Mental health during peri menopause

[Antaes]

I suffer from peri menopause for over a year now . I was out on anti depressant and HRT patches but still sometimes I get so angry and rage small things can trigger me and that's it for me. I get really upset and angry and crying and I can't stop . Does anyone suffer from same problem?and if so how you dealing with it?

Maybe speak to the HRT nurse for a review, maybe an increase would help? It did for me.
Also make sure your vitamin D is at an optimal level (not just low end of normal) also B12/folate and ferritin. Levels can drop during peri and can have a huge effect on mood.

Thank you gorgeous the advice. Will speak to her about all this.

google ‘window of tolerance’.

it basically means how much shit you can put up with before you lose it.

when you are perimenopausal your window is much smaller (due to a drop in progesterone which is the hormone that gives you resilience).

as a result, the smallest of things can push you over the edge and out of your window of tolerance.

there are lots of things to make your window bigger and to also help to release stress.

think of your brain being like a big stress bucket. The stresses keep going in and filling it up, do you have enough holes to let the stress out?

thinkgs like singing, walking, seeing friends, chocolate, cuddling the dog, sex, phoning your mum, etc are all good ways to let some stress out of the bucket.

google ‘stress bucket activity worksheet’ for some ideas of how to see what is filling your bucket and what taps you have to let the stress out.

I’m going to second getting a HRT review and checking you’re getting enough Vitamin D! Being low on it can make you feel dreadful at the best of times!

I am peri and have just been diagnosed with very low vitamin D. I’ve felt dreadful in terms of MH and I’m typically quite an upbeat, chipper person. The vitamin D has definitely helped (the gp prescribed a super strong dose) and I take magnesium too because that helps your body absorb the vitamin d. Definitely see what your drs surgery can do. Does your gp have a menopause nurse? That’s who’s sorted everything for me. Sending supportive hugs - I’ve found the last year hideous. Xx

Thank you all for your comments it's a huge help to me ! I will seek help about if I can get the vitamin D through GP x

I think Utrogeston which is progesterone would be a helpful addition to your HRT

Are you on the combined patch, you might be better on body identical Progesterone by tablet which is know to lower anxiety and improve mood, the patch contains synthetic progestogen which can have the opposite effect. I take micronised progesterone tablets which really helped my mental health.

Yes! I now take HRT (gel and tablets) and my rage has subsided considerably. Everything I was raging about was completely justified in my opinion just my reaction not so good.
I’ve also been diagnosed with ADHD recently so I’m sure the emotional regulation difficulties impacted too. HRT has really helped. Rage and anxiety (and itchy ears) were my only perimenopause symptoms. I had to fight to get HRT over multiple appointments because I apparently didn’t have any ‘hard’ symptoms. I was 48 when I asked my female GP for it. I was offered antidepressants and beta blockers……erm, no. I’m not depressed I’m lacking hormones.
As others have said, maybe get it reviewed or try changing the way you take it?

I will talk to the nurse about all this
I need to get sorted before I go mad tbh . It is very hard . Yesterday all day I was happy and suddenly in the evening I got very upset and quiet unwell. And I discovered if I drink white wine my mood change to worse and I became so unbearable to be around. Strangely red wine I'm fine with. Does anyone experience the same or similar?

Alcohol in general but especially wine can become an issue with hormones dropping. I know part of it is histamine related, alcohol contains histamine, can cause the body to produce histamine and I think can interfere with breaking in down too, and oestrogen (which can be high during peri) is involved with the mast cells that produce histamine and progesterone (which is dropping steadily through peri) helps with breaking down of histamine in blood
Alcohol does effect mood, as do our hormones so the combination probably isn't helpful

What we women have to go through not fair. I just decided reading tour comment that I may just have maybe one glass or red wine as it does not bother me . No other alcohol from now.
Also I put so much weight on I'm oversized dumpling my BMI is sky high and says obese. And I can't loose it no matter what I do .

Ya losing our hormones causes insulin resistance amongst other things, it's a fecking disaster
Again I think swapping out your progestin part of HRT for body identical progesterone may help there in balancing the hormones in your body

Thank you again. I need to talk in deep with the nurse . Tbh I don't like to be on antidepressants I don't think I should be as I'm not depressed but hormonal which is worse I believe. So hoping to get off it .

How is your sleep? Lack of sleep makes this symptom so much worse for me. The progesterone helped loads with irritation too like others said.

I don't sleep well at all. Keep waking up every night

Yeah that’s how I can be, makes me feel almost drunk in the day if it goes on too long.

Same here. I sometimes wake up and can't go back to sleep for hours and then feel just tired and very angry and light headed . It's not even me feels like completely different person

Body identical Progesterone helps with sleep too, I found I was putting on weight and realised that my metabolism has also slowed, I was still eating at the same time but realised one day I wasn't actually hungry, it was 'lunch time' so I ate lunch, I now just eat less and when I'm actually hungry and have slowly lost the extra weight, I also can't drink any more, that keeps me awake!

I had the same problem. It was the utrogestan. Increased the oestrogen and swapped utrogestan for the coil. I am a much happier person.