Peri and menopause - how are we all doing? Chat thread.

[Slavica]

I keep reading the threads in the menopause topic and think we might profit from a general chat thread. A lot of the questions get asked, in different ways, in separate threads - maybe it would be useful to have a general chat thread?

I am 48, in perimenopause, started taking 200mg utrogestan this cycle. My symptoms are mood swings, low mood, hot flashes and night sweats - but the latter two don't really bother me, it's the mood and lack of motivation that really concern me. Currently on cd35 (my cycles have been 21-24 days during the last three years), I guess maybe I'm missing my first ever period.

Anyone else getting a lot of skin tags? My mother's family all have them, I had some since pregnancy, but now I am developing a lot of them (including the really tiny annoying ones). I might be turning into a hag, for some reason the skin tags really, really bug me even though I've never been much into looks.

How are you doing? Stable? Still looking for a solution? Please share.

I'm 49 and been on HRT for about 18 months. I'm on 75mg of estradot patches and take utrogestan 1 tablet a day for most of the month. It was awful panic attack anxiety that made me go to the GP. HRT has helped but I'd feel worse in the non progesterone days so that's why I've ended up taking it more continuously.

However, I'm back to waking up at 5am in the mornings and I've still never got back my drive, motivation or sense of joy over activities and outings. I live with a sense of impending doom hanging over me - although I don't feel the same as when I've had depression in my younger years. I easily function and have fun when I actually do things or see people, I just have lost that anticipatory joy and I'm finding I can't be bothered to arrange stuff. Oh, and still have pretty crap energy levels although I do manage to exercise a few times a week only because I go with DD (18} or DH.

I'm poised to visit the GP again. It feels like testosterone could be the missing link but am I should try 100mg estradiol before considering testosterone? I know I can get it through superdrug if I get my levels tested. Is there a way to get hormones tested via the GP just to see what's is going on? Are some of you saying that some people don't absorb the estrogen well?

I hate it all. I hate that it's coincided with Covid lockdowns and DC becoming independent and leaving home. There was so much I thought I wanted to do at this age/stage of life in yet I have zero motivation now 😭 and half the time can't even think of the things that I once wanted to do. Who even am I now?! 🙄😬

Oh, and my periods have come back with a vengeance every 3 weeks. Is that due to taking the near continual utrogestan? The last few years I was getting gapa of 35-48 days. Recently I've had periods with an 18 day gap, 21 day gap, 28 day gap. Is everyone else having regular cycles on HRT?

Hello,
I’ve been on HRT for about 7 or 8 months I think. I’m Wild Wild Westing thanks to an pharmacist friend cos the GP wanted a pelvic exam as a first step towards consideration. The extreme step of doing it off-piste was due to peri throwing a massive spanner in the words with s-word compulsion plus ADHD.

All had been going well on 2xsachets of full strength Sandrena, 1x micronised progesterone up the Lady Garden 25 days out of 28 & a tiny dab of testosterone daily. I was chirpy and perky by and large.

Until I wasn’t. Last few months my body has turned to lead from tiredness and I’ve got fat.

So I went to the private bloods clinic yesterday. Coughed up 18 € and more blood than I was happy to lose. My thyroid is on the blink, underactive. Like every other female on the maternal side. Just mine has broken now rather than in my thirties like all my relatives.

I have an appointment with an endocrinologist in two weeks. I am not leaving his office unless he give me thyroxine. I saw what happened to my sister in the U.K. when the docs faffed around when hers first stopped working properly (she dug out her numbers, same as mine are now, bar a higher 0.01 in free T3.

Having dragged myself out of peri Menopause rollercoaster I’m in no mood for The Thyropause sleeping (not so) beauty game.

I’m going back to the private blood clinic this week for the anemia panel having seen these result. All the women in the family also have pernicious anemia, so want to check that out before it sneaks up on me.

Generally I’m still chirpy in my head. But the perky has left my body. And I’m slightly concerned due a vague memory that while thyroxine should fix the Thyroid, it might bugger up my nice, predictable happy place with my oestrogen levels. But I’m too tired to go and look into it right now.

