Anyone else just UTTERLY EFFING SICK of peri?

[RipeApples]

I know there are plenty of you cos i see your threads but my GOD I am so over this shite. Not only the symptoms in the first place but the apparent need to just play it by ear as though we can just afford mentally and physically to just bob along with sometimes debilitating symptoms. Oh you think you're peri? Let's wait and see how those symptoms play out. Oh you are peri, try this gel. Oh that's not worked, let's wait and see. Oh that's too high a dose, oh let's reduce it. Oh you don't seem to be able to do your job which you've been very successful in doing for the last 25 years? Oh your symptoms are back. oh oh fucking OH.

I'm obviously in a foul mood over it as i'm ranting but even on my 'good' days (around 4 a month honestly for the last year or so- been on HRT for 18 months) I'm still agog that this is something which, to varying degrees, women will experience and we're left at the hands of uneducated GPs, having to scrape money together if need to go private to get someone to listen and even THEN the whole regime is just seemingly pot fucking luck.

I really hope I'm one of those who eventually finds my magic combination of dose, brand and delivery method but there are so many variables, alongside the changing symptoms as we age, that I really can't see it ever happening. And then seeing the thread yesterday (?) about women who are still not post menopause in their mid and even late 50s put the fear of God in me. I'm 46, around 3 years into Peri - How do you just accept you've got to suck it up? I'm so angry about the whole thing on top of being angry cos i'm permanently seemingly pre menstural. There's not even anyone i can complain to about it and that's winding me up too.

Rant over. If you've got this far, thanks for being on the receiving end. I do have friends of peri age but it seems they are all doing fine and aren't struggling like I am and if mention menopause at work, my colleagues visibly shrink away- and frankly my dh and dcs are sick of me going on about it and reading this thread back, I can see why;)

It's nuts how many other seemingly random symptoms can be related back to peri or side effects from HRT. Indeed since I started this thread a week ago, I have a new one to add. I've just become allergic to my oetrogel. Inner thighs are covered in a raging red rash for the last few days. It's almost like it's a sign from my body that this bloody HRT isn't working!!

I just don't want another one. I don't think I get on with that type of progesterone really. Moods have been awful since I've had it in, bloating has been horrible too plus i had constant spotting so had to take additional progesterone anyway...but who's to say those symptoms are peri rather than synthetic hormone driven? 🤷‍♀️ at least utrogestan is micronised/body identical so less likely to have side effects. I've been on it for nearly 2 weeks and already the bloating has reduced. Coil out in about 10days. 😬

@Projectme so funny how it all suits us all differently.

I'd rather stop HRT and risk the debilitating impact of it all than use utrogestan again. It made me bloated, huge sore breasts, in a fog of fatigue all day even using it vaginally (and GP gave me the proper vaginal pessaries), the awful 'dead' sleep where you don't dream and aren't aware of anything but spend the rest of the following day wanting to sleep because you are so tired. And the weeping. The feeling of being lost and un anchored from my family and reality.

I am on top oestrogen dose and also have spotting and still get periods, but Gynae did hysteroscopy d&c and said it was all fine, endometrium was thick but not unreasonable and the mirena was sufficient. (endometrial thickness was 7mm but I'm peri not post so this is fine apparently).

I just wish I'd tolerated the mirena in my 30s when it hurt so I had it removed.

Good to hear you are better on utro, and I hope you stay that way ☺️

I thought that about ferritin. I was down to 16 by the time I saw GP about HRT. And almost fainting at work.

Ferritin is now 118 and the only difference is I don't get breathless going up hills!!

Oh you poor thing. Utrogestan obviously not right for you. And I had mirena coil in my 30s and felt hideous with it so got it removed 🤷‍♀️ no rhyme or reason is there!

But as I said in my prev post how frustrating it is to have to try different things for 3/6 months to see how we get on...its a constant 'suck it and see' whilst feeling utterly wretched or just mildly wretched with no end in sight! Gah.

