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?!

Really stiff feet first thing in the morning! After a few steps they were fine.

Started getting heavy periods at 50
got frozen shoulder .
Then night sweats .
I’m and periods haven’t stopped yet although they are now every 3 months or so but much lighter.
Have had some psychological issues also.
Sex drive gone through the roof .

Anxiety. I got myself into a right state, worrying over ‘something that might never happen’. My best friend made me see my GP. She prescribed a low dose of Citalopram (10mg - and antidepressant).

Alcohol use increased

Periods got heavier and closer together - 25 days/ 21 days/ 26 days/ 23 days - that sort of thing

Rubbish sleep. Waking at 3:00am and being wide awake until just before the alarm went off

Feeling ‘flat’. Not excited about anything. Not looking forward to anything.

A series of UTIs

Aches and pains - shuffling out of bed in the morning, all stiff, like a 90 year old

Hot flushes and night sweats

Went on HRT (Oestrogel and Mirena, plus Vagifem) and have never looked back

Extreme fatigue, similar to 1st trimester exhaustion, I was around 42, Then I lost my focus. Continued having periods until 52 but for a year or so before I was having two a month.

My moods haven't been right for the past 6 years around the time I turned 40. I put that down to 2020+ but my emotional range just hasn't been quite the same since, and there are moods and energy patterns that I can set my calendar to. The emotional triggers that would have explained it in 2020-22 have now long passed, but the patterns persist. My periods have become more variable and pain levels are increasing.

Decreasing energy and fighting harder to stay still despite doing all the "right" stuff.

Increased injuries of tendons and trapped nerves despite consistent exercise patterns that shouldn't be triggering them. I'll also count the broken toe that was the result of a very specific hormonal moment...

Gaining weight without a significant change in lifestyle and finding it hard to lose as there's always some glitch like the luteal phase and its carb cravings making it difficult to have enough time being consistent.

At the beginning it was my periods were all over the place and they were really heavy one time then next to nothing another. Then the hot flushes. It wasn't a general hotness, it was a heat that seemed to just creep up, into my face and the most unsettling of feelings. I would be in a supermarket queue and just be pouring sweat from my face. Those hot flushes became really regular, about 20 a day.

Then the brain fog, the tiredness, insomnia, boobs being sore. HRT!

Yes with light headed, but not every time. You suffering?

Thanks for this thread OP, I am learning a lot from the responses.

Can I ask, for those who have gone through this while on the pill, does the pill have any kind of masking effect on any of these symptoms or are they likely to end up showing themselves regardless?

I am convinced I am going through peri. My periods are all over the place, I am bursting out of my bras. Then there is the weight gain despite being active and I constantly feel exhausted, even though I am getting lots of sleep.

Now that I have read the thread, I am even more convinced. I have a sore shoulder which I put down to a sports injury, but I wonder if it is actually frozen shoulder. I am struggling with spelling words I have never had an issue with before, having major issues with my teeth.

I have been to the doctors and they ran some blood tests, but i think this was largely to rule out other things. I do have low iron, but with all the the other symptoms I am sure thetr is something else going on. How did people get diagnosed with it, i am not even 40 yet so if it is peri, I am the younger side for this to begin.

My periods getting further apart. I got through a few pregnancy tests in my late 40s.

Rage, losing patience, anxious and generally did not recognise myself. This was the worst of all symptoms, I was bewildered at why I just felt so different and like I was watching everything from outside my body.

Having always been slim suddenly had a paunch and muffin top despite if anything having eaten less

Always been a bad sleeper anyway,

Intense rage.

Night sweats in late 30s - docs wouldn't do blood test as they said it's hard to test for hormones. I thought I was way too young to have peri (hadn't heard of the term then) but looking back I think it was!
Then anxiety and insomnia.
Various issues like thyroid and heart palpatations that I didn't link to peri til I read what posters say here!
Then erratic periods and frozen shoulder.
Then hot flushes.

Bloating for months and months, depression worse than ever, anxiety, rage, no patience, forgetting the name of really obvious items,
very itchy skin. Really dislike men, not sure if that’s a symptom though?

Started when I was 40

Miscarriages unfortunately. Referred to a specialist who quite bluntly told me that my eggs were too old, my womb was too thin etc. once I started joining the dots of the haywire periods, aches and pains it all made sense. Took me a while to brave HRT but I’m feeling better a year and a half in.

I started HRT at 42, though in hindsight I believe my symptoms started around 37.

Sweats in my early 40s with no other symptoms, expect rapid weight gain. Menopause started a year ago and I still get hot flushes but not as bad.

Anxiety. Palpitations. Indigestion. Headaches. Thinning hair.
Started around the age of 45.

I didn’t have any. I’ve come to the end of menopause and I didn’t even know I was going through it

Can I ask if starting your periods was a breeze too? I feel like that might be a predictor as it’s a similar process but in reverse? Did you get symptoms during your cycle like emotional changes, cramping, nausea etc?

I wonder if some peoples hormones are on a flatter trajectory. Not such big fluctuations?

Really dislike men made me laugh!! 😂

Yes. I had that symptom too!

I think you have something there. I was never a victim of my hormones - no PMT, pretty easy periods, no fluctuations in hormones. My worst menopause symptoms were hormonal migraines which are now a thing of the past, oh and thinning hair.

I had warm power surges rather than debilitating hot flushes, no rage and no anxiety. I am now a dress size larger than I was and wish my hair was thicker, but otherwise, at 67, I am fine.

A massive plus is that I am more self confident and care less about what other people think of me.

I had zero starting period symptoms, never had PMT, wasn't a moody teenager but perimenopause brought hellish symptoms for me. I had almost every single one, one after another. I was even getting new symptoms 3 years after menopause. Thank god for HRT!

First thing I noticed was joint pain especially in my hands, was horrendous.

Can i ask if you were on any form of contraception up to meno, such as the pill or coil, etc?