peri-menopause or something scary?

[hellymelly]

I had a major balance problem for a few months a decade ago.It resolved but I think my balance has never been quite as good since.Lately I have been feeling slightly off kilter,a little bit faint or dizzy,and generally a bit strange,as though not enough blood is getting to my head (!! yes I know I sound bonkers) .I have also been making the odd mistake in my speech.I did this a lot when dd2 was waking five times a night,and I am pretty tired at the moment,but it worries me.I have a parent with severe Parkinson's and I'm very frightened of anything neurological going wrong. I've had more migraines (aura,no pain) than normal too. Is this possibly a run-up to the big M thing? (i'm 48). I feel a bit stupid going to my GP with such vague symptoms as I know she will do this .

Oh and I think my eyesight has got a bit worse and that probably isn't helping (reluctant to get specs...)

I think you should see your GP and ask for some investigations.

It does not sound anything like any peri symptoms I either had or heard of, amongst my friends who are like me- in their 50s and post meno.

Being sleep deprived can cause all types of headaches and issues etc but I think you'd be wise to see your GP.

sorry i can't be more reassuring.

Thanks for being honest. Although I feel scared now! I had read somewhere about a sort of peri-meno brain fog,like pregnancy brain,and hoped it might be that. I'm not forgetful or anything,I just feel peculiar. It is hard to be more specific than that really. I saw the GP a few weeks ago about the migraines,he said it was normal. The speech mistakes are saying things like "will you take the book out,oh sorry I mean dog" ,if I'm thinking about a book at the same time ,that sort of thing.I had a horrendous night with my smallest child (4) this week and the next day I was doing it a lot.Maybe that's normal? My Dad is in hospital and its been quite a stressful few months.

I just googled peri-menopause symptoms and saw this www.perimenopausesymptoms.org/symptoms/perimenopause-dizziness .It also mentions problems with concentration,and increased anxiety and palpitations,all of which I'm having.My periods are regular and I don't have hot flushes yet but I do have a lot of things on the list.I am super sensitive to hormonal fluctuations so maybe i'm just having a more extreme reaction than is average? I don't feel ill,and I'm happy with my life,but I feel straaaaaange....I saw a private doctor a couple of years back who specialises in female hormonal issues,as my thyroid is a bit sluggish.I think I will go and see her again and see what she thinks.

Faint and dizzy could be anaemia - which can also affect concentration. The rest sounds normal for sleep deprivation (and needing specs)

Hope you feel better soon

I'm 48 too, and i definitely do the word muddleing thing, also the classic putting the milk in the washing machine and the washing in the fridge type thing..

Do get your eyes tested tho, that won't be helping with the lightheadedness/ migraine type things if you need specs.. Anemia could be a poss for the faint/dizzy thing, as can stress and exhaustion. Also if you're a bit run down, you could have a viral thing going on - there's lots about at the mo.
Lot's of possibilities, so try not to panic.

I do agree tho' the Peri-menopause thing is an odd beast, the constant is it/isn't it is driving me bonkers! If i knew one way or t'other i could just get on with it, is that how you feel too?

Oh thanks.I hadn't thought about anaemia.I've been breastfeeding for SEVEN YEARS.really.DD2 is resolutely refusing to accept that she is 4 and really should stop now! So am probably depleted in everything,never mind in mental accuity. My iron was ok last time it was tested, but that was a year or so ago.

yes jelly that is how I feel.And the milk in the washing machine,I nearly did that very thing this week so that has made me laugh.I do need specs,I'm holding my novel several feet away now....I'm glad you do the word muddling thing too,very reassuring.DH says I do it when I've had a late night and I do go to bed ridiculously late still and then am up with the girls at 7.I did go back to bed and have a lie in (v helpful DH)every morning but not since September as they are both at school (elder was home-ed for while before that)and so I can't do that,I need to get them ready.I rarely go to bed before midnight.For the whole of November and December my 4 year old was having night terrors every single night and I would be up with her,at the same time we are facing my Dad needing to go into residential care-its been a very anxious time and i feel as though i am anxious constantly now,I don't seem to have calmed down. So that's probably not helping!

