Starting a thread on Perimenopause- join me 🙃

[rainydaysamonday24]

Hi!
starting a thread on Perimenopause in the aim to share stories, tips, experiences and symptoms.

Me: 47 yrs, periods still v regular - 24/25 day cycles. Feel like my peri symptoms began a year ago however. Have had night feelings of heat, rather than sweating as such! Aches and pains, lower back was bad last year.
With periods still regular I’m wondering if HRT is too soon.
i also don’t want to start HRT - rather to keep going with diet and exercise. Have taken up swimming and that has improved joints and general fitness.
However! Feel like I need to get a blood test to see where I stand!

So new to all this…need help!

Please share your stories….

Does anyone else have really bad fatigue as a symptom?

I’m 7 weeks into evorel 50 patches and things are getting better in regards to other symptoms but this fatigue is so hard to fight. Did it it take a while to lift for others that had it?

I follow Dr Kelly Casperson on Facebook and she would say, the sooner you start HRT, the better. The Old advice of antidepressants and getting on with it, was WRONG. I started HRT this year at age 48, but I should have started at least a 4 years before that.

I've had TWO dementia tests. Started going to my doctor years ago about my poor memory recall and brain fog but was fobbed off. Also the sheer amount of canastan I've taken? I should have shares in the company. Cure for that? Topical internal estrogen cream.

I'm fighting to get testosterone added to my HRT.

Did you know that testosterone is the first hormone that starts to decline in women? Did you know that women have three times more testosterone than estrogen pre menopause?

So yeah. And it isn't just for libido, sane as it isn't just for libido in men. It's also essential for brain, bones and muscle.

So fight and trail blaze!

Just…asking this question:
Has anyone gone through perimenopause without starting HRT and then into Menopause?

I’ve started keeping a diary of my symptoms. Today I felt like I had warm flushed feelings …but I felt good, like happy and not angry…..was calm, wasn’t teary..

it’s so, so bizarre

That seems so unusual that the menopause specialist would say this! Of course I am not a doc, but my understanding is that now HRT should be prescribed based on symptoms, not cycle regularity or blood tests. Because symptoms can start years and years before either of those are affected. Are you able to get a second opinion?

The itching, my god the itching.

I seem to have everything else under control after 4 years on HRT, but the itching is still intense. It's like being bitten by an angry flea every 20 minutes - somewhere different on my body each time but often in the hair, arms, shoulders, tummy, legs - it can strike anywhere.

I've resorted to antihistamine tablets 2 or 3 times a week which seems to help a little.

I swing from hopeless/pointless, to pure anxiety, to rage, all internally of course.

This was me in the majority of 2025 (I’m 45 too) to the point that I decided I want a divorce in the summer as my DH was making me sooooo angry every fucking day. I was so despondent with my job I almost handed my notice in.

My teen DD sat me down and told me I’m not being normal. Yes, DH can be annoying but my anger if off the charts.

I went to my GP, got the patches and pills and this is my 2nd month on them. Rage, completely gone, hopelessness gone, anxiety mostly gone. I have had no negative side effects thus far.

I can't remember exactly what she said, but it was something like my hormones are still fluctuating too much for them to figure out what to prescribe. Though from these threads it seems to be trial and error anyway. Most of the time I feel I can manage so I'm not too fussed, but I guess I won't realise the benefit until I see it, if you see what I mean.

Thank you, I needed this today, I started the patches and pills on Friday night and my mood was an absolute wreck yesterday, I went from planning to leave everyone, quit my job and just start again to bursting into tears whilst asking DP if he wanted potatoes (fuck knows why?!) then later bursting into tears because I thought DP was going to leave me. And I itch so much I checked the cat and house for fleas.

Today after a much better sleep and an antihistamine I feel a bit better, and I'm trying to not make any big decisions and just wait for it all to kick in. So I really needed to hear that you feel much better a few weeks in, because that coupled with DP coming home with a surprise Starbucks for me is all restoring my faith. Although we are putting the Christmas lights up this afternoon so I will probably cry then too.

No, that's not right at all. The NICE guidelines say that you should diagnose perimenopause based on symptoms if you're over 45, even if periods are regular. If starting HRT (and I highly recommend it), they would start you on a low dose and increase as needed, bearing in mind it can take up to 12 weeks for each change in dose to take effect

I am 47, been in peri since late 30's. Started with increasing shorter and irregular bleeding, nausea then a few years later hot flushes and a raging libido! Then aches pains and moodiness. Just started hrt which has vanquished my hot flushes and made my periods more regular.

I now have a mismatched sex drive with my DH. My libido is very high. The vaginal estrogen is doing it! Anyone else?

Yes, I feel like this is the symptom that has the biggest negative impact on my life. If I could fix this, a lot of the other things would be more manageable. I’m hoping upping my patches will help.

My libido has been sky high for about 18 months, maybe a bit less so now. I'm not on vaginal estrogen, so it's not that in my case.

Same here it’s really affecting many aspects of my life, sorry you are dealing with it too.

Oh I do hope your body responds to it as well as mine has. I definitely felt better after a couple of weeks and it is continuing to improve.

