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?

The average length of perimenopause is NOT four years. The vast majority of information on the internet is outdated and inaccurate.

@Furning just one question for you regarding your friends.

Can you say that you are 100% certain that not one of them are having definite perimenopause symptoms?

That actually says menopausal symptoms, not perimenopausal. You’ve changed the word.

Perimenopause is an average of four years.

Agree. Those aches and pains? How do I know it's not arthritis? Terrible sleep..depression (either a short period of or more long term). Brain mashed - stress or worse.
I definitely put my night sweats, irregular periods and more painful smear test down to perimenopause, everything else I keep an open mind about.
I don't want every single issue I have from now until I die being put down to menopause (I'm 3 years post now).

Awareness is great, don't get me wrong, but I am more than my hormones.

That’s certainly what they would say!

Honestly it drives me absolutely crackers. I can’t tell them I’ve had a bad dream or think it’s too hot or forget anything and they’re falling over themselves to say I’m perimenopausal. It irritates the life out of me. It is definitely that they absolutely actively want us to be perimenopausal. It’s not just one group of friends either, it’s everywhere I turn.

Maybe one or two of them. But it cannot be all of them. They are so desperately eager to have it. All talk about their perimenopausal symptoms. In 10 years it would make sense.

I give up!

Menopausal symptoms refers to the symptoms experienced both in perimenopause and menopause. Believe it or not the BMS do know what they are talking about.

so why can’t you try to be empathetic to them? It can be really awful and embarrassing you know.

My friends have been blaming loads of things on perimenopause for years, but tbh I’m just glad I haven’t yet experienced any symptoms of it, at nearly 46. It doesn’t make me disbelieve them.
I must ask my mum how her menopause was - by the time she was my age I’d left home so I have no idea really!

TBF I nearly did
One phone call £20 a year.

Yes, I know they do. Not sure why you edited their information from menopausal to perimenopausal.

The average length of perimenopause is four years.

Apparently we can lose some compassion and empathy during perimenopause…sounds like the OP might be heading that way!! 😂

As well as OP’s rage about people talking about peri… 😂

They are most definitely, categorically not embarrassed.

There’s nothing to have empathy for. They have just forgot something or had a bad night’s sleep.

😂😂😂😂

at least we all now our peri can only last 4 years now (if only!)

😂🤣

Find me where anyone has said that. No idea why posters just invent things.

Right, ok.

I mean, the reality is that most women in their 30s are not in perimenopause. So by using that term, they're kind of hijacking a very real experience of women 10 years their senior. And that isn't helpful for women in the slightest.

I really don’t like the shortened version - peri. For some reason it gives me the rage. I’m 58 and have decided I am permitted to feel rage based on an irrational dislike of a word😆

Yes, you've gone about it the right way and checked for other causes first. I'm just concerned because of my experience of having medical conditions dismissed as 'perimenopause' and treated as such before the real underlying cause was found. That can be dangerous.

Yes that's what she said between 45-55 but perimenopause before that.

I don't know, my mum said she didn't have any symptoms and she was hell to be around, so beg to differ 🤣

Try going to a GP for help with the crippling symptoms and you will find out just how ignorant so many are to it.

You repeatedly have people telling you lived experiences of it and you refuse to listen because you know better. As multiple people have said, the average age of menopause is 51 and peri can last 10 years so do the math. And average means there will be people below that.

As a 42 year old whose last 2 years have been wrecked by these issues, I promise you there are far more women in mid to late 30s that do have issues than you realise but the studies will be skewed because of years of ignorance and dismissing women as too young.

I sincerely hope when you go through perimenopause it isnt rough on you and I hope if it is, you arent dismissed and told to just ignore it and get on with it and not throw around the latest buzz word because it can literally destroy who you are as a person, why on earth do you think suicide rates is highest amongst women in this age bracket.

I for one welcome every single conversation because if it gets it on people's minds, perhaps by the time my Daughter goes through this, it will be much more known and studied and she wont have to rely on a 2 year battle and doing her own research to figure what on earth is going on that feels like it completely changed her as a person. Its no joke and I can only hope the increased talking around it stops so many women struggling.

Every time a woman in her 30s is forgetful or day dreams it’s not perimenopause.

This. I started peri at 39 having just finished breast feeding dc3.

i flooded - ached everywhere- didn’t sleep - didn’t recognise people I had known for 30 years out of context - couldn’t finish a sentence - had insomnia- had headaches caused by constant teeth gritting - got fat - felt full of rage - woke up multiple times in the night in a piss wet through bed - had to step out of meetings (important ones) to cool down. Just FUCK OFF. I’m mid 50s and no end in sight.