What were you’re first peri menopause symptoms?

[Fancycrab]

Sorry, not AIBU but I was unsure where to put it and wanted replies! I’m 43 and I think peri menopause has begun 😱 my period has started being 4-5 days early and occasionally late and last month it was a whole 10 days late! It’s been pretty regular all my life. For the past year I’ve also been getting night sweats starting about a week before my period every night till the end of my period, but now I’m getting them inbetween too and in the last few days I think I’m getting hot flashes. I feel boiling hot and start sweating but it can last for 1 or 2 hrs, not the few minutes I thought it was supposed to? I kind of just feel hot all the time. I didn’t think all these symptoms would start so early, my mum didn’t go through the menopause til her early 50s so if this is peri is it going to be like this (and get progressively worse) till the actual menopause starts, potentially when I’m 50?!

For me it was night sweats although this was just every now and then initially, then it was a frozen shoulder which I have only recently discovered as a classic menopause symptom. Along with this heart palpitations and breathlessness but at the time my GP never flagged or mentioned anything. Everything was treated in isolation but in hindsight that’s what it was.

I remember waking up in a sweat a couple of times but put it down to illness. I realised when I had heart palpitations and brain fog/forgetfulness. Then my periods went even weirder than normal. More recently I had crippling anxiety around my period, feeling flat and grumpy and short tempered. In 45 and was diagnosed a few months ago. In the last week I’m starting with the flushes

Suddenly crippled by anxiety was the first sign for me. I was 45. Looking back, my periods had got a bit erratic in the preceding couple of years. Had my final period aged 50 and was so glad to be done with it all!

Irregular periods & constant headaches/migraines. But mostly feeling very very low, like I was standing on the edge of a massive black void and knowing if I fell in I wouldn't climb back out.

Rage.

My periods dropped to a regular short cycle for the first time ever and my sex drive disappeared overnight.

I stopped sleeping, my hair fell out, my mood was atrocious and my periods were non stop.

I went on HRT, it’s great!

Heavy periods, rage and massively increased libido. Poor DH he doesn't know whether he's coming or going. 😆

Brain fog and insomnia

My boobs hurt like they did when they first started developing in puberty. I have never had a very big chest, so could go without a bra if not wearing tight clothing,l but suddenly the slightest movement hurt and I went up a cup size.

Then my periods went from clockwork regular to nothing for months, then a wee dribble. I was only 40, so first thought was pregnancy, but it wasn't.

Did HRT clear all your symptoms up? Did you get any side effects from the HRT at all? Thinking about it I have been feeling anxious lately now and again but I wouldn’t say it’s that bad. I can’t believe this can go on for 10 years till the whole thing is done with!

Massive anxiety, insomnia, lack of patience.

I’m firmly in peri now (very long gaps between periods, which go from flooding one day to spotting the next etc),
Intense hot flushes that last a few hours. But a couple of years ago I developed frozen shoulder, and it lasted about 8 months. I never knew there was a peri connection until I read your comment!

I stopped sleeping and was crippled by anxiety. It wasn't until 3 years later that I had my first hot flush. Can't take hrt.

Heavier periods that were closer together, then further apart than before. Very bad PMT.

For me it was splitting headaches and joint pain. The night sweats didn’t start until much later.

Horrendous anxiety, going bright red every time anyone looked at me, heavy horrendous bleeds , sometimes weekly with no warning. This progressed including night sweats, hot flushes, acne, depression etc over a ten year period until I was given hrt in my early 40s, over ten years later still on hrt and still have menstrual issues , so it’s been over twenty years so far since early peri days

Well I didn’t recognise it at the time but looking back, irritability, low mood, not feeling like me, followed by sleep problems, brain fog

Stiff joints and migraines - oh, and weirdly, I’d get an agonising pain in my right ankle while I was asleep. I’d wake up thinking my ankle was broken it was so excruciating.

All of that has passed (to be replaced with brain fog and no mental or physical enthusiasm 🫩).

I'm 44. For about two years I've been having more brown spotting before and after period and my cycle has gone from 28 days to 25. Yay more periods. 🙄massive blood clots fall out at times and I have to rush to the loo. I do have adenomyosis though so that could explain some of it. I have one sweaty arm pit that sweats even when I'm not hot. My skin is disgusting, both dry and spotty at the same time. I've had alopecia in the past but even so my hair has gone so thin this last year its all very depressing. I've yet to experience hot flushes but I'll look forward to that as I'm not allowed to take HRT because of another medical condition. My rages are bad but I've also had a lot of counselling and found my voice so I think a lot of people are a bit shocked, especially my poor DH. The mouse has been replaced by a giant mutant man hating lion its genuinely scary. Roll on menopause. 🤣

I'm 41 and periods are heavier, PMT and rage worse, I'm more tired, I feel queasy sometimes, I get really stingy eyes that come on suddenly then stop and I'm definitely shedding more hair. I'm presuming perimenopause...

Really shit sleep starting age 40. Also feeling light headed/a bit spaced out, and a bit hot. The low point was going to work after just 1hr sleep. Went to the GP to discuss HRT, just before I was 43, they did blood tests to rule out other things (thyroid, anaemia etc). Then they started HRT. It has helped a great deal. My symptoms have crept back a few times and I have to jump through the same hoops to get my dose increased. This time driving anxiety has come out of nowhere and I'm in the verge of giving up driving. Waiting for an appointment to increase my dose, 4 weeks after first discussing it. I'm nearly 46.

My "get up and go", got up and left.

First thing for me was a frozen shoulder - out of the blue, age 43. Then anxiety, brain fog and vaginal dryness and itching. The frozen shoulder was awful but fixed with hydrodilation. The other symptoms have all been fixed by HRT. Periods have continued to be completely regular throughout all of this.

I forgot about itching. I just get randomly really itchy skin very often now. I thought i was allergic to something but apparently that it a peri symptom. Also my inner ears itch and I feel like my tendons inside my limbs are itchy which is so frustrating as can't scratch the itch!