Hi, I'm 46 and have probably been in peri for at least 5/6 years without joining the dots as I was just trying to battle my way through what I thought at the time were unrelated symptoms. Over the years I've had a handful of hot flushes, night sweats, bad bouts of insomnia (for which I was given other medication), mood swings, hair loss, low libido, joint aches etc....
But the major sign that made me think it was menopause was that about four months ago I was starting to feel completely overwhelmed and unable to cope with life - not in a 'depressed/down' way, but like I completely lost my ability to cope and all my confidence in what I was doing. I even stopped driving, which I have always loved. That was so strange as I really love my job (work in mental health) and my DH is generally great with doing his fair share.
I had two or three complete meltdowns over things that wouldn't have created issues at all in the past. I also realised that I've been struggling for some time with memory problems, finding words and horrendous brain fog.
I did have Covid and related issues over the last couple of months, so had put it down to Covid brain fog, but three months of recovery from Covid, I'm remembering how awful my brain fog and emotions were before. I also started having panic attacks and never had those before.
Saw a private consultant last week and on 2 pumps of Oestrogen gel (she said I can start on 1 if I prefer) and 12 day progesterone tablets as a break. I'm also having another horrendous period at present, which really doesn't help.
I know it's early days and I have really high hopes for the gel, but it's making me feel really drugged and sleepy. My brain fog wasn't this bad. It feels like I'm trying to walk through porridge. I'm taking it on a morning and have now dropped down from 2 pumps to 1.
This is longer than expected and thanks for reading - just hoping that I might hear that this is normal and it can feel worse before it gets better as I'm so tempted to just stop it.