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

I seem to have been rough since Tuesday and if it's like this all the time then I'm not happy! Headachy not horrendous but just enough to make functioning a struggle, nausea coming and going, stiff neck. All this when I'm ratty anyway doesn't help. Docs for me this week I think x

I have felt shocking today: dizzy, palpitations, blurred vision, anxiety. Does anyone else think it feels like a caffeine overdose? I actually switched to decaf for a while thinking that's what it was but it made no difference.

I think it probably is adrenaline because I also get surges of it which make me feel just like you do when you've had a shock but I can almost feel that shooting through my body. This is more of a constant low-level anxiety that lasts all day. I would be interested to know whether it is actually increased adrenaline, will have to google it!

This is probably completely unrelated but also feel sometimes like my throat is closing up. Not painful and doesn't feel like there is anything blocking it, more like someone is pressing on my windpipe. Anyone else??

Yes to the throat thing! Couldn't see how it was related x

That's interesting old bag x

Thanks, Old Bag and mandm, that really helps. I thought I was going mad with the throat thing then wondered if it was a case of the anxiety causing it but then making me more anxious and so the vicious circle goes on.

I'm not generally prone to anxiety, I'm normally a pretty pragmatic, "if there's a problem, get it sorted and move on" type person so this jitteriness really throws me. I know there is nothing tangible causing me anxiety (except all these symptoms!) but still can't shake the feeling. Tedious!

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I'm worrying right now that I'm passing off potential heart problems as just being peri menopause.

When I'm not busy and my mind is free to wander I start focussing on my breathing and realise it's really shallow and I feel like I've forgotten how to breathe. I know deep down it's anxiety, as soon as I'm busy the breathing stuff disappears.

I feel like I'm constantly on hyper alert and listening to my breathing and my heart. I'm quite scared right now and it seems as though just breathing is not automatic anymore. Oh bloody hell, I know this is anxiety but it's horrible.

Thanks OldBag, I got caught up in a few interesting threads and the feeling passed off straight away! I really believe it is anxiety.

I think I will go to the Gp over the next few weeks. My dad had a heart attack when he was around my age. My dd's dad died a few years ago and I am worrying about leaving her an orphan.

Bloody hormones.

I've been investigated for months for half of this stuff! Nobody has done any hormone tests. I am late 30s.

I know mother, maternal aunt had early menopauses

Thank goodness for insomnia, or I wouldn't have found the thread.

Can someone explain to me in simple terms what the proper test(s) is/are. I don't want to be fobbed off with the cheap/quick/half-arsed version - this all sounding worryingly familiar

Arsenic - some doctors do a blood test for FSH (which become high) and oestrogen. This has to be done early in the cycle (day 3) and should really be repeated a few weeks later.

The idea is that as you fail to ovulate, the FSH increases and oestrogen increases to cause ovulation, then drops off. Eventually, the FSH stays high and oestrogen drops off.

It is unreliable, because you need to be at the right point in the cycle (not always easy to tell) and during perimenopause, you will have times when you are ovulating and times when you are not. Hormones can change from day to day and hour to hour. So a lot of the time, it is better to go on symptoms alone. However, if you are younger, then a blood test may give indication of where to look, so it can be useful to some extent.

Also have so many of the same symptoms and starting to feel like I can't cope.

Have had

Anxiety
Panic attacks
Fuzzy head
Can't sleep (last night awake until 2am and similar for past few nights)
Can't think straight
Feel really strange as if drugged
Depressed
Surges of adrenaline exactly like wired with caffeine (have been avoiding that in case it helped but not sure it does)

Had high FSH levels and am 52 so been on HRT for 3 weeks (Elleste 2mg) and it seemed to be working last week as felt better and slept but now back to square one.

Feeling pretty awful.

Having new Mirena for progesterone part of HRT as mines now 6 years old so wonder if that'll help?

Please tell me you can get better or I think I'll go mad

Hmm thanks Day

I had just embarked on TTCing (our last), so I might as well go for a chat and some bloods. How annoying if true.

What made me think of menopause was mainly the night waking. I've had years and years of very high stress but now things should be easing and I can't sleep through the night anymore. Periods have also become irregular (like London buses: none for a while then 2-3 at once) after all my life being on a strict 23 day cycle. I'm constantly in a rage and feeling rather manic-depressive at times. I think today I might have had my first hot flash (I'm always cold and should be today but had a period of heavy sweating this morning for no reason) .

My mother was getting concerned over my complaining about the midnight waking and when I said "actually, Mom, I think it's just "the change"" she thought about it a second and said "oh, yeah, right". She confirmed that I was about the right age (47) for this to start.

Unless the waking becomes really problematic I don't yet see the need to go for blood tests and remedies. But I'm keeping an open mind.

oldbag "I don't know what I'm talking about half the time". Yup, that's me too. The poor dc's have to listen to mummy forgetting words and having to......um........fill in the gaps.

My hormones have been shot to pieces for a couple of years now, I'm 40. The GP tested me last year but said it was all fine . I don't believe her, I know my body and I know it's gone haywire. I have every symptom bar erratic periods because I had a hysterectomy. Apparently they can trigger an earlier menopause.

yes to;
-joint pain
-insomnia
-heart attack level palpitions
-sweating (sorted that with better anti-perspirant)
-spots
-rage
-mood swings
-nausea, I actually sleep with a sick bowl (aka ice cream tub) next to my bed because I often feel so bad.
-total vacant forgetfullness
-leg hair thinning out
-as is my head hair .
-had a couple of hot flushes, rather hoping they don't become regular because they're flippin' weird.
-sore boobs, as bad as when milk comes in on day 5 post baby.

If I had the energy I'd go back to my GP and insist on further tests, but I'm otherwise fighting fit and healthy so I'll leave it for a bit.

Glad I found this thread!

Can I add, feeling like shit.

The poor dc's have to listen to mummy forgetting words and having to......um........fill in the gaps.

Yes! (Well I did feel sorry for the DC, but now the teens roll their eyes, which leads me on to the temper I seem to have suddenly developed...)

day the GP gave me one blood test on a random day of my cycle, having no periods means I'm stumbling. around in the dark. And my levels were normal , despite having no idea of what my normal is. I did come on here and whinge about it at the time. I felt pretty palmed off but haven't had the energy to go back and ask again.

Today I feel like I'm in someone else body. No energy, nausea, headache. Problem is I've been like this for a week now and it's no fun. So glad this thread has been so popular. It's good to talk to other peris! X