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.

@Londonwaiting I’ve got this too, it’s really getting me down. And I can’t find any reference to it anywhere, nor recommendations on what to do. I’m currently trying estriol cream but with very little impact, the GP says to persevere for a few months. Posting in solidarity because I’m glad to hear I’m not alone.

@BunnyLake I get them from my doc. You can get them online as well as long as you fill in a questionnaire. The online pharmacy, Rightangled, are the cheapest, I think.

The never ending bleeding got me too. Some periods I would flood night time pad, pants and pyjama bottoms in 30 minutes. Ended up covering my sheet's in puppy pads so I didn't leak onto the mattress....... thankfully I had a coil and no periods for 3 year's. Then one that lasted just a day and it was over....

Frozen shoulder, hair thinning and is now wavy, forgetting words, joint pain. Those are the ones that have surprised me. I wasn’t surprised about the dry eyes, bloating/inability to lose weight even though i’m walking 10K steps a day and eating much less (and more healthily) than I ever did before.

Vaginal cysts/spots

Memory issues for me too. If I go to fetch something from another room then by the time I get there I can't remember what I went for.

It's menopause brain fog, I suppose.

i know people seem to call them flushes now, but all my life they've been called a hot flash

and it really does flash, it goes from (the anxiety attack notwithstanding - once i learned to connect the two i could get my fan on and start unbuttoning my cardi) 0 to boiling in a flash.

Brain fog and memory loss
Dropping things constantly
leaving things around, losing things.

I used to be reasonably together!!!

really hope this gets better once you’re through it and into menopause

Anxiety. Awful, stomach churning feelings of impending doom. I had no idea it was related to menopause.

is the shoulder pain really a thing related to menopause? that explains a lot

and dry eyes - i didn't know that was also related.

I have days when i just want to stay in bed (but that gets too warm)

Oh dropping things. Ok. I thought that was because my fingers are always cold and go numb.

Genuinely went to add something and forgot what it was 😂😂😂

ooo yes....joint pain generally.

I said to OH earlier 'theres three issues with this, the first is xxxx, the second......Ive forgotton the second.

Literally within the space of about 10 seconds.

Oh wait, it was inability to lose weight. I used to be able to cut back a bit, track on my fitness pal and lose half a stone. Now I can’t move a single pound despite trying!

The itchy skin..and the trying to change gear without the clutch memory thing.

The itchy skin was the worst though. Drove me batshit.

Oh the losing track. The not being able to remember that word, the thing you are looking at but you forget what it’s called. Gets me in professional meetings but I also lecture part time and technical terms for things I’ve known for 30 years, with students looking at me like I’m an idiot. I just say “oops menopausal brain fog” and move on. This has been a great tactic in meetings as often it has led to other menopausal women chiming in and we’ll talk about it much to the discomfort of the largely male participants (male dominated industry). But I’d like to think it’s at least educating some of them.

I don't know if it's brain fog but I do forget the word for things quite a lot now 😒 and forget things that people have told me!

Quite often have an upset stomach and get woken in the night with the cramps so tired too!

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!

For me it was anxiety. This started for me quite early on and got to the point I couldn’t go out without another adult with me. It was much later I discovered it was menopause related.

I have dry itchy skin all the time, didn’t realise that was a thing either.

I was plunged into surgical menopause after a hysterectomy, I’m so glad, they immediately put me on HRT and seemed to get the dosage spot on so I think I was spared the worst of it.

Things I didn't expect
Itching
joint pain
javelin arse
dry skin and hair
The weirdest thing was a sensation of falling backwards that came with the worst of the dizzy spells. It happened mostly at night and habitually I sleep on my stomach. Waking up feeling as though you are falling upwards off the bed is the most frightening thing. They have subsided now but still at the first hint of a dizzy spell I can roll over onto my back in my sleep.

In had a gamut of other stuff but was expecting it.

It’s taken me nearly a year to realise hot flush = no periods, no hot flush = period. I can almost predict it now. Also, painful boobs that stay painful during period = another period a week or so later. No one ever mentioned this..

I feel like part of me has gone back to the strong person I was as a teenager which I didn't imagine would happen. I'm suprised how few fucks I give anymore and have stopped people pleasing. My tolerance for misogyny is lower than ever & I love the interesting women I have in my life.

In menopause itself, vaginal atrophy

I gave loads of fucks as a teenager so perimenopause is refreshing.

Did you not expect it?