Blimey O' Reilly.. I'd be a wreck - get thee to the shops.. Spinach, Vit C, Vit B the works.. oh, and an eye test

Yes, i do the 'not getting to bed early enough' too, and up at 6.15 - will we never learn?.. Have been considering an old lady nap in the afternoons (only half hour)

Being knackered also increases anxiety, i'm completely illogical some days, you need some relaxing 'you' time helly, i'd recommend you write 'a massage' on your shopping list!

I thought I would get time to relax once they were both at school (DD1 had been taken out of school and diagnosed with "school phobia",as she was so unhappy in year one) But as we were starting DD1 in a new school after all the prior trauma,and she was very scared,and starting dd2 for the first time who was also very scared because of what happened with dd1,it has been months of just holding my breath and pacing about the house waiting to go pick them up.the first half term was up and down for dd1,mainly up luckily, but she is happy and really settling in now.Dd2 is finding it harder,she wasn't really ready emotionally I think ,hence all the night terrors.(none over the holiday). I actually hadn't quite realised how massively stressed I feel until writing it down,so I guess that is compounding the general knackeredness/ailing elderly parents and the hormone fluctuations. middle age is bollocks.I also have frizzy hair and seem to be developing rosacea.Great.

I'm glad your DD1 is settling in now, and fingers crossed for DS2, maybe if she sees that DS1 is okay with school, she'll feel happier about going, i hope so..

I do know that stress really buggers things up even more, so write 'frizz ease' on your list, and try to do something nice for 'you' tomorrow eh?

If its any consolation my hair looks like i've been sitting on one of those Van Der Graaff generators, and my legs look like they've been sponsored by A to Z
..i could go on...

oh gawd the legs.Mine are like roadmap too.I think its the white celtic skin.(ditto the rosacea).My hair is falling out (due to all the above!) and refusing to curl as it should. I'm not overweight but just generally doughy uggh.A sort of chubby thin person.I think I need to do a lot more exercise.I've only been 48 for a couple of weeks and already I feel 50. Much as I feel grateful for getting pregnant with astonishing ease in my forties,I certainly feel very shattered by years and years of no sleep.(dd2,lovely but beast)

I worked out i've been doing the school run for 19 years now, and am not a morning person.. oh and i'm a Great Aunt AND a Spinster.. Good eh?

I looked after my Great nephew for a week and i was a mess, so i can only imagine how you feel..

I love the word spinster.My Dad used to call out "Hellymelly! spinster of this parish" when meals were ready (slightly eccentric Dad.) I'd quite like to be a Great Aunt. I think of Bertie Wooster's terrifying ones.Fab. I'm not a morning person either.Thankfully as I only have two it will be impossible for me to clock up NINETEEN years of the school run.Will they give you a Cup? (Full of Gin? )

Just worked out how long I did school runs for.

DS1 is 28...started school at 4....so that's 24

Youngest is 13,stopped at yr6 so she was 11...so 24-2 = 22

So 22 years....Have I done that right? Do I count the gaps between dcs'?

I quite fancy Joanna Lumleys version of 'Aunt' in James and The Giant Peach.. mwahahaaaaaa

They better bloody give me something, i'm not fussy - anything barr Surgical Support tights will do.

No nanna gaps don't count

I am peri-menopausal and also have dizziness, forgetfulness and general brain fog. I have been to the dr's as I was worried that it could be early onset dementia as it seems so profound, but apparently it is not abnormal.

I would get yourself checked over, helly, to make sure that it is hormonal but it certainly sounds very similar to how I am feeling.

I am 46 and perimenopausal (confirmed by blood test). I went to the doctor because I was having palpitations, which I knew could be caused by hormonal fluctuations, and it turned out I had quite bad iron deficiency anaemia - I ought to have thought that heavy bleeding every 24 days for several years might have had consequences! Anyway, it turned out the palpitations were largely due to the anaemia, because they've got a lot better since I've been (when I remember) taking iron tablets. It turned out that the anaemia was also causing my hair to fall out and me to have tinnitus, both of which I'd vaguely noticed but not thought much about - the hair and tinnitus are also much better now, and so is my energy and mental concentration. I would suggest you see if they will check your blood - anaemia is very common in perimenopause, and checking your hormone levels is reassuring too - but I just wonder whether your hair loss, like mine, is due to low iron?

