Perimenopause symptoms please list!

[mandmsmummy]

Hi
I've posted on here about possibly being perimenopausall. Could you list what your very early symptoms were please?
X

Mine are:
Palpitations
Hot flushes
Period early
Much heavier and quite clotty
Emotional (ratty and tearful)
Anxious

Anxiety and panic
Palpitations
Long gaps between periods then really long heavy periods (but no pain)
A feeling that I am going to have a heart attack in the early hours of the morning (see anxiety and panic)
Unusually fat around the middle (I'll chance that one!)

Thanks thorn!
Anyone else got anything to add?
Does it affect your stomach/bowels? X

I'm worried this is what is happening to me. I'm 34. Thankfully have all the DC I want. My periods were always regular never spotted, now it's weird bleeding all the time - every two or three weeks, horrendous pain like labour. This past week I've been so constipated too it was agony. Anxiety and depression, that fluctuates wildly. Dr appt on weds am going to demand tests although have lost all faith they tell me it's PCOS but I don't agree at all I barely have symptoms of that.

Shorter I between periods
Different periods, on off, lighter, heavier
Joint and muscle aches
Head aches
Anxiety ( new to me)
Skin crawling
Tingling
Adrenalin surges at night
Night sweats before period
General all over warmer
Sensitive skin
Water retention. ( mainly hands)
Mouth ulcers
Dryer skin
Dry eyes
Thinning hair

I am 40
I've had the coil fitted which is helping
Might add some estrogen soon to see if that helps.

Everyday is a roller coaster.

Frequent, irregular periods with unpredictable flow.
Joint aches in unpredictable bursts (I think when I have 'ovulated' (or tried to..........) in feet, back and neck, hands.
Variable constipation.
Anxiety, lack of confidence, feeling overwhelmed.
Unable to think straight and to concentrate and put words together when talking.
Problems with vaginitis, thrush, urge incontinence (unpredictable and sometimes total).
Sleeping.

I have tried hrt and so far it has made some things better and some things worse. I am going to try a different one (when I can see a doctor).

I had night sweats for years on the pill, and they stopped!!!!! (yay!!!!!!!) but have come back, a bit with hrt. .

Lots of the above. Plus brain fog and a general feeling of 'not being myself' that I really can't explain any better than that. Weird.
Does it ever get better does anyone know, or is this it now?

Irregular periods which might be light or might be heavy, might last 2 days or 10 days.
Anxiety, panic, palpitations.
Feelings of dread and doom.
I seem to have developed IBS these past few months too.
Dry skin and hair.
Urge incontinence.
The capable, independant, organised woman I was seems to barely know her own name some days.

No period since Dec so am guessing there is no peri about me.

Hot flushes, palpitations, and a total plunge into momentary misery when the hot flush comes. General joint pains.

Bad symptoms are:
A shorter cycle than before
Dry skin and hair
Brittle nails
Joint pains
Brain fog
Hot flushes
Can't sleep
Feeling really really cross all day long and often, if I am awake in the night, all night too.

Good symptoms:
Losing body hair, particularly on my legs, I have patches which are completely hair-free now. I only need to shave the odd patch. DD asked me the other day if I had had them waxed!
Because I have the RAGE a lot of the time, I am finding it increasingly easy to manage poor service in shops, restaurants and when dealing with unsatisfactory customer service on phone calls.

forgetful and losing things, doing things and forgetting I have done them

miserable

tired

sweaty and itchy

clumsy and not co ordinated

This has helped me a lot. The joint pain gets me down. It comes and goes like the wind. I feel less alone now that I see a lot of us have joint pain.

And internal shaking (joy)

I don't know if I'm in peri menopause or not -doctor tested for all sorts of other things, thyroid conditions, lupus etc but not hormone levels i don't think. But I've been having weird symptoms they can't explain away and not the obvious ones (though my periods are a bit more erratic). I've had joint pain (neck and hip) tingling that moves around my body, slight numbness in my hand that has thankfully gone away, brain fog and weeks now of vivid dreams that mean I feel like I don't sleep properly at all. Also i'm feeling a bit lonely and depressed at times - far from friends, not emotionally close to family etc. Does this all add up to peri menopause? I feel like it is.. an osteopath told me that ectomorphs (i'm one though a fatter one these days!) tend to suffer more with menopause... just wondering if this likely to go on for 10 years! argh. Are antidepressants or natural hormones the answer?

houseofboys it all sounds very familiar I'm afraid. I think the vivid dreams are linked with the adrenaline surges. It is awful when you can't sleep properly.

I've been on hrt for almost a year nit and I feel great! Am 42 and my mum was also early.

It is recommended to take hrt if you are below 50 for bone protection. The risks are more from nit taking it iyswim. Plus, my quality of life was pretty shit too

Literally forcing my body awake a million times a night (adrenaline surges) were probably the worst but I also became stressy and irrational which I wasn't before

It'd be a relief to know thats what it is rather than panic about degenerative diseases... though my instinct that this is peri has kept me calm ish! My mum didn't go into menopause til 51, but she was physically very different to me. Nights of dreaming are just awful, desperate for normal sleep.. should I just pester doctors til they hormone test and then try for HRT or try things like Black Cohosh instead? Thanks for the very quick answers by the way.. Ive discovered women at work same sort of age as me or older just don't want to talk/think about menopause. And one doctor I went to (female, same age as me) just helpfully said she was going to ignore it and just pretend it wasn't happening.. which must be great if you are one of lucky ones who can :(

Anxiety. Aha. Penny drops.

Are weird anxiety-induced nightmares part of the fun-filled package too?

Yes to weird anxiety-induced nightmares. And waking up going through lists of things that HAVE to be done - even ridiculously trivial stuff.

With me it was a) erratic periods, to the point where I was having 2 a month for nearly a year and b) mood swings - from teary to furious and back to teary.

I went on HRT quite young - at 46 - and it's been fantastic. I'm in a much, much better place.

general feeling of can't be arsed-ness
dry eyelids

• most of the above. It's glorious, isn't it?

A feeling like an electric shock under the skin followed by a rush of adrenalin. Plus same as above, brain fog, feelings of panic / anxiety for no reason, tingling face, dizziness / sensation of falling. I had the blood test though and it came back negative so goodness knows!

Is age of menopause inherited? Or is it influenced by stress?

houseofboys I have read that age of menopause is inherited so if your mother went through it young, you are more likely to. You mentioned upthread that many women don't want to discuss it - I find this too. My mother won't discuss it anything like that either as I think she finds it embarrassing. The other day we were talking on the phone and I mentioned something very casual about DD (18) being on her period and from 100 miles away I could feel her stiffen!

I have done a lot of reading on menopause to try and make sense of it. Stress causes more adrenaline to be released and this can then affect other hormones so I suppose if we are stressed it might make the symptoms worse.

It is reassuring to know that there are other ladies in the same boat though. I have been looking up to see if there are any vitamins or supplements that might help my RAGE. Does anyone have any recommendations?