Tips for shaking off the ‘chased by a tiger’ feeling at 3am

[WhatNextImScared]

I’m 44 in a couple of weeks and definitely in peri but symptoms still wax and wane. My luteal phase seems to be worst.

I am just getting over a migraine and a uti so feeling awful generally but once again awake at 3am feeling shaky and anxious as if something scary has happened. Sometimes I will have intense dreams but this feeling happens even if there’s no dream, or a good dream. It feels very hormonal. Reminds ne of when I took a pill that didn’t suit me once.

I get this regularly now. Once I’m awake at 3am I can struggle to get back to sleep (and end up on here - not good due to sleep hygiene!)

Does anyone further down this journey have tips about how to shake off that feeling that you’ve just been chased down a hill by a sabre toothed tiger and calming your whole system down at 3am? I tend to just get up, go to the loo and make a herbal tea and drink water, then try to resettle but sometimes it takes hours.

We were lucky that a specialist NHS menopause clinic was being held in the Liverpool Women's. The guidance was severe symptoms before 45, not periods stopping. The NICE guidelines state perimenopause before 45, with symptoms.

Thankyou to the person who suggested building a cabin in the woods. I got my front porch/veranda on last night and was out like a light. I'm almost looking forward to waking up tonight so that I can start to furnish it.

NICE doesn't prohibit HRT before 45, for any reason. They just advise drs to do a blood test to check there are no other reasons that may have the same symptoms as peri.

HRT is advised for total loss of periods (menopause) before 45, even without symptoms.

Menopause before 45 is classed as early menopause. HRT is advised up to age 51, at least.

Menopause before 40 is premature menopause (also called premature ovarian insufficiency) and the same applies- HRT to at least 51 to prevent bone loss, heart disease and dementia. Some women have POI in their 20s or 30s.

I have been living with this since about 2018. Apparently it’s due to a cortisol spike that naturally would occur to wake us, and then if we are already stressed then already have a level of cortisol that means the spike goes over the threshold and wakes us up, and like you say, you feel like you are being chased by a tiger. I have learnt coping mechanisms as I have just accepted that my lifestyle will not reduce by base levels of cortisol until I retire. For me, it is a podcast that allows me to turn off the racing thoughts. I wake up and stress about anything so just to turn my brain to something else is calming and I fall back to sleep. I have to be very careful not to wake properly though. Walking round at night and putting on washing etc will lead to me waking properly and not being able to get back to sleep for hours. This was I can now be back asleep in minutes. Everyone is different and I see many pps stating what worked for them but this is what worked for me. Here is a screenshot of what AI said about the cortisol spikes

I wouldn't remove the mirena as you will need progesterone and mirena can give you that, try Oestrogen patches/gel alongside the mirena and see if that helps. If not utrogestan can help with sleep as an alternative to the mirena (you may be able to use both so you still have contraception).

Magnesium is well worth a try too.

Don't put off going to your GP or expect them to be difficult. Some are, my best friend experienced resistance but my GP was incredibly positive and needed no persuading, I wish I had gone sooner and most of my friends have said the same.

Sorry to say HRT was the only thing that helped me. I started at 42 luckily my GP were really knowledgeable and I didn’t have to fight for it the did a blood test it came back normal but they were happy to prescribe on my symptoms. It’s not been perfect obviously the hormones are still fluctuating so I get some symptoms but so much better. I have hormonal migraines so found the patch the best for estrogen and now at 48 I’ve just changed to utrogestan one at night daily. I wouldn’t suffer go and see the doctor.

I take magnesium before bed to calm the noise. If I do wake at 3am, I’ll put on an audiobook quietly, on a timer, so I have something to listen to and stop my mind racing. Peri is hard!