Please help- hot flushes shivering palpitations night sweats

[Wordsaremything]

i feel as if I've aged 15 years in the last three months. Just turned 49. Bloods done a while ago to rule out anything else. All that fine.

Symptoms are really ramping up. Cycle irregular ( can cope with that) but the hot flushes seemingly provoked by the tiniest stressor have been miserable in the hot weather esp at work where the air con is broken and a long commute on packed trains.

Now getting night sweats and palpitations alternating with a strange creepy/ shivery feeling all over my upper body.

So tired, largely due to constant nights of broken sleep.

Not keen on hrt. Just paid a fortune for goose down duvet and high thread count cotton bedding - do I need to rethink and get a wool duvet? I sleep naked (alone thankfully can't bear the thought of another body in there with me!) with windows open around house to try and get a draught - but then end up freezing with the sweating.

I had another terrible night last night and I could cry! This is not like me at all. Normally power on through physical discomfort but this is fast becoming intolerable.

Advice, sympathy? Please???

the advice of a meno consultant for 8 years, as I have had
sounds like you had complex and severe problems Pinkfrocks

I haven't consulted anyone medical about anything for as long as I can remember.....as I said before I cant help wondering why some suffer so badly and others are just fine

I'm not arguing against the use of hrt, more against the view of menopause as a state of deficiency which necessarily needs intervention, something which you alluded to when you mentioned that 'the thinking is heading in the direction of hrt use as a preventative treatment for all women'

(osteoporosis is a disease of affluence btw)

Hully...have just looked up menosan and ordered some...oddly the Dr this morning did recommend soy products!
Have also ordered sage tablets too...can't hurt, right?
Thanks

Obviously views on menopause will be coloured by personal experience, for me it was a bit rocky but no big deal and I didnt feel the need for any intervention.
Someone like Pinkfrocks, back and forth from a consultant for 8 years will (I imagine) feel that menopause is far more traumatic, a state of dis-ease

But which is the more 'normal', do most women require intervention in order to function?

I don't know.
I was told many times in my teens - when I would bleed very heavily for weeks, faint, throw up, be doubled up in pain, unable to empty my bowels - that pms was all in the imagination.
One Dr told em - at 17 - that everything would be alright once I had a baby.
I suppose if you don't suffer you don't know?
Anyway, I guess it helped in one way. I thought childbirth was pretty easy! :)

yy sage v good for flushes.

I found I had terrible nerves too and the menosan really helped with that.

I should be on bloody commission the amount I recommend it...

I'm just knackered :( thyroid ok, not anaemic.
No libido, in fact everything dh says and does annoys me.
Palpitations
Horrendous night sweats
Hot flushes
Constipation

menosan and sage.

deffo

Badders - you are young to be going through this already at 42 and could be heading for an early menopause which is definitely associated with health issues - not least of which is possible osteoporosis and cardiovascular problems. Not wanting to worry you but you really should not have to suffer and you (along with all women) deserve better treatment.

There are newer types of pill (containing "natural" estradiol") such as Qlaira which I know some women use at your age and including those with stroke risk. What are your risk factors? It does not necessarily preclude all types of pill. There are women on Menopause Matters forum who are in your position (young, menopausal symptoms, stroke risk) so might be worth joining that forum too?

Can you get referred to a menopause specialist in your area? Clearly your doctor doesn't know enough about menopause to help you properly! How long ago did you use the patches and maybe bleeding will have calmed down now if your periods are getting lighter generally (although they will be heavier). There are also other options for HRT which involve taking oestrogen (such as patches which you tried) and progesterone (as Utrogestan) separately - and the progesterone for slightly longer in the 4 week cycle to prevent the bleeding.

By all means try supplements but you would benefit from oestrogen replacement as well, if you go throiygh an early menopause

I'm going to give the menosan a go.
I will let you know how I get on.
I started having hemiplegic migraines after having ds1 and the GP took me off the pill. Annoying really as had always been fine on it.
My bp has always been low/normal but my cholesterol is 5.6 and I'm going to try and get that down (Though I read an article online that said that higher cholesterol levels for women are protective after menopause?)

Suzanne - what is your point? Yes obviously your views and knowledge about menopause are coloured by personal experience but no need to denigrate others for treating their very real symptoms.

