Does this sound like peri menopause? What can I do to help?

[AwkwardAsAllGetout]

I’ve only just turned 37 and tbh fee like my body is just giving up. I had a baby 18 months ago and had huge mobility problems throughout pregnancy and intermittently still have problems with loose hips and back pain. I breastfed for a year, and my periods returned like clockwork 2 weeks after stopping. I’d been feeling like I was about to get my period for months by that stage, but I think my dd fed so often that it was being suppressed. It was immediately regular, every 28 days but very very heavy for the first 2 days, with brown spotting for the week leading up to it. Last month I came on 2 days early, and this month I’ve just come on 2 days even earlier, so have gone from a cycle of 28 days to one of 26 and now 24. The last 2 months I’ve had constant nights of being terribly hot, which is unheard of for me as I’m always freezing. It all just feels too young but I’m aware that it’s probably not and it’s something I’m going to have to deal with. I’m struggling with terrible mood swings, I had bad PND and had finally got to a place where I felt stable and happy. I’m reluctant to go on the pill as it negatively affects my mood and dh has had the snip. Is there anything I can do to help myself? Supplements maybe? My GP is being actively shitty with giving people any kind of appointment, even if you’re happy to have a phone consult so I’m reluctant to bother them. I feel broken by it all. Very dramatic I know but the last few years have just been so difficult and I feel my body is just letting me down

You need to insist that a gp sees you. Ask if you can get an appointment with another gp
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Sounds like it needs investigation

It does sound like you need to investigate. It could be that but doesn't have to be perimenopause - for example thyroid problems can cause mood changes, tiredness and so on, and it's something that can be triggered by pregnancy. I am not saying that's what it is (I am not a medical professional at all!) but just saying that there may be other, often fixable things, that might be the cause. Also perhaps some vitamin deficiencies? Hang in there!

I thought( in fact i was convinced) I was going through peri menopause,but when my GP ran tests they found I had the auto immune disease systemic Sclerosis. Please see your GP, you need blood tests at the very least. Good luck.

Defo get bloods done. With all those periods per year you could be iron deficient for one thing.

Take a vitamin d3 supplement if you’re in the U.K.

I go for acupuncture. £50 per session. Helps female reproductive issues immensely. With no pills and a good track record.

If only it were free on the nhs! But it will hopefully be in years to come as I hear it’s going in the NICE guidelines. Don’t know what conditions for.

Well apparently I can’t get bloods done. I spoke to the receptionist this morning who told me that it was a national thing, a ‘problem with the labs’ and NOONE is able to have bloods taken. Surely that can’t be right? I have a phone consult in two weeks with the nurse practitioner so I’ll try and make a note of everything that happens in that time. I’ve had to sit by an open window this morning to cool down which is so unlike me I don’t think I’ve ever done it. Followed now by chills. I started taking black cohosh yesterday so we’ll see if that helps with the mood swings. I felt pretty hopeless yesterday

It might be true as there is some problem with Roche or something. Mine wouldn’t do them either but had a different excuse but perhaps that’s the truth?