Are these perimenopause symptoms?

[NooNooHead1981]

Since my last baby was born in 2020, I've been a lot more sensitive to hormonal fluctuations than I used to be and get much more severe PMS. I have had low iron after the pregnancy which was in part the cause of many of my symptoms but some still remain even after increasing my ferritin.

Symptoms now include tinnitus; gingivitis that gets very sore and much worse before my period; awful brain fog to the point where I feel so empty headed and odd that I think I have dementia; hip pain; fatigue; increased anxiety and depression.
Unfortunately I had q head injury and post concussion syndrome in 2015 so a lot of my cognitive problems aren't being helped by my hormones either 😳

Plus - my body really loves me so much that I had a bad reaction to an antipsychotic drug that was prescribed off label for severe anxiety and insomnia after the head injury, and I got a permanent neurological involuntary movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia. I am now very sensitive to any side effects of different types of medication, and therefore am predicting that hrt will probably be one of them knowing my luck...!

Yes, I sound slightly neurotic but all of these issues started after my baby was born and I don't think much of it has improved in spite of some symptoms going with increasing my iron. My gut feeling is that it is probably perimenopause but a private gynaecologist has told me it isn't, and that things like tinnitus and gingivitis are likely to be because of low iron (which may be true, but I never had them before my last pregnancy).

I'm not sure what I will do when I have "full blown" menopause symptoms if there are any more. At the moment, I feel ancient and I'm only 41.😭🙄

I experienced similar after my second pregnancy: hormonal mood swings, fatigue, hip pain, insomnia, anxiety and depression.

Taking high doses of Vitamin D fixed it for me. It looks like gingivitis and vitamin D deficiency are linked... might be worth a try for you.

Did you post about this before? Only asking as someone posted something very similar about post concussion syndrome recently, might be worth seeing if you can find it.

I might have posted in among the other topics/boards on here, but my memory is terrible so I won't really remember! 🙄

I think my vitamin D is ok as I have had bloods recently but I might try and get another one done just to check again.

I’m pretty sure my 2nd preg ‘catalysed’ peri for me. I was 39, v nearly 40. Had awful mood swings, rage, etc. thought at time it was undiagnosed pnd. Lots of other life stuff going on too. But I was also getting awful night sweats. GP did blood tests which came back as ‘normal’ apparently.

Periods remained irregular. Rage came and went. Just gone on HRT at 46, spurred by sudden bouts of anxiety and weird joint pain stuff (frozen shoulder) and no period for 7 months. Jury’s out on whether it’s helping or making things worse at the moment (although frozen shoulder is much much better!)

I had similar after giving birth and got diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Several years later it turned out it was a gut health issue the whole time - too much bad bacteria. I think I reached a tipping point in pregnancy because I was in tablets to reduce stomach acid which can upset the balance.

id go to a doctor and get yourself checked out for all possibilities, but meantime take probiotics or kefir, it may just help you.