If men had the menopause, you can guarantee the pharmas and medical research companies would have had personal targeted medication for it by now 🙄

I'm allergic to oestrogel (and the patches too). Good knows what they put in this stuff but my skin hates it.

Yep feeling it too. Endless tears. On HRT and a tiny bit better.

@Projectme actually I was lucky. I upped my oestrogen after two months and again after four. Stopped oral utro after three months and then onto the coil after five, added in testogel at month eight.

So in 8 months I changed my HRT 5 times all with the support of my GP and the GP added testosterone.

But it still wasn't a fun 8 months at all!

And then the whole hysteroscopy thing too. I wouldn't wish menopause on anyone.

@Piggywaspushed I wasn't allergic to the gel, it just did nothing for me and I had my first ever panic attack while on it. That was fun.

I never used to be sensitive to adhesives on things like plasters before peri-menopause, but the GP started my on Evorel patches which were fine for the first 9 months-ish until I suddenly started to get an awful rash. At that time getting other brands of patch was very difficult so ended up paying for Estradot privately and the glue on them seems OK. I am now reacting to plasters in a way I never did before too.

I've always been allergic to plasters so even the Estradot is bad. I put up with it because it's the best of bad options.

I also had my first ever panic attack on the gel! Horrendous! I stopped it immediately and haven’t tried anything else. Gonna have to ride it all out cold wheetabix turkey

Panic attacks are the worst thing ever

I'm not perfect on the patches, far from it. But it definitely takes the edge off and I can cope with the ups and downs ans hormonal feelings without wanting to top myself. I'm on 75 mcg patches and did ask about upping the dose but the GP wasn't keen and TBH I couldn't face the battle. So I'm plodding along on 75 patches and hoping things will settle down eventually.

Jumping in. Just turned 51. Periods still regular-ish, but heavier with clots and flooding. My sister and my mum didn’t hit the menopause until 60!

Dry, itchy skin but no vaginal dryness (yet). Irritability and rage through the roof and DS is just hitting the teenager stage. Irritability and rage. Brain fog - I need lists or I forget what I’m supposed to be doing. Irritability and rage.

Went to see my gp, who did some bloodwork and then tried to prescribe me something for the night sweats I’m no longer having. On investigating this is something mainly prescribed to lower blood pressure but has a side effect of stopping night sweats. Nothing wrong with my BP, so I refused to take it.

I have a consult tomorrow for BHRT.

Did I mention the irritability and rage?

Currently going through a bad phase - I have been here before and know it will pass as it has before but jeezo. The aching knees and hips. The constant low-level anxiety and waking up at 3am worrying about nothing in particular. The itching skin, the dry eyes, the hair falling out.

It's unbearable isn't it. I've had enough of it

Headaches, migraines, nausea, dizziness, tiredness but oh the Headaches they feel constant. Anyone else? 45 cycle still clockwork if a bit heavier

@Mackemlass79 yep! Me. I don't get migraines though, thankfully. But everything else on your list I have, to varying extents, every single day. I honestly have max 4 or 5 days a month where I feel "ok" not even "good".

I'm 46 and periods had changed to every 3 weeks but hrt has mostly regulated that back to 4 weeks which is good but I'd rather have them every 3 weeks and not be feeling the way I do every day.

Hey op
I'm 50 and I am here also to have a wobble with myself!
I still have heavy crappy periods but I don't know I feel I've been in Peri for at least a year , dr of course just said try hrt , ketchup your anti depressant doseage etc but in the meantime what is really ruining my life is my energy levels or lack of. I'm so drained all the time , physically weak and drained. I have a horse and up till last summer would easily manage to push a large round bale of hay into the field and stand it up , did the same last week and the effort made me physically throw up! Walking the dogs is my fave thing always , now I feel like oh ffs about it. Some days I can't even be arsed to cook.. I do for my teen but for myself mehhh
I feel miserable like I just exist as a nothing it's ridiculous how miserable this peri makes us

I'm going to join this club. I'm feeling so old and exhausted at the moment. I'm tired of obsessing over every symptom and worrying about how to deal with it, when it will end, and then once one symptom has calmed down a bit, a new one (or three!) will come along to take its place.