Alice thats interesting!

Has anyone else had constant boobache due to fluctuating hormone levels, like for weeks on end?
My GP will not test for hormone levels, he says there's 'no point' as hormone levels fluctuate too much anyway.. i read on MN that lots of posters have had their levels checked at our age - i need to kick off don't i?

What worries me, is if my surgery won't test women, then how can they be sure that the symptoms are Perimenopausal, and not something else? its just guesswork and palming off, especially as there are other things that have symptoms very like the Peri ones.

I am 40 and well into the menopause. HRT is awesome

I had (copied from the note I took into my doc).
Hot flush, night sweats. Flushes 6 or more times a day breaking out into all over sweat with palpitations, night sweats, waking up at 4am dying... Inability to get back to sleep
Dizziness constant sensation of falling forwards especially when on stairs. When lying down, bed spin
Headaches back of head in hairline and front lobes
Neck and back ache but think this is not related
Noise in ears, like the hum of an air conditioner unit or high pitched ringing
Palpitations often

Now that's a list of vague symptoms

Jeelykat I think 'cos at this stage hormones fluctuate so much the blood tests can often be very inconclusive if you don't do them bang on a certain hormonal surge.

OneLieIn....did/do you get these funny shivers/tingles all down your body that make you grit your teeth? Bloody hell it's awful

Oh-Oneliein- I have the falling forward sensation.I'm a bit scared going down the stairs. My FSH was quite high at 45 (my age then,not my FSH level,I think that was twenty something),and the GP then said I was going into early meno and I wouldn't have periods much longer.But mine are still regular three years later and I haven't had any flushing yet which i think happens when things are really shifting.Also FSH levels can go up and down quite a bit and so are maybe not that reliable an indicator.
My palpitations are pretty frequent and scary- I've had a heart tracer twice (1st time when they were bad post baby,and I had lost a lot of blood then) So maybe getting my iron checked again is a good idea.I did tell my gP my hair was falling out and she said (I quote) "well what do you expect me to do about that?"
I get a pulse sensation in my ears,I can hear the pulse,but only now and again.
Blimey.I don't remember the intro to menstruation being so dramatic.

I see..

helly - helpful GP you've got there, maybe shes menopausal!

Yes, I had that feeling of getting flu all the time, achy body and neck all of the time . I felt terrible. I was scared of stairs and took the lift when I could. I stopped wearing heels....(now I know why women over 50 like flats)... It all Sousa minor, but my life was awful. I felt sad, I cried, I felt fat, had no energy, was grumpy, generally really difficult and all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and sleep, sleep and sleep. But of course couldn't sleep because I woke up panicky and sweaty. Awful.

So a simple blood test and fsh levels of 65... Started HRT. Bloody amazing. Within 4 days I was feeling so much better.

Jellykat, I think the thing with hormone levels is that a menopausal result proves you are menopausal, but a "normal" one doesn't prove you aren't, since the fluctuations mean they could just have caught you on a good day. In my case, my FSH was 59 (pre-menopause level is up to 25, depending on stage of cycle) and my oestradiol level was less than 70 (pre-menopause level 72-1310, depending on stage of cycle), so not much doubt about it. As of this moment, I haven't finished my periods, but after years and years of exsanguinating every 3 1/2 weeks, I am delighted to find they are lighter and further apart at last (mostly).
OneLieIn, I haven't gone for HRT yet personally, because I only feel bad sometimes. In fact I almost quite like waking up at 3 am for a few days running and not.feeling.tired.at.all - I find it quite interesting, and so far my flushes and dizziness etc have all been quite mild. But that may yet change...
Helly, your GP ought to know that hair loss can be linked to anaemia and hormonal changes, surely?!! I get the ear pulse thing sometimes too. You're right, I didn't even realise what my first period was when it arrived - much less eventful! Good luck with the assertiveness!