Since my last child was born (14 yrs) I've had not-nice PMT for up to 14 days a month but its mostly physical: period pain and sore, swollen breasts. Rarely psychological. Maybe the day before my period I'd be weepy, nothing worse.
I'm 51. Regular periods, possibly a bit of weight gain and other subtle maybe-peri symptoms but this month I was slammed with agonising boobs on Day 13, and have been on the edge of tears since. I'm on day 21 (of a 28 day clockwork cycle) and crying all day (all week). Taking nurofen for the pain and dreading another week like last when I work (two demanding jobs) while just wanting to hide in bed.
The constant thought in my head is: I don't want to be here.
But I am not depressed, I just cannot cope with the pain and low mood.
I was prescribed HRT last summer and while it had some positives it threw my cycle off and with boob pain like I get for 2 weeks of the month I prefer to know when to expect it and arrange things around it so HRT lost out against the pain and I gave it up after 3 months.
I also felt a bit of a fraud as didn't have night sweats or hot flashes or anything very menopausal.
Is extreme PMT ever a symptom of perimenopause or what can I do? This is horrible. I am a positive person, usually very upbeat and totally in control of my tear ducts and I work in a predominantly male environment so cannot be anything other than in control. I feel like I am acting a role at the moment: that of a normal person but it won't take much for that to disintegrate.