Please help!

[Wolverhamptonwanderer]

I know I shouldn’t be asking a forum for advice, but I just to wanted some reassurance.

I’m 49 and do up until a year ago my periods were regular as clockwork. Then one day I got a period 2 weeks after the last one. My periods continued to be semi regular for the last year, with the odd cycle being a bit longer or shorter. However, I now haven’t had a period of en 3 months.

The first time my periods continued went wacky, it literally to the day coincided with me getting weird aching wrists and ankles and jaw (which the dr said was Tmj).

Ive spent the last year having these plus other weird symptoms that come and go. I went to the dr to see if I can get HRT but I have to get blood tests first. I know I need to get these done but I’m so scared it’s going to come back with something serious. A few years ago I had a cancer scare and so was put on 2WW after some routine blood tests and I think I’ve been traumatised from that experience and think the same will happen again.

Meanwhile I’m sat here with weird aching jaw symptoms and shoulder pain. I’m hoping it’s all menopause related. It literally all started the first time my periods continued went changed but I’m also scared.

All your symptoms are classic menopause symptoms really.

What blood tests do you think sent you on the 2ww pathway? I imagine that was based on symptoms rather than blood test results tbh because other than a CA125, or a wildly abnormal FBC that could indicate leukaemia, there really isn’t anything else on routine blood tests that would show up cancer. They wont order a AFP or a CA19-9 for a simple menopause screen, and the rest of the cancer monitoring bloods are just that, to monitor patients already undergoing treatment, not to diagnose. There is no one ‘cancer’ blood test, so try not to worry about a routine menopause blood test.

Anxiety is a huge peri menopause symptom btw. Hopefully your symptoms will improve on HRT, although my shoulder and jaw issue has never fully gone away.

Do ask them to check thyroid, b12/folate & ferritin, and then check your actual levels against the labs reference ranges. You can still feel awful in the low end of normal range, so could benefit from boosting levels, even if they are ‘normal’.

Vitamin D deficiency can also cause bone pain, but many areas no longer test for this as so many people are deficient. The advice is just to take vitamin D in winter, but the bone pain even a slightly low Vitamin D can cause is horrendous. 50 is ‘normal’ but it needs to be above 75 for bone protection.

Try not to worry, it’s better to get the test over with and get the results so that you can start HRT and improve. I hope you feel better soon

At 49 the diagnosis of perimenopause can be made clinically based on symptoms, you do not need a blood test.

You can show the GP the relevant section of the NICE guidelines if they try to insist on a blood test or use blood results to deny you HRT, or just ask for the GP at the practice who has most experience in women's health.

Secondly you are crediting the blood tests offered by the NHS with much more sophistication than they possess - you would be getting a FSH not the Galleri panel.

I have tmj. Is it first thing in the morning ?

Thanks you so much for replying. It was Ca-125 and some abdominal pain. I also had high Amylase which they could never account for. I ended up having so many tests and it was a really awful time.

I think they want to do a full blood panel(?) becuase I haven’t had any for a few years. I’m not even sure if they’ll be doing any hormone tests.

It's entirely up to you whether or not you have blood tests, and if so which ones.

"Because you haven't had bloods done for a while" isn't in itself a legitimate indication for ordering any test as that's most people in the UK.

It sounds to me like you got a GP who is perhaps not well versed in prescribing HRT and is stalling for time by ordering a generic set of bloods.

Prescribing HRT to a symptomatic woman experiencing menopause at the appropriate age should not be contingent on blood tests.

NICE menopause guidance states blood tests are not required for women over 45.

You can easily check this yourself by putting the words into a search engine, print it off and show your GP.

It's a waste of NHS money to do blood tests on women approaching 50 with menopausal symptoms. The tests are unreliable as your hormones change daily.