Hopefully if I can sort the thyroid out, make sure p.anemia isn’t lurking to pounce on me, I can shortly return to the Chirpy & Perky state that HRT put me in.

I've finally got myself an appointment on Friday to beg the gp for bloods and help. I've woken up at 3am unable to get back to sleep and drenched in sweat for the last three straight weeks. If nothing else I need help with that. On top of that I got a dodgy smear test result back so also have to go and see about that. I am exhausted and the brain fog is next level. I just want to cry and stay in bed tbh.

@piscofrisco glad you found the energy to make a GP appt. It shouldn’t be a fight & you shouldn’t need bloods. Symptoms alone are enough to trial hrt. Read the nice guideline recommendations before you go & good luck.

I seem to be very anxious and massively horny currently. Not two I would have thought go together but each month both seem to get worse. I'd much prefer to feel normal

I am finding a pattern in that the second week of my oestrogen only patches, I am miserable as sin. Short tempered, grouchy, tearful, properly pre-menstrual feelings. Today I am raging and furious. I was never like this pre patches- does anyone else get this?

Yes I get this with patches @thenewaveragebear1983 I thought they might help with anxiety and mood, but at the moment it's worse.

I'll mention it at my appointment in a couple of weeks.

Just wanted to come back on and update on the extreme fatigue that I was having. After reading up and trying a few things I have found something that has worked!!!! I had got to the point where some days my arms and legs felt like lead and I could barely put one food in front of the other.

after reading on here about lack of iron I started taking spatone every morning. After a few weeks I am no longer having the same problems. It is gross. I mix it in with my almond milk and I have a small bit of a polo after to help with the taste. But not had a crushing fatigue day since. No idea if it is a coincidence but for now I’m sticking with it.

I get the apple flavour spatone and mix it with juice-I can barely taste it like that

I was the same, no womb, tubes or cervix. I went private to a menopause specialist as my surgery was due to cervical cancer and she prescribed HRT on symptoms alone. I have since had bloods done but had started HRT by then.

I still go private as it’s easier to obtain prescriptions but could go back through GP after the initial appointment if I wanted.

Omg yes!!! I am only on my 2nd box of patches. The 1st month coming up to the 2nd of week 2 and beginning of progesterone patches, I was afraid for everyone around me!! The rage that burned in me for no reason was crazy. I'm to change to my progesterone patch later today and am hoping that I dont feel as bad this time.
Does anyone have restless legs/feet on hrt? I have been plagued with it my whole.adult life but had it pretty much under control. Since starting hrt It has been driving me insane again 🥺

I think magnesium is supposed to help with restless legs @Weeflo77

I would maybe try anti depressants they have helped alot....anxiety still gets me but not as bad as it was. Speak to your GP. sometimes it helps with having both as it can get to point that you can't carry on 😔

Hi , may I join the thread , I’m 50 and currently struggling with thinning hair and insomnia. I am also on the mini pill to sort out bleeding issues caused by adenomyosis, but that is making me spot constantly. I can’t wait for my periods to end .

Welcome, everyone! It helps a little, at least, to have others in the same boat to talk to. @Sleeplessinseattle234 , I've been on iron tablets for years now - I don't seem to absorb it well from food at all, when I stop taking them, my ferritin levels drop and before long I start feeling tired and listless. My GP told me there is no need to stop until menopause.
I'm lucky as the tablets (ferrous gluconate) do not upset my stomach. We don't have spatone here (I'm in mainland Europe), but I had on occasion taken Floradix and that had helped as well.

I am on day 20 of this cycle, taking utrogestan. My sleep is not perfect but without it it would be much worse; I wake up early, but not in the middle of the night and can function. I have not had the rage or feeling out of control this cycle, so that's a plus. All in all, I'll take it.

Hi @escript I have been taking magnesium supplements every night before bed for years..it always seemed to help apart from the occasional flare up but since starting hrt it has gotten worse. I have bought a magnesium spray that I have started spraying on my feet at bedtime. Hoping that it helps. I will say to my doc when I have my review with them. Thank you 😊

My overactive bladder is driving me nuts. Vagifem not helping. I had oxybutynin but it upset my tummy and gave me constipation and pains.
I really dont know what else to try.

