Moods: How do you know it's menopause & not just life shit?

[worriedmum20000]

I've got quite a lot going on in my life at the moment - stressful job, moody teenager on track to fail GCSEs & recent bereavement plus the impact of covid I'm sure we're all feeling.
I'm short tempered and snappy with my family (in particular DS15 who is frankly, bloody rude), lacking in energy and generally feel lacklustre. How do I know whether this is just a symptom of my life right now or the onset of menopause. I'm 47 and my period is still regular and no hot flushes or any other changes I'm aware of. In some ways I hope it is menopause then I can at least do something about

Yes a lot of things are just easier, definitely.

It helps that I don't feel light headed, brain foggy and can concentrate easily for long periods like I used to.

A lot of things have been such an effort that my life has slowly been shrinking

I need to do more exercise to fully part the joint issues I think.

Sorry pasta, didn't see your post. That sounds hard I'm sorry about your dm.

I've young kids and I was really struggling with their demands. I think as I was struggling with any sort of pressure.

Your post resonates with me Op. Irritability was my main symptom of perimenopause. I had occasional hot flushes before a period, fluctuations in energy levels, low libido. But all manageable. Regular periods. The unmanageable bit was my mood, and the insomnia. I was so unpleasant! Every tiny thing that went wrong made me fly off the handle. I was confused about whether it was hormones or life stress, covid (homeschooling) etc. Anyway, in the end I had a great telephone consultation with a locum gp who really listened, and offered me choices, including HRT. In the end I chose antidepressants for now, because the mental symptoms were causing much more distress than the physical ones. It's not NICE recommended, and not popular on MN, but oh my god it has worked!! I sleep like a log, I'm so much more relaxed, I enjoy my relationships again... The plan is to stay on them for a few more months and then switch to hrt. I made him write that on my notes! But I wanted to delay hrt because I was only 44 at that point. I might wait longer though, as I'm doing so well. I just wanted to tell you my experience as I think you'll hear a lot of recommendations for hrt on here, which is great and obviously hugely helpful for lots of women, but it's not the only option.

@GoodnightGrandma

For magnesium you can just have an Epsom salt bath 2 or 3 times a week.

👍👍👍

@CherryAndAlmond Which ADs are you on?

Sertraline 50mg. People do react differently to it so if you choose the antidepressant route it's worth experimenting if the first one you try doesn't seem to help. Apparently some people get more anxious and sleep less well on it, but it has done the opposite for me.

Oh, and also I started on 25 and worked up to 50.

I had to go and get my hormone levels tested recently because my mood was so low, despite doing "all the right things" (exercise, healthy eating, seeing friends, self-care, enough sleep, etc)

Came back as normal, so I'm assuming it's just because everything's so much tougher these days. I can't remember when I last laughed.

If you're 45 or over you can trial hrt with no blood tests.

I tracked for a good few months and could identify cyclical symptoms in my mood and physical symptoms which helped with the Gp.

Maybe you could try tracking your symptoms on the Balance app?