Peri menopause or something else?

[DancingButterflies]

Hello, I’m 44 and have been feeling pretty miserable for a while. Symptoms gradually worsening.

Dizzy spells; terrible forgetfulness; brain fog; feeling ‘slow’; migraines; aches of joints, but particularly around the neck muscles; extreme tiredness…think lay on the floor and sleep there and then; ongoing awful constipation; my usual shiny silky hair is frazzled for no reason and snapping; libido vanished.

I’ve had blood tests for thyroid, B12, iron etc and all are normal. Blood pressure 115/60.

But I don’t feel happy or healthy or even human.

Is this familiar to anyone else?
GP tomorrow and don’t know what to say. I know I’ll be told ‘everything’s normal, everything is fine’.

Thank you

I've no idea to be honest. I'm not taking any medication or supplements which would account for it. It's not extremely high but definitely outside the normal range. To complicate matters I had a baby last year but I would have expected my levels to have dropped during the post partum period. It's the only thing I can think of that might be contributing to my ongoing sedation/drugged out feeling.

@Seo2022 when you say you tried the patches and pills do you mean you took oestrogen patches and progesterone pills?

I'd be having my adrenals and pituitary gland checked. Also, I'd be considering if there was a trigger or major life event that happened 5 years ago that could have led to this chronic fatigue.

From recollection it was 2 weeks of estrogen pills and 2 weeks of progesterone pills for three months. My doctor switched me over to patches after three months when that wasn't proving to be effective. Gave up on HRT completely after five months.

I had an MRI scan on my pituitary some years ago, nothing showed up. Not sure about adrenals, what kind of diagnostic tests are required? I've had a myriad of blood tests done over the last few years so would assume if there was adrenal issues it would show up?

I'm fairly certain it is hormone related as opposed to something like chronic fatigue syndrome which I don't really believe in anyway. I have lots of other symptoms (irritability, night sweats, vaginal atrophy, brain fog) that are more likely to be hormone related than something like chronic fatigue.

Those symptoms do point to low oestrogen. I know it's protocol to prescribe both oestrogen and progesterone for HRT but given your already high progesterone levels, I'm not surprised you didn't feel any different. I found the progesterone pills really strong, the coil was a better fit for me.

As someone who has been formally diagnosed and lived with chronic fatigue, in my teens and then again in my 40s, and having gone through earlyish menopause, I would say they have a lot of crossover symptoms.

Hope you get to the bottom of it. It's no fun living with crippling fatigue.

Re adrenals, I wouldn't know type of tests but it would be an endocrinologist.