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Original poster

Perimenopausal / menopausal women: what do you wish you knew before it all started?

105 replies

ChicaWowWow · 13/06/2025 15:26

I'm approaching that age bracket, and sometimes wonder if I can prepare mentally and physically for any aspects of (peri)menopause. Sounds woo-woo but I kind of want to listen to my body and do my best to respond to its new needs rather than try and ignore it or freak out and pretend it's not happening.

What do you wish you knew before it all started for you? Any tips?

OP posts:
CurlyhairedAssassin · 24/06/2025 17:49

menopausalfart · 14/06/2025 14:27

@soontobeconfirmed I don't drink either, as alcohol doesn't agree with me. I've had an awful time. Seems there's a new symptom every week. I definitely have the meno belly. I look really strange as I'm thin everywhere else.

Oh god, this! I' m also thin everywhere else, boobs are small and meno has meant that my belly sticks on more than my boobs so now I look pregnant, ehough for 2 people to ask me if I was, and for many more people to glance at it in a trying to be surreptitious but being totally obvious kind of way.....I know what they're thinking and want to say "No, there is no baby, it's just fat from menopause!"

LucyLoo1972 · 13/01/2026 06:28

BurnTheWholeThingDown · 14/06/2025 08:04

That if you have ADHD your symptoms will go haywire due to the connection between oestrogen and dopamine. I know so many women like me who were undiagnosed until our 40s because we’d managed our symptoms or been misdiagnosed with anxiety or depression, perimenopause rips the mask off and the ADHD symptoms become impossible to ignore.

I thought I had early onset dementia but it was brain fog ramped up to eleven. And all the systems I’d built to compensate without realising, just stopped working. I got sacked for making stupid mistakes at work, I couldn’t remember simple tasks or words and my anxiety became unmanageable.

I went into psychosis from anxiety

Nopenousername · 13/01/2026 06:46

.

2old4thispoo · 13/01/2026 06:56

HRT doesn't solve all issues /symptoms. Don't waste 10 years searching for a solution, just accept menopause is part of aging.

lljkk · 13/01/2026 07:39

That being informed is fine but sometimes all the scaremongering comes to nothing so don't be surprised if that's how it turns out. I haven't had any issues worth talking about.

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