Am I peri menopausal?

[79andnotout]

Hi everyone, my GP isn't really very interested in any menopausal chat until I stop having periods, but I'd like to know if I'm perimenopausal so I can mitigate the symptoms as much as possible through lifestyle. Does this sound like I might be?

Day 3 FSH 12.
Periods very light and varying between 21-28 days apart since I started tracking a couple of years ago.
Very emotional watching adverts or stupid things when I'm usually a cold unemotional fish.
Feeling like what is the point in life (not in a particularly depressive way, but just disengaged from my usually content self.
Night sweats - although I think I've always had those but I seem to notice them more these days.

Is this the start of it? Does anyone know what fsh indicates peri?

I'm only 39 but I think my mother and her mother had menopause around that age, although it can be difficult getting these details from my family who refuse to talk about such things!

Thanks in advance...

Sympathies. I'm 43 and periods are still regular, but I'm having night sweats, insomnia, sore joints and this evening a very real desire to stab DH with a fork simply for breathing. My NHS division is cripplingly in debt and so has a policy of not testing hormone levels because 'menopause is a natural event'. However, the lovely, lovely nurse at my GP last year went through my list of symptoms and said it might be a natural event, but not normally at 42, and got me tested. Levels were still just about normal, so nothing she could do and she's now retired, so I doubt I'll be able to get tested again. DM hit full menopause at 48 and also had regular episodes of throwing things at DF during that time, so I've warned DH he may be in for a rough few years.

Well many illnesses are ‘normal events’. They still get treatment?

It’s gives me menopausal rage to hear this shite. I don’t live in the UK, I pay for my HRT but it has given me my life back.

I absolutely agree Batty! Death is also a normal event! I didn’t see anything normal at my early meno!
For me hrt is a necessity when there are no contradictions for taking it! We are not designed to suffer like this!
There is no way for me to live a normal life without my hormones.
I pay for my hrt too.

@ragged I think you would call Mariella's version 'journo speak' :)
She has to make the case and that's her way of doing it.

She only lived in Norway till she was 6, then Ireland, so the Scandi connection isn't relevant!

She also covered the risks of hrt

And interviewed around breast cancer

I think it was balanced yes

And other times she was talking about her feelings and symptoms etc, she is allowed to use whatever language she wants for that imo!

I thought it w good anyway, not everyone has to like it :D

Oh ragged- I've only seen the TV prog not read any articles, I was talking about the TV thing recently.

It skimmed over the surface of a lot of stuff tbh.

I think the worst part of it was she didn't say that the treatment (type of HRT) she was on is available from an NHS GP so many women would think you had to go to a Harley St doctor to get it.

I agree I think MF did more’mystifying’. As for the pure nonensense about male menopause, we can’t forget the menz & their Feelz. We can’t have just 1 programme completely about women’s health.

Emerald they’ll drag the hrt out of my dead hands.

I find Mariella’s view quite real and she has my sympathy.
Rage, I don´t think that education has to do with meno experience, we are not prepared at all for all these symptoms regardless of our age!
For me Mariella’s attitude reflects her shock because of the severity of her symptoms and not her fear of getting older.
My main issue isn´t about aging but about my quality of life and how I can survive without putting myself in danger.

One thing to think about.. if you're not TTC, the combined pill can be prescribed in the perimenopause (if you're "low risk" ie normal weight, non smoker, no history of blood clots/dvt, no migraines). It tops up your oestrogen levels (like a form of HRT). Other good options (if you'd like to go down the medical route) are a mirena and transdermal oestrogen. But def have a read about diet/exercise (phytoestrogens etc) as they can make a real difference. Menopause matters website is good. See if any of the GPs at your practice have an interest in the menopause/women's health (speaking as a GP myself, rapidly heading into the perimenopause)!

yeah... that's how I feel about the Guardian article by MF. Her words 'mystified' menop rather than say it's a normal transition period in life.

Heavy periods, my OH did not like it when I became more assertive, bad tempered, impatient. Hormones play with our emotions.

I'm wondering if I'm peri... hope you don't mind me joining this thread but v interesting and relevant.

I'm 45 and having night sweats, just really in the groin area. Is this normal?

Also I'm on the Mirena and have been for maybe 2 years. So no idea how I'll know if I'm (peri)menopausal as and when it happens!

Interested to see that book reco - might have a look, thank you.

@Growingboys - i think i've had groin sweats before although usually it's more widespread. I don't know how much contraception masks things except for the suppression of periods. I wondered that too. I'm half tempted to go back on contraception if we don't manage to conceive in the next year, as i have such sore boobs for half the month, and it would be good to get rid of my periods again.

Joining in... almost 48 and I reckon I'm peri. My periods are still very regular (mostly) but they've gone from a 25 day cycle to a 19 day cycle. Mega sore boobs for half of that time and 6 or so nights of sweats and insomnia leading up to it. This isn't fun!

DM had such a bad menopause with very heavy bleeding that she ended up with a hysterectomy at about 51. I don't want to follow her example!

Hope it's okay for me to post here about myself; I'm a bit shy of starting my own thread.

For the last few weeks when I eat in the evening, I've noticed my face suddenly feel very warm without sweating; went to look in a mirror the other day and it was brighter red than I thought possible for a human face. After a short while it calms down but my nose alone still looks red! And ridiculous!

Hot flushes is about the only symptom of the menopause that I know, but I'm only 38 and was shocked yesterday when I googled perimenopause after reading the term on here and realised that I have quite a few other symptoms: lighter and shorter periods for the last year or so, unexplained and new intermittent pain in one breast in particular, plus a load of others that I thought could be explained by my long-standing bulimia and other mental illnesses (heart flutterings, digestive issues, skin tingling/buzzing, increased anxiety & depression).

Is it worth me taking this to the GP? I have a history of health anxiety and worry I'll be dismissed due to this and my age. What would they do about it, if anything?

Even as a private patient you have to be referred. I would go to see my GP. If not happy then you go back and ask to be referred privately. You need to find a private consultant in your area first. So go google. A consultation is say £250. You can then go back into the NHS system. Your buliemia may have precipated you menopause.

It could of course be other things, so blood tests needed

It's just great if my eating disorder has caused this, but I'm probably due some sort of physical issue, the number of years I've been at it. I guess I'll make an appointment, but not one where I pay 250 quid, so if the GP isn't interested it'll be tough!

Also, I've noticed a mistake in my post above: my nose isn't still red now, hours and hours later. It just stayed red longer than the rest of my face.