Is this the start?

[OrangeBlossomsinthesun]

So, I am 49. Always had periods like clockwork no changes to cycle/flow at all. My mother had an unproblematic menopause as far as I know, I think in her mid fifties, although I can´t ask her about any of it as we are not in contact.

Last month I was involved in a minor car accident (rear ended at the traffic lights) the paperwork has been a bit stressful and I am having some physio for whiplash through the insurance and have to take my teenage son too (was a passenger in the car). His is much more complex as he studies in a different town about 90 minutes away with poor public transport to where the physio is so I have to do this ridicuous round trip once a week to take him.

Anyway, that´s all been stressing me out a lot and I like my job but it´s 40 hours a week, shift work and quite full on.

I live in Spain and the storms in Valencia didn´t affect me personally but it was all over the news and I found it terribly sad. I work in an industry that has a lot to do with the media so have been covering a lot of sad stories recently. Then, my son´s friend killed himself. He was only 18. I didn´t even know him and that that tipped me over the edge. Felt like I was on the edge of a panic attack all the time, couldn´t sleep, waking in the early hours with a whirring brain and sense of doom. Felt so awful I ended up signed off for a week. Been back at work for a week and feel much better.

Anyway....my period has just started today and it´s only day 20. My cycle is always more like 28-31 days.

So i started wonering, maybe the anxiety was in part how much stress I have been in but maybe it is the menopause. Like I say, I have always had periods bang on every month but suddenly it´s a really short cycle. Maybe the stress I have been under? Or maybe the stress was partyl hormones and this is the begininng of the end of periods?

The last 2-3 months I have had a couple of spots, where I have never ever been spotty. Funnily enough, spots right where my hormone-filled 13 year old has them, we had matching pimples, ahhaha.

A couple of years ago i changed deodorant as I felt I was maybe a bit smelly in the really hot weather. I also think maybe my wee smells stronger these days (TMI sorry). But other than that I would say I have had no other signs.

I know I will find out either way because it will either be a one off or periods will continue to be irregular now, just wondered what people thought.

I share some of these "symptoms" with you. My body changed smell, from unrine, to under arms to groin. Like you, I noticed, but changed things up and put it aside.

Awake around four in the morning, doom filled thoughts? HORRIBLE. I went though that. You will be glad to know that goes away.

Going by your age and the laws of averages, I would say yes, you are well into the process. It will have been going on for a while, more than likely. You have a way to go too.

The current events in your life have probably sharpened your focus on your own biome, and you are noticing a lot more that during a usual, busy, stressful time.

The process takes time with many upsets along the way. Some sail though, others are destroyed by it, most have a mixture. I am out the other side, and feel great. Sleep patterns are stable, my weight is stable, I am older and look it, but freer that I ever felt.

I have no idea why I feel so free by the way, but bloody hell, I love it! 😁

Good luck.

Oh that´s a positive take on it, thank you! I have a friend who is mid fifties and menopausal and struggled a bit with anxiety, imsomnia and so on and she is a bit keen to attribute and mood changes I mention to her to menopause and seems to blame any ills she feels on it. I know it encompasses a lot of different symptoms, or can do, but I haven´t spoken to her about it partly because I think she will insist it´s all menopause.
I think the anxiety was possibly heightened by hormone changes but it has been a really shit and stressful time too.
Interesting about the smells too.

I could have written lots of your post. So strange. Also 49, also been very regular with no real symptoms fhen had 2 close friends due end sept/beginning Oct, one of whom I spent quite a bit of time with in the hospice and a period that was 10 days early. Also felt so anxious and just not myself but it’s hard to separate everyrhing isn’t it.
I haven’t had a period since - up to 75 days now - and I started hrt 3.5 weeks ago so coming to the end of my 14 days of progesterone so guess I might bleed again. I definitely feel a lot better despite having the 2 funerals in the last 2 weeks. It’s hard to put my finger on it, just more myself and without that horrible anxiety round the edges, especially when I woke.
I have been unsure about hrt as not sure I ‘need’ it as only symptom is the anxiety but I’ll keep going and see how it goes.
ao sorry to hear about all you have been through. To me it sounds like a combo of big life stress and hormones but it’s hard to know X

2 friend die that should say, not due

Really sorry to hear about your friends. That must have been really hard. I felt a bit of a fraud falling apart so much as i didn't even know my son's friend.
It's hard to know how much was just way too much stress over a short period of time or whether i was so anxious because my hormones are spluttering.
I guess I will find out in the next months whether irregular periods is the new normal or it's a stress induced irregular cycle.

Of course, I totally get that.

I think that the hormonal changes just make it harder to deal with things we might have managed before. Hope things settle for you x

Well, interestingly, just started another period 18 days after the last one. So perhaps it is the menopause after all. Maybe the kind of little breakdown i had was to do with a sudden shift in hormones (and a shitload of stress on top).
I am kind of surprised by the suddenness i guess.