A thread to discuss the extra less obvious bits to the menopause

[GetStrongKeepFighting]

I've been to the GP today and she's said most of what I was telling her are due to the menopause.

I had to come off HRT so I'm just on starflower capsules, Angus castus and vitamin B.

I'm having blood tests and have been referred for a neurological appointment.

My menopause started after the shock of a traumatic event well two and it's been 2-3 years ish. Periods all over the place, anxiety for first time ever, daily painful headaches, not sleeping very well, emotional, knackered, suicidal at times PMT like grouchiness, lack of motivation.

Sigh.

Blatant place mark. ...yy to everything. Physically I'm ok....mentally I am losing the plot

Booseysmom
Glad I'm not the only one!!
Flatulence also phenomenal with me!!

I take a very low dose hrt tablet. I feel 100 times better than i did, but instead of not sleeping and palpitations i can now sleep for england and hate gettting up on the morning!

I’m not sure i can carry on with my job I’m so anxious! My 2am and 4am worryfests are always work related. Also forget things / can’t retrieve facts which is really not helpful...

I also have a super itchy head and am finding it incredibly tough to lose weight.

Pre hrt i had terrible aches and pains, crippling plantar fasciitis, brain fog and awful mood swings

saythatagain I had problems swallowing and food getting stuck during my perimenopause. It transpired that I was severely anaemic due to torrential periods. I was prescribed iron supplements (in liquid form as the tablets would get stuck!) which helped with all sorts of other things as well (tiredness, hair loss, etc). Once I'd finished the prescription, I found that the swallowing problem would return (my periods were really bad) and blood tests showed that I was anaemic again, so that in the end I was given continuous iron supplementation. Please do see your doctor. Good luck.

How is everyone doing?

I'm completely confused about when I am due on now. I'm so tired and parking sometimes doesn't go well.

Hello!

I'm confused... I'm on HRT patches now.

But I've been diagnosed as having fibromyalgia, so am not convinced I need the HRT.

I'm trying to get to a level of 'normal' , so I can reduce the HRT and see if it has an impact.

I had a period after a break of six months. Then another one three weeks later. Nothing since. So who knows. I've started swimming and wearing light trousers again, on the basis that statistically I'm very unlikely to come on unexpectedly!

People often say wear white trousers when one wants a period to come so be careful! Might still have the affect even if not wanted.

Just wanted to share that since my periods stopped in January at the age of 55 I never get headaches now and it is just bliss. It really is. Plus no more periods yeh!

Light is at the end of the tunnel ladies trust me I did my time with periods as I started mine early at the age of 11. They were irregular for 3 whole years before they decided to go.

My periods are all over the shop. I started on my normal date last month, it lasted a day then stopped. Had random light spotting a week later for a day or two...then a week after that had normal period. That ended two weeks ago...and since yesterday I've been flooding. Never had that before (sorry for tmi but literally running down my legs) it's grim.

No longer any sensation in clitoris

Ahh my people! For me it's the 4am anxiety, the racing heart palpitations, the constant fatigue, random aches and, most weirdly, huge blood blisters and mouth ulcers appearing randomly all over the inside of my mouth.

At 58 most of those symptoms come and gone. Itchiness gone/ hot flushes gone.
Still have bloody palpitations which l hate and made no connection with teeth until mentioned here. And stabbing breast pain.
Also had the problem with swallowing. Had tests and found it was to do with acids so now l take a tablet a day which has helped. Still keep to easier swallowed food. Its actually quite terrifying at first. I never connected that to menopause just thought it was just me.
This thread is an eye opener.
Best thing for me all round was exercise. Really helped all areas.

So hard to exercise with joint pain, though

pontiouspilates My worst symptom so far has to be the anxiety and palpitations at 4am! When it first started I went to a&e frequently convinced it was a heart attack, not helped by the fact that my ecg reading is always abnormal. Eventually I saw a cardiologist who was the one to say that my heart was fine and she thought it was the peri menopause starting.

They have calmed down now and I am sleeping better. I have found that all symptoms come for a while and go for a while.

@saythatagain, please see your gp re: swallowing.

facial hair, not just on chin but random black buggers on cheeks, now wax, pluck in front of a 7x magnifying mirror. Body odour between my boobs, I know sounds weird but I sweat there which has caused a kind of nobbly permanent rash. Keratoses on neck. Wrinkly hands. Scaly skin on arms and legs. Shows when I pull black leggings off like dandruff .

Wow I think I would really freak if I observed hairs round my boobs!

It is enough plucking out long white hairs from my chin from time to time. I was having my moustache area waxed off but I just shave it every two weeks now instead at home. Such charming beauty routines!

I tried several different ones before finding one that suits me very well. I'm 57 and have been on HRT for 10 years. I have no intention of giving it up any time soon and my GP knows better than to argue with me.

Can I ask you all who have posted that you get anxiety, what you actually mean? I'm an anxious person and am wondering if this is worse sine the menopause. How does your anxiety make you feel?

I was not an anxious person prior to meno but I am now. Because I wasn't before I know it is yet another symptom and it helps me cope. I know it's "fake" anxiety and I try to ignore it. Lack of sleep exacerbates it of course. Lying awake because you are hot, mind starts racing, heart pounds...over nothing.

Meant to add my experience has been very manageable with HRT. Get very few flushes, occasionally I feel hot at night, aches and pains gone (tumeric). My biggest symptom is a sense of loss of self. I still feel feminine but I don't know who I am anymore, I question myself, lost confidence. But that might be because we live in an ageist and sexist society and older women seem to be ignorable, even on some of the threads on here, younger women can be quite contemptuous of older women. They are hating their future selves of course, but it still adds up to a negative feeling for older women.

Other times I feel like I could conquer the world. Menopause has caused me to get fitter than I have in years. If I could give one tip for people coming up to the age when peri starts, it is get fit and lose weight now. I lost weight just beforehand, just because I wanted to but I can imagine how much worse it would have been for me when I was much heavier and unfit.

My anxiety is mainly around my own health. Every ache or twinge I get I then worry that it might be the start of something serious, even life threatening. Most of them go away immediately or at least in a few days, or if I google them I can never correlate the symptoms to anything apart from the menopause.

Deep down I know it is my anxiety that is causing it and I know why but it doesn’t stop it happening. I do talk to everybody and can laugh about it but that doesn’t stop me worrying each time.

That's so interesting. I've had health anxiety the past 6 years, I thought it started after my mum died. But I was in peri meno then and full menopause now. I had cbt and counselling and I still have it.

I have started having anxiety attacks but I had a trauma which set mine off I think .