@ssd. Did u try changing ur food , fluid and train ur bladder. Tablets didn’t help me either.

I can't believe how up and down I am with my moods.

I've been on hrt for a few years and I can veer between feeling:

Absolutely fine for weeks - generally positive, enjoying life, no major issues.

Plodding along but with a constant negative voice in my head, feeling pissed off with everything (mainly my husband) critical of everyone and everything.

Feeling over emotional, crying most days but not really knowing why.

During all these times nothing else is really changing, hrt dose is the same, day to day life is the same.

I was so excited the other week because I realised the little gremlin voice in my head had gone and I was feeling content for a change, but it only lasted a few weeks. Fed up with it.

@gofullpelt , I can so relate. I thought I have kind of hacked it; I don't expect miracles from hrt, but a general okayish feeling would be good enough. I've had a month of being mostly just fine, and even some optimism.

Yesterday evening, overnight and this morning I am in a black mood. Night waking, worrying, anger. The general feeling of pushing a boulder uphill, what's the point?
The focus of my negative feelings is my teen. Yes, she pushes my buttons, and generally I think my actions are appropriate, but the feelings are not.

@gofullpelt Oh, me too 😞

This week I've hit one of those crying cycles. I've just had to say to myself it will pass. It's just a feeling. It's temporary. I hope it is.

Can I ask, anyone who has gone to a menopause clinic, what do they do that's different from the GP? Is it ever possible to get referred to a menopause clinic from an NHS GP and if so on what grounds?

Isn't it so wonderful what we have to go through!! I felt quite alone with my feelings but I am glad I joined here as it is good to know there are other people going through the same thing as you and maybe voice a feeling that you have been afraid to say.

Just popping back in to cross-post this study from another thread. If your mental health started or relapsed at peri, it’s worth a read.

See also if you have ADHD, other ND status, or a thyroid issue.

I’m not saying an army of knights on the horizon to save us from our hormones, or doctors who are unaware of the potential link between peri and worsening MH. But, tiny green shoots are better than mud with no sign of life at all. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/8D072AACBCD3C7888C173B36635C08C3/S205646942300089Xa.pdf/severe-mental-illness-and-the-perimenopause.pdf

Oh, and if anybody else felt much much better on HRT and then it seemed to stop working, might be worth checking your thyroid as part of working out why things have gone tits-up again. Just in case. Cos if there wasn’t enough on the plate of peri-menopausal woman, this is also the time of life when female thyroids can sometimes decide to go on strike.

Mine was scanned yesterday. Half of it is looking all small and pathetic. The other half has nodules. (But not cancerous ones). No wonder I’m back to utterly knackered.

Please note, remember all the fun times you had trying to get your peri treated ? It’s not outside the realms of possibility that you’ll get deja vu with your thyroid quest. €400 later, turns out my (typically very good, aside from these two issues) GP wasn’t exactly accurate when he said my “only slightly outside of normal” levels didn’t justify any action, let alone an appointment.

PRE HRT me ~> 😭🐌

• HRT me ~> 😃🐰
• HRT +workshy thyroid me ~> 😐🐌

I just want my happy bunny self back again. But my body keeps hyjacking me by breaking bits of itself. I wish I could download an update to my internal OS, or even buy a new motherboard. If my body was a car they’d be sucking their teeth telling me repairs cost more than it’s worth. And I’d be banging on about the sentimental value of how it runs —when it’s not old and rusting gently into decline—

I’m 46 and peri menopausal. Was having really bad joint pain, struggling sleeping, forgetful, exhausted etc. HRT - Utrogestan and now up to 3 pumps a day of Oestrogel - has helped a lot with the joint pain but not so much with the others although my moods are much more stable. Started slow with the Oestrogel as I’ve previously suffered from migraines which were oestrogen linked. I was on testosterone for a while but that didn’t help and just made me angry all the time.