I can totally relate to feeling like you are losing control of all your emotions. I do wonder how many divorces or break-up are as a result of menopause or perimenopause. Three months ago I was looking at flats for my DH to rent as I thought how awful I was feeling was because I obviously had a very unhappy marriage. That seems bonkers to me now. I feel much more even and back to my old self emotionally now.

The only symptoms that remain are difficulty sleeping, lack of energy and a touch of anxiety every now and again which isn’t bad after only 6 weeks. Maybe at my 12 week review my dosage will be upped a bit.

Can I join in? I'm 47...periods are still regular, but lighter than they were. Libido is fine.

Sleep is broken. I wake a few times a night and over - worry. I feel like I've gone off people but I live in a very small sheltered town so had it down as that. I work in engineering too and it's very sexist and I repeat myself lots of times to get anyone to progress tasks, so I had that down as the cause of my rage!! As well as PMT.

I have noticed that as soon as I am away from home and work, I feel fantastic, like I'm 30.

The doctors want to speak to me on Wed about HRT. I'm nervous but will be grateful if it helps me to sleep.

Can I talk to you about periods? Mine have been super heavy every 22-25 days for the last couple of years. Some months 'super heavy' means actual fat clots falling out (sorry, tmi). Before I had kids it was steady flow every 28 days like clockwork so this feels weird to me, but probably doesn't count as irregular, right? No other symptoms yet, so might just be my body still adjusting after babies. Kids are 7 and 4. I'm 41 in a few weeks. This month's cycle is currently on 29 days which is way longer than my new 'normal'... Could this be the start of peri or does it not sound like enough symptoms yet? Holding on for a few more days before I face my deepest fears and buy a pregnancy test just in case 🙈

@MerlinsHairyBeard my periods have got shorter and heavier and I get clots when I never used to. Also more brown blood than I used to get.

Ditto. Heavy periods with huge clots (ugh). Shorter cycles have also just started.

Hi,

I am 49 and been on HRT for just over 3 years, I have also suffered anxiety for nearly 30 years. Been on Venlefaxine for over 20 years now on 150mg. I was put on HRT by my GP as I felt my anxiety symptoms had changed, I started on Evorel Conti 100mg patch, was on this for nearly 2 years, also on progesterone only pill have been for years so no periods in years so GP went by my symptoms. I sweat constantly but that is side effect of my Venlefaxine unfortunately, I dont think I have ever had a hot flush but there is a very fine line between a panic attack and a hot flush so maybe I have had one and thought it was a panic attack.
October 2024 I was switched to Evorel 50 patch and 50mg Utrogestan HRT, I dont need to be on the pill anymore as not sexually active ( no interest in that for years 😂 which im not bothered about but I don't want to come off the pill incase my periods come back which I dont want.
I have days where I have absolutely no energy at all and I have had a couple of occasions when I have woken up in the morning and jyst burst into tears, full on sobbing feeling very sorry for myself and having no idea why and thinking im going mad!!!
I have ringing in my ears and sometimes when im sitting down i get only what I can describe as a sudden sensation like im dropping, I get a sudden rush to my head, feel dizzy and my heart races for a couple of seconds after it I have a bit of a sore head.
I think its strange that we are only finding out more about perimenopause and menopause in the last 10 years and how debilitating it can be, how did our mothers/grandmother's deal with it??
I know alot of women sail through it and others are suicidal 💔 I suppose its alot like pregnancy, some women have no issues at all while others are ill. I wonder if there could be a connection as I had hyperrimisis in pregnancy, does that mean I could struggle with menopause 🤔 but I didnt have issues with my periods always regular as clock work even after having my daughter I had a period exactly a month after giving birth.
There is so much that could influence how perimenopause and menopause affect our bodies.

OP I also get the red/hot face. It's not spotty or bumpy, but in the evening my face often goes red and I feel like I'm burning and it can last for a couple of hours. I don't know if it's a hot flush or rosacea or an allergy! Like you, I have tried an antihistamine a couple of times and it disappears within 20 mins. 🤔 It can occasionally happen at work too, which is embarrassing.
For context, 49, been on hrt since I was 45.

@RavenTthank you for your message. Have you ever had any skin conditions as well? I’ve had eczema and dermatitis at different stages of my life. My skin really cleared up when I was pregnant funny enough and the eczema has t returned.
ive been keeping notes on when my face gets warm and kind of flushes …
as well as swimming I also try and get a run in whilst the kids are at school. After a run yesterday I had a really red face - I was going a bit hard in a heavy hoodie as it was cold 😊
it wasn’t your usual red ga e puffed out / it was like red red!!

i think it’s hormonal. But can’t rule out it isn’t rosacea.

its so frustrating but I’ve got to that point where if it flushes at work I just try to ignore it . Like I can’t hide.

Morning all, has anyone tried the menopause magnet? Someone stood me about it and she finds it helpful.

I've been getting the hot face thing lately as well! Took a pregnancy test this morning and it was negative, so looks like I might need to strap in for a rollercoaster of period weirdness for the foreseeable future 😬

Partly spurred on by this thread and partly because I spent over an hour last week searching the house for things I had randomly put down, I have just submitted a request to the GP to discuss HRT. Really hoping I'm one of the people it helps with the brain fog!