Am fed up of headaches, low moods, can't focus, losing my creative energy and lust for life. I worry all the time about when/if/how I'm ever going to feel a real and strong urge to have sex again - and if I do, will my poor old dry vagina cope. Oh and palpitations - my heart keeps thumping out of my chest several times a day.

I never used to particularly bother about my looks but now I hate how my eyes look dry and wrinkled, they're really ageing me. My hair keeps falling out and it won't behave. I can't tolerate tight clothes so everything is baggy - comfortable, yes, but do I often look like a bag lady? Also yes.

I can't bear that I have to introduce MORE additional stuff into my daily life just to function like a normal human: more healthy eating, more vitamins, more exercise - weights, cardio, don't forget to stretch so you don't pull one of your crumbling old joints - more self-care, skin care, mental care... it's ENDLESS and I already DON'T HAVE TIME because I'm trying to hold down a job, a freelance career and keep the household running so no-one starves or fails exams or runs out of clean clothes.

So, yeah, I'm effing sick of peri. HRT is helping? I think? Though sometimes it's hard to tell. And I had a coil fitted recently so I am waiting for things to settle with that (but constantly bleeding while it does - nice.) On the up side, I recently found a note to myself from 2017 where I listed a few early signs of the symptoms I still have... so perhaps I'm already 7 years into this?? I can but hope. I need a light at the end of this tunnel...

@mybelovedghostandme the drop in energy levels is just extraordinary. I've never been an active person to be totally honest so it's not like it's limited something I was doing that I loved but from the minute I wake up all through the day I am just utterly exhausted. Even on 7 hours unbroken sleep. Tired in my actual bones, my brain. Everything. I fleetingly dream about bed all day long. And then I get there knowing my sleep isn't actually going to help anyway! Arrrggghhhhhb

@SilkieChick I've been doing the same trying to work out how long I've been in peri so I can somehow predict an end to this hell! Unfortunately I came across a thread on here a few weeks back where many women were still getting periods well into their 50s and anyway what I've also learned from these threads is menopause doesn't magically mean the symptoms go. So this it? Never going to feel "normal" again? It feels like such a cruel injustice <dramatic but had a bad day with symptoms so feeling very sorry for myself 😂>

@RipeApples I feel exactly who you've described it's like a tired I just cannot explain and it's hell knowing that tomorrow will be the same! I've never been a hyper energy type either but I absolutely had much more get up and go

Found the place

I'm 46 periods still regular in cycle however ovulation pain and period pains are now so much worse.

Headaches palpitations anxiety dryness everywhere you name it I'm reading all these posts and nodding at every single one.

At the moment the worst are the brain fog and the bone tired feeling.

I've done the same job all of my working life.
Loved it and work closely with women of all ages and as much as I still absolutely love what I do I'm almost staggering into the house in the evenings to sit and eat and then I'm literally done for the evening.
I've never struggled so much.
I took an at home hormone test which showed I was in Peri but have been reluctant so far to start hrt purely because I'm on an autoimmune medication and the effects of that disease can be similar to peri so im trying to manage them myself for the minute.

A relative of mine started hrt and had an absolute mental breakdown so that also weighs heavy on my mind.

I'm back to taking menopace plus as they helped massively before but I ran out so have started again.

I also take a collagen supplement daily and a honey with turmeric vit c and d in it.

Upped my water massively,lowered my carbs and am calorie and macro tracking again.

I'm also caffeine free and have been for twelve months as that makes a difference.

I don't really drink alcohol due to my other condition but will have the odd gin every now and then when I feel the urge to

I'm hoping the night sweats settle down again once the menopace plus has kicked back In

I spend a fortune on good body moisturisers as I'm also like a weetabix everywhere.

Oh and the brain fog and feeling disconnected is awful