Perimenopause moans #2

[Nurseali]

I am about six months on patches now and feel like a brand new woman most days. Still have the odd day where I feel bleurrgh and useless but have always had that odd day.

I am 48 and last week went into town with a 22 year old male colleague I get on with well , got drunk and danced like a twat for hours. I felt like me again which I hadn't for a long time.

I had a kind of epiphany a few weeks ago that if I keep saying No to things and hibernating which was my reaction how would I be living at 70? Why was I saying No?
Since then I can honestly say my life has improved. I won't say twatty quotes like live each day etc ..but maybe pushing yourself to go on that walk, on that night out, for that meal is what you need.

 

[Prettyhurts]

Hi, I just frantically searched for a thread on this as I feel like I’m losing my mind! 44, and oh my god the rage! I’m angry at everyone and everything and I don’t want to be. I’m actually on the verge of tears as I feel so sick of life, just stuck and it’s like Groundhog Day. I need a nap most days and I can’t sleep at night. I’m hating my life right now. Nothing feels enjoyable. I feel like I’m actually going crazy. I’m taking a lot of supplements to see if that helps. But just wanted people to talk to in the same boat. Sorry to have just appeared and ranted x

 

[Lazarus]

i made an online referral to my GP surgery last week after realising how many peri symptoms i have. this morning i got a text from the surgery (at 9am) saying they've booked me in at 11:15am
Do they just think nobody works or can make appointments on a day they didn't expect it, and at 2hrs notice? I've now had to re-jig things at work for this. i'm SO pissed off.
Anyway, hoping they give me something and hoping it helps.
ETA: i put shower gel on my toothbrush this morning and plant food into my washing machine, so any help i can get will be grabbed with two hands.

Quoting myself to say I’m now sitting in my garden with an HRT patch on my leg. Let’s hope these work! If not I’ve to go back in 2m to try something else.
was listened to
Was taken seriously
Was given options

 

[petitspois]

She is an advocate but she's also a zealot and prescribes HRT as a first resort, and often in high doses. She also will not accept criticism. Personally, I just hate how this area is so fractured and we are suffering. We still have GPs not listening, some over prescribing, some women suffering in silence and some still scared off by out of date data.

 

[Louby@21]

Anyone in peri/mid forties losing their identity a bit. Hard to explain but i’m the same clothes size, pretty active and eat well. But i just feel… BLAH nothing seems to hang or look right clothes wise, I feel frumpy even in clothes i’ve loved for ages.

i just feel like i’ve no confidence in anything anymore. Feel like people will be judging everything i do or say etc. I know some of that can be related to anxiety but the last couple of months it’s just different….

I should add i’m not a hugely self confident person anyway but it’s all on a whole different weird level.

 

[Lazarus]

Just thought I’d share this here. I feel like I’m starting to notice small changes since starting taking HRT through the patches less than two weeks ago.
I received a text from Mr Laz today, out of the blue to say he thinks my patches are starting to work, he said I seem more lively and more like my old self. Nice to hear.

 

[thegrumpos]

Just seen this thread, haven’t posted before but here is my life since turning 43

Bloating. Always bloating. Can’t eat anything without bloating.
Frizzy dry hair, not damaged but DRY AF no matter how much oil or masks or nice stuff I put on it.
Anxiety - have spent 43 years literally not worried about future events, never understood anxiety - now I am full of anxiety
Pelvic floor totally unreliable - I’ll say no more
Lack of libido and ummm, lack of moisture?
can’t dress myself, feel I look ridiculous in everything and just want to be invisible. Hate anyone looking at me, especially men

up until 43 I was killing it, I was glowing at 40, radiant!

woke up 43 and my body started to fall apart.

periods haven’t changed and I’m still ovulating so the factory is still open but there’s some serious restructuring going on.

Despite all of this I’m really happy with my life generally. This is very specific to my body and mind. It’s like I’m becoming someone else.
Trying to be kind to myself

bollocks isn’t it, 30 years of periods and now this
---

I read this comment and the responses a couple of weeks ago and thought ‘oh another random peri symptom but not one I’ve had yet’. Didn’t think anymore about it.

Then a few days ago I noticed a small patch of eczema on my ear…

What a strange symptom! I can understand eczema due to hormonal changes but why specifically in the inner ear…

omg I have a random patch of eczema, never ever had it before.
I’ve been using caster oil which has really helped.

 

[Falkor]

Spoke to lovely female locum GP this morning, who tutted loudly at the previous one refusing to prescribe HRT without bloods, looked at the results, said hormone levels actually still within normal ranges, but with all my symptoms she was going to prescribe anyway and I can collect it on Wednesday. The relief is immense!

 

[petitspois]

They have menopause knickers in primark

what on earth do they do? have jokes written in the gusset to cheer us up?

