I'm 39 and have a sense that I may be in perimenopause - main symptoms are periods every two weeks for the last few months, some hot flushes, and a general fog (though this is hard to separate out, since I also have small children). My mother and her mother had both finished by early forties so it doesn't seem far fetched that I could be on that path too.
I've done lots of reading and understand there are risks associated with relatively early menopause, worry about calcium etc, so I feel I should go to the GP but don't want to put myself through poking and prodding unless I really have to, and also don't want to be dismissed. Last time I got a mini pill prescription (over the phone) it was a youngish woman GP and when I mentioned the frequent periods she made a sympathetic noise and basically said yes, being a woman is hard work.
I don't want to make a hoo haa over nothing but I equally don't want to neglect this if I should be proactively seeking HRT to see off health problems later in life.