What does Perimenopause feel like, mentally?

[sidsparrownew]

I keep reading about all the physical symptoms of peri but I would like to hear what it feels like mentally? I don't have many physical symptoms, just shorter cycles, sometimes irregular, libido is not what it used to be, sadly. But mentally I feel I spend half the month lacking energy and motivation. I'm waiting on my progesterone climbing so I can feel good again. I'm not depressed, I feel pretty good about life, but I also feel like part of me is gone. I used to be quite a creative person, it's just gone, apart from about 2 weeks of the month where I feel close to it, but most of the time I feel part of me is missing. My mood can fluctuate a bit as well, from brilliant to everything and every sound is grating me. Really grating me.

What are your experiences, mentally, and did HRT help?

This made me laugh - I could have written it (though not as amusingly !!!)

Yes - asked my mother who reckons she had no symptoms …..
looking back , as good as a mum as she was ,she deffo didn’t sail through it !
Additionally , she didn’t juggle the strains of being a single parent with working FT

Total lack of joy in anything

I know just how you feel. Went to the GP and got HRT and antidepressants. It's been 3 weeks and I'm just starting to get glimpses of my old self now. I'm 51 BTW.
Sending hugs. 🫂 Hope you're feeling better now.

I've been on HRT (2.5 pumps oestrogel, sequential 12 day 200mcg Progesterone x 12 days, plus vagifem) for over two years. I'm mid 40s.

I was finding the sequential Prog was giving me a lot of side effects (migraines, teariness) so my gynaecologist moved me to 25 days Prog where the 3 day break would still allow for a bleed. Unfortunately my bleeds were erratic and I got spotting, even though I felt so much better on this cycle.

I've moved back to 12 day Prog 200mcg daily and feel awful in terms of high anxiety and mild depression (as confirmed by questionnaires).

I've got a lot of other stress in my life due to redundancy etc and I just need to feel better so I can job hunt. It's a 6 month wait for CBT with the GP. Should I try and manage it myself through meditation, exercise or add yet another med - sertraline - into the mix?

I had to take this for about 10 months previously due to a traumatic life event but I'm not generally prone to anxiety or depression.

Would be get views, I don't really want to be on medication but can't carry on like this (especially the wanting to cry all the time/irritation etc) while job hunting.

@Wonderbug81 that's interesting about the Progesterone side effects. I literally just posted in Women’s Health asking if anyone had found issues with the two week gap. I was fine for a few months and then recently having the most horrendous crying issues. But usually just a day or two and then I’m back to normal.

Sorry I didn't mean to post here (was supposed to start a new thread). Yes I have a lot of issues on the 12 days. Felt amazing on the 25 days but a lot of spotting through the month.

I'm 52 too and started HRT Evorel patches 2 weeks ago, I think I've had symptoms for a year or two but kept hoping that it would all just fix itself. It hasn't, just intensified. The anxiety and brain fog are making my job and life in general very difficult hence going to my GP.

My periods were getting very heavy but regular 28 days until Feb when they stopped for 3 months then came back irregular.

I went to the GP last week after reading threads on here. Realised I was suffering in silence. Completely agree with what I've read on here. I had lost who I was. I said to DH I don't know who I am anymore. They are going to do a blood test because I'm only 40 and have put me on anti depressants for the feeling of complete doom and gloom the week before a very heavy period. The anxiety has been subdued already which is good. I suppose we will see what the blood test shows. I was a totally different person ten years ago. It's like hope died.

Mine started at approximately 41/42 maybe 43, I’m now 53 so 10 years on.

A friend of mine said “you’ll want to sleep much more” - that happened.

My anxiety got a lot worse, I felt like I couldn’t do anything properly and left one permanent job due to it. Have temped on contracts ever since. Have now been on HRT for approximately 2 years and it’s amazing. It’s not a miracle cure but makes the time I’m here much better.

For me peri was fine, only symptoms were skipping periods (now I did go from using contraception and having to periods to becoming pregnant and going straight into peri with a baby then toddler so there could have been some small sleep or emotional using I put down as parenting stuff that may actual have been hormone related but it was minor either way).
Post menopause things got progressively worse, insomnia, memory issues and worst was the awful disassociation feeling. Everything was just bland all the time, didn't enjoy or care about anything

• Increased anxiety, including around things I've never had issues with eg driving
• Brain fog
• Fatigue
• Zero tolerance for bullshit, much less patience for nonsense.
• Decreased self confidence
• Desire to become a hermit

HRT has helped, but suspect I now need a higher dose

What does peri menopause feel like - I'd tell you but I can't remember!

Now what was I talking about...?!

I found for me, peri when it came (I think approx 43-44 for me) was bad in snatches, eg not feeling confident enough to do certain things but I wouldn’t have kept that job if I wasn’t any good.

For me it was anxiety and self doubt especially around work, low libido when it hit wasn’t nice either.

I did enjoy and care about some things sometimes but my tiredness levels went through the roof. I didn’t want big nights out though did have some with one friend.

I know this is an old thread but is anyone still around? How are you doing now?

Im massively struggling with everything that’s been mentioned here. I’m only 39 and I’ve been on HRT (utrogestan sequentially and Everol 50 patch) for 8 months and I’ve noticed no improvement at all other than it’s helped my brain fog a bit.

God so sorry @Mother2375 . Your GP sounds appalling.

I had symptoms similar to yours and anxiety, brain fog etc. HRT helpful fortunately.

I am still struggling with feeling flat and anxious. Motivation is sadly lacking where as once i had lots.

Perimenopause to me feels like an overwhelming urge to relocate to a remote Scottish island so I have to fight back the urge to tell an awful lot of people to f* off.

That said I am on my third night shift this week which is also not helpful mental health / energy wise !

For me the symptoms that have affected me most have been mental - I've not had a single hot flush, but I have felt very flat, low mood, disconnected from DH and family, lacking in focus and motivation, anxiety which manifests as overthinking and rumination, negative thoughts. Plus a really crappy libido - which is kind of physical but also I strongly believe it's linked to my mental state, how I'm feeling and the shutting down of desire, daydreaming, creative impulses.

I'm on HRT (75mg patches and mirena coil) but tbh it's still a slog. I go through spells of feeling ok, maybe even pretty good but I suppose I must still have some kind of 'cycle' because then the hormones regularly shift off balance and I'll feel a bit mad for a few days - I call it a 'hormone storm' where I feel like I'm the middle of it, under a massive cloud, and I just have to wait until it passes.

I don't really feel like myself a lot of the time, but I think/hope that's because I'm becoming someone else - another, better version of me, so I just can't wait to get to the other side of this and transform into a strong, powerful, decisive, clear-thinking, sex machine of an older woman. If that doesn't happen then I'll go and hide under a rock somewhere (maybe on that Scottish island a PP has mentioned!) because I really don't know what all this is for otherwise... 😖