 

[Cheezychips]

After the brilliant advice I got on this thread a couple of months ago I got started on HRT patches and all I can say is I have my life back. I can sleep, I don't feel the awful rushes of anxiety and hot flushes, I'm so glad my GP listened after two years of begging because it was becoming unbearable. I forgot to change the patch a few days ago and that night couldn't sleep, the sweat was pouring out of me and I was so worried the HRT had stopped working. It was the next day I realised, changed it, and went back to normal by that evening.


It's bonkers that so many women are refused this treatment before the age of 45 due to being "too young", my GP said (when he done the check up after four weeks to see how I was getting on) that I definitely was in early menopause as I told him all the (literally life destroying) symptoms were completely gone, vanished. And forgetting to change the patch and the symptoms coming back has proved it. It makes me so angry to know there's many, many women suffering that get completely brushed off, as I did.

 

[Not Now Bernard]

It’s hard to know if it’s peri menopause or just that’s it’s a crap stage in life. I just feel that my elderly mum/work/teenagers ask a lot from me and I don’t get a whole lot back. Society treats women in our age groups like robots - we don’t have needs or feelings of our own - we are just expected to give, give, give….

 

[Ifyoucantbeatemjoinem]

Perimenopause and Christmas stress is SUCH a festive vibe, isn't it ladies

 

[Suzesnooze]

Well I didn’t like the Nurse I saw about my raised cholesterol! I said is it because of peri menopause she said there is no link which is odd as two of my friends were told at their GP practice that it was due to menopause!

I mentioned to her I’m late going through menopause and I’m still in peri. She said why do you say that? You’ll be in menopause. I said no I’m still having periods. She said you can still have them and be in menopause I said you have to go a whole year without a period. She said no you don’t. FFS I also saw a physio a few weeks ago and mentioned peri and he said HRT can cause breast cancer

I am sick of ignorant health professionals that should educate themselves about peri/menopause.

 

[zetta buttons]

I think I know what you mean. I currently overthink every interaction (and ones on here) in case people think I’m a twat. I hate how I look, which is impacting pretty much everything else. I don’t trust my body or me to do the things I once thought I could. It feels like everything is slowly crumbling but I see Davina all fit and strong and looking fab and wonder where on earth I’m going wrong.

(I lift weights or at least try to so it’s not that )

 

[GeminiMoon]

Trying to enjoy myself on my solo break at Center Parcs but I have severe imposter syndrome being here on my own. Surrounded by families and groups of friends. I must ignore

You have an equal right to be there and enjoy yourself as much as anyone else
I bet some of the families and friendship groups wish they were there on their own!

 

[Nurseali]

My anxiety started with my driving. I have never been an anxious driver but would suddenly get intrusive thoughts I had forgotten how to drive or I was lost or my lights weren't working. I started hating driving.
Then it was work. I also work in a hospital ( hence the total shit name I wish tattle would let us change)
I suddenly started panicking whilst injecting someone that I had drawn up the wrong drug, felt anxious I couldn't remember what basic meds were for. We often get moved to other wards for staffing reasons and I completely flipped one day and just went home instead of the other ward.
Everyone thought I had lost the plot as did I.
I started HRT and also exercise regularly , slowly I feel more me again.

Sorry for the bloody essay

 

[petitspois]

One thing that really gets me in the menopause space are women who are grumbling about being a size 10 instead of an 8 and not being such a sexual draw to men as they were when they were younger then talking about how empowering it is to not constantly worry about what people think of you and whether you're enough. I was never a size 8, don't care what people think and am quite glad male attention has faded but I still have rally annoying symptoms.

 

[Falkor]

THANK YOU to those of you who've mentioned sleep as a symptom over the past couple of days. It's made me realise that I haven't had more than a couple of full nights of sleep in the past 3 or 4 months and that, combined with a new symptom of itchy skin, plus the existing ones of night sweats, hot flushes, atrocious short-term memory, fat redistribution, crying at adverts and a cycle that's now anything from 3 to 6 weeks, meant I called the surgery at lunchtime today and have an appointment tomorrow to discuss starting HRT. I'm 49 next month, so hopefully won't be too much of a battle.

 

[veronica71]

Totally recognise all these feelings of just feeling old ...in my head I'm still 18 and then I look in the mirror or my knees crack when I move and its just so depressing at times.

When i had my first HRT review the doc said she had a lady still on HRT at 90 something because it made her feel fab and she didn't want to come off it!!!

I do have bad news though - I have discovered that exercise does in fact make you feel better I've been doing a bit each day for three weeks and i'm sleeping better, coping better with stress and have more energy - ffs why can't donuts do that to you!!

At our age we need to be doing strength training and I've nearly done this four week beginners programme on youtube. I think its aimed at seniors but its great for beginners and for anyone who needs to go easy to start with. oh and if you want dumbells asda had some very reasonably priced one on their website - three weeks in and i can feel a muscle in my arm!

 

[this_n_that]

blood tests are completely unreliable in perimenopause because hormones fluctuate day to day. You shouldn’t even need a blood test, I did not have one but got HRT based on age and my response to the HRT questionnaire. Please ask for another doctor you deserve better.