As for osteoporosis being a disease of affluence - do you have some data? Without seeing any of the data or studies, the way I see it - if there is a link - it is correlated through life expectancy. Women in more affluent societies have greater life expectancy (I presume) - and therefore spend longer in a hypo-oestrogenic state ie oestrogen deficiency - which as one poster put it, could be 40 years! This will have longer term consequences on bone loss & BMD aside even after controlling for lifestyle factors (which I presume you mean being more sedentary - and not enough high impact exercise?).

Anyway we all, of course need to do our best to improve our health and well-being as we age but we are constrained to a great extent by societal factors - work, relationships etc and these "norms".

Hope you feel better soon, Badders.

no need to denigrate others for treating their very real symptoms

where did I do that Bella?

?I presume you mean being more sedentary - and not enough high impact exercise?
Yes that's right if you are sedentary your peak bone mass is lower and bone density declines more quickly.
The sedentary lifestyle is not one that evolution has adapted us for. ?

Suzanne - what is your point?
well Bella I was making an observation and then I segued into speculation as to the relative proportions of women who suffer and dont suffer during menopause.

Do you think my speculation was needless?
Was my segue too clumsy for your taste?
My speculation too idle?

I'm sorry I'll try and improve my writing style if you think it's not up to scratch

suzanne - why do you assume I have had complex problems? Very audacious of you! About HRT- if you knew anything about it you'd know that all women using it to have 6-12monthly check ups, either NHS or privately. This a requirement of prescribing though each doctor will interpret the guidelines accordingly, giving check ups annually or every 6 months. This is called good care- it's nothing to do with their patients being ill- it's preventative medicine and best practice. So, just to make it crystal clear, if someone had been on HRT for 10 years they'd have seen their dr for 10 years. Does this help you now?

Your comments are becoming more and more personal- you are not actually contributing to the thread in a positive way and are making it an unpleasant place for posters. It's not AIBU where people look for fights.

Pinkfrocks
no you are the one being unpleasant
would you point me to my increasingly personal comments please?

suzanne - can you link please to the science which shows that women with low bone mass lose bone more quickly?

I think you will find that bone mass at menopause and rate of decline are not linked. Someone with a low bone density may lose bone less quickly than someone with a high bone mass. Bone loss at menopause varies between 1-5% annually. The rate per woman is not linked to existing bone mass.

Thank you trout x

suzanne - can you link please to the science which shows that women with low bone mass lose bone more quickly?

sorry, error on my part, I meant that the higher your peak bone mass (reached up to early 20's-ish and dependent in part of type and level of activity iirc) the more 'wriggle room' you have before before low bone density causes a problem

suzanne- I think you know exactly what you are doing and have written. You made comments which either invited me to discuss my medical history and suggested that I'd had complex problems - to'ing and fro'ing' to the drs, followed by your comments that you have not seen a dr for many years.

The tone was very clear which is why another poster pulled you up on it.

anyway- I'm not going to engage with your behaviour, you appear to want to cause trouble.

Love and peace everyone- let's stick to the questions and ignore any nastiness

off the top of my head I'm not sure how much research has been done into factors (other than estrogen levels) which do affect rates of bone loss post meno, I've an idea that weight bearing exercise and keeping muscle mass high can help.

Obviously it is very important to keep on top of bone health, once one becomes frail I imagine it is very difficult to stop the downward spiral

Ok, so I'm nowhere near menopause but I've suffered with excess sweating, night sweats, palpitations and hot flushes (when anxious) since I was a teenager.

Never heard of wool duvets - are they comfortable? Have a goose down one at the moment, and feather pillow with cotton pillow protector. And sleep in cotton layers. I take probantine to stop the sweating which is great so a non issue unless I drink lots of coffee, or have to stop the pills - pregnancy and the whole ttc phase was a nightmare from that perspective... Had to have showers at least twice daily, only wear cotton, and keep spare t-shirts by the bed to change during the night. Not looking forward to menopause if it's more of the same!

Weight bearing exercise can significantly slow bone loss post-menop, but it's even more valuable between the ages of 15-35.

There are some really interesting studies about bone loss among women athletes (runners especially). As long as they don't work out so hard that they stop menstruating (pre-menop stage of life), they can have nicely high bone density well into post-menop yrs.

Makes sense Yeolde although I shall keep up with strength training on top of running
Belt and braces