been downplayed and treated as a taboo for far too long.
the fact more women are aware of it and willing to discuss it openly should be seen as a massive step forward

It's not at all unusual to experience symptoms of perimenopause in your 30s.

It is thankfully more unusual for other women to be so determined to dismiss it rather than support each other.

Was just going to post that. 😅

Why does it make you so angry OP??! Maybe it’s your perimenopausal hormones

If the average age for menopause is 51 and average length of perimenopause is four years, women will be perimenopausal, on average, from 47.

Most will be clustered a couple of years either way.

Some unfortunate women may have an early menopause and long perimenopause, or a relatively early menopause in mid 40s and a long perimenopause, but this is not usual. It is unusual. It would be extremely unusual for this to just coincidentally be the majority of my friends.