What symptom of meno really surprised you?

[menopausalfart]

I've had most symptoms associated with perimenopause, including some really nasty ones.
The symptom that surprised me the most was the memory loss. If I don't do something the moment it enters my brain, it's gone.
I've been taking HRT, vitamins, collagen, and I exercise regularly. This symptom, along with anxiety, has stubbornly persisted.

Weight gain on my tummy. I was slim with no effort before.

Me too. I was always slim. Now it just creeps and creeps. Feels rubbish. The first thing I look at in a photo is do I look fat today . I was never that person. Now I am

So sorry this is so hard
I used to love learning new things but the mental sharpness and concentration and memory skills have totally gone. Maybe they come back? If we’re lucky?
I now look at.female PMs and leaders who are in mid life and older age, in complete awe.
I also have real horror that working age retirement expectations on women is the same as men who don’t have this physicall burden to carry. I’ve heard so many stories of women having by to struggle and not get treatment it’s so hard. Or have treatment and it doesn’t help. Anyway I’m hoping that’s just peri anxiety speaking. It’s helpful to be able to discuss like this. I have the corner of the eye seeing things too! Itchy lower shins in a mad intense way every night. My eyesight appears to fluctuate over the day in sharpness.

I think a little bit of self acceptance is needed. I eat healthy and exercise, but I have resigned myself to a new shape.

No hot flushes but I'm just a lot warmer generally and wear a t-shirt even in cold weather, I actually like feeling the chill when I go outside 😂 and I have very hot feet at night, they feel like they're burning, sometimes I can feel then throbbing 😩 I have to get an ice pack out of the freezer to rest my feet on!

This is me too. I had a few hot flushes years ago but now I just seem to be hot all the time. I dream of lying down in a snow drift! It is quite cool where I am today and I have a t-shirt on - still feel sweaty and too hot though.

Oh god I had this, I had a large fibroid and I suppose it was from that - no doctor was interested or could say. Post hysterectomy that's one of my favourite things to have resolved! I was wearing huge pads most of the time just so I didn't flood myself with either blood or clear liquid when I was out!

Yes, this is such a good description of it. I said to dh it is like turning over a page in a book and finding a blank page. You have no idea what was meant to be there and feel completely lost for a moment. I also see things out of the corner of my eye - normally I think I can see insects - not sure if that is perimenopause or something worse! My spelling has always been good but I cannot rely on my memory for that any longer either - really embarrassing to write something up on the board and have your students correct you. (And I just had to look up embarrassing because I thought it only had one r.....)

British have always called them flushes, Americans seem to call them flashes. Flushes make more sense to me as I assume it’s a reference to feeling or looking flushed.

@shellyleppard @Thistoo2023 Thanks, it's not much fun. Symptoms are weirdly largely gone again, apart from the still having periods thing! I rarely get hot flushes any more, night sweats aren't as bad as they were, the rage has mostly gone, the sudden uptick in libido stopped a long time ago. I'm still itchy, but I always have been so it's difficult to tell what's allergic and what's hormonal. Migraines are slowly going again. Realistically I know I must be nearly there because I keep totally skipping periods, but that's supposed to mean you're a year away from stopping and I've been skipping periods for nearly three years! I have PCOS, which I read somewhere is known to extend peri, but 15 years really is cruel and unusual punishment.

@Magpiecomplex you have my total sympathy. Sending hugs 🫂 💐 🙏 ❤️

Also, I had migraines as a child and young woman - then they stopped for decades.

But I've had two in the last three months.

Worrying about things. It has gone from getting nervous about a plane flight coming up to having a sudden feeling in the pit of my stomach over ordinary and nice things, like realising I have to go out to visit a friend later that day or something. It's just as well I don't work because I don't know how I'd cope with that pressure now.

I don't mind at all! Clearly there can be a difference in individual experience – 2 years was what I was told by the specialist I ended up seeing.
The injections I had were a mix of steroids, pain killer and saline solution (to introduce more fluid into the joint in order to stretch it and reduce constriction). Had to have it twice in one shoulder as it had taken longer to diagnose and so the condition was much more advanced. Ultimately got back about 90% of movement on that side, so not a full recovery – hence my comment re trying to get a diagnosis as soon as possible. I was single at the time (and don't have children) so getting dressed, washing and just generally doing life was pretty difficult.
Full sympathies to anyone with this condition, it's truly horrible – very much hope you're fully recovered now.

@Happymomoftwo sorry to derail things slightly but I've had these for years and the most the Dr has ever given me is anti-sickness tablets. Can I ask what else you take? I'd love to have something that actually works!

Uhhuħu
U
Uh. Uhh uh

Most of them! And I suffered from most of them over time! I was so ignorant about everything really apart from hot flushes which were talked (joked!) about. The array of hideousness wasn’t really talked about much until recently. I got awful anxiety as the first thing and I had literally no clue that was a sign. Migraines also took me by surprise. And my vagina deciding to shut up shop and never work properly again - atrophy was not something I had ever heard of or read about. HRT and Sertraline will have to be prised out of my cold, dead hands, just sayin’..
If men suffered from this shit there would be more research!

Migraines.

I get these more often than hot and you are right, they are worse. It's like when you have the 'flu and are shivering to your bones.

Aarrghhhhhhh! Can we do this thread again but with everyone’s ages?

I am fifty, hardly any symptoms, two periods in the last six months, am on topical estrogel.

I need to know how old everyone is, am I safe ?!?!

Ghost cramps, which are unrelated to ovulation or period.
Constipation, even on a high fibre, healthy vegan diet.
Itchy ears, same as a lot of us here!
Weight gain, not a huge amount, but still annoying. Have increased cardio exercise, and have begun strength training also, for toning and hopefully warding off future risk of osteoporosis, as I don't take HRT.

I'm 55.

I was in my mid-40s when my symptoms started. I'm 53 now and still getting periods. It sounds as if you've had a relatively lucky escape! My mum was the same.

I get that , as in off to do something nice but get a feeling in Pitt of my stomach..
I also wake up every morning with that feeling , but it goes once I’m up & about ..
I do work , & I get that feeling with the thoughts of work , then funnily enough I’m great once I’m in & I don’t get that feeling at all 🤷🏻‍♀️
Anything , that will get you out & about pp is great , doesn’t matter if it’s a short walk & Into shops after to look around , buy dinner , whatever it is ..
I know that old feeling & it’s not nice , anything that helps keep it away …

Oh the anxiety IBS symptoms that started the moment the periods stopped - it's hell. Seems to happen every time where's a big event or family pressures. No-one warns you about that.
Not forgetting words exactly...just forgetting the names of celebrities which is a bit random!
But...the giving a fucks going on permanent vacation is glorious. I have cut out so many parts of life/people that don't work for me anymore or make me feel inadequate, unloved or miserable, I don't feel guilty and I don't care. It's a gift of menopause! I thought the meno would make me sulky and needy..the opposite has happened.

Not had a single hot flush. I even bought a handheld fan expecting them to happen. All my friends complained of them. So my unexpected symptom was...no hot flushes!

Do wish the jolting awake at 4m would stop though.

That’s cool

Getting rid of negativity from your life 😊..
Meno, definitely alright relaxes you more, in a sense of what’s important in life, & not giving a sugar about what’s not, & before, things that were a big huge deal to you , suddenly are not anymore, & you realise how they never really ever were that important in the first place 🤷🏻‍♀️..
All that said though , all in all it still sucks FFS 😂🙈

I never thought id say it ... but thank goodness for autocorrect 🤣