View Full Version : Perimenopause?
I'm wondering whether i could be entering that lovely time of perimenopause......My periods have been changing a little for the last year or so, From a regular 28 day cycle, bang on every time to actually missing a period last november and then anything from 28 days to 40 days.
I spoke to my GP late last year with my missed period, the fact im feeling a little ahem drier down there and been having vulva issues and she said she would do a blood test, this came back fine ( fsh levels) and she said i was far to young to be perimenopausal....At that point i was 42 yrs old, im 43 now.
This months period is the strangest yet.....Been lightly spotting on and off from Ovulation ( i seem to have ovulation pain every other month or so and have done for years ) and im now day 38, very lightly spotting ( only when i wipe) so no need for a pad and no sign of a proper flow although i do have period pain.
Has the spotting been a peri symptom for anyone else? I feel like i hit 40 and everything seems to be changing :blush:
It could well be perimenopause, the changes sound very similar to what I had in my early to mid forties (55 now). Fortunately I had a mirena coil so I never had the spotting (well a couple of times in my late forties). But definitely started with the dryness/tenderness in my nether regions. I went to the doctor in my mid 40's and had a FSH test which came back normal, but I was told that the levels are so up and down in perimenopause that it's not an accurate gauge of whether you're in it or not. I was however given a topical HRT pessary which really helped.
I would see if there is a GP in your practice who specialises in women's issues or a well woman clinic. I disagree with what you were told, with the pattern of your periods and the other symptoms it does sound peri, 42 is not too young, there is no hard and fast rules on age.
Thanks Catkins
My GP surgery are not the best to be honest, i always feel so brushed off when i speak to them and we only have two GP's at our surgery, both females and both pretty dismissive.
I have been spotting for over two weeks now, only when wiping and from mid cycle. I keep willing my period to start properly because i feel so heavy and sluggish, never thought i would be praying for it to kick in!
I will see how my next cycle goes i think and then make another appointment, i did read that hormone blood tests are not very reliable in the peri stage so think i need to bring that up and see if i can get something to sort this spotting out if it doesnt settle.
I spoke to my GP late last year with my missed period, the fact im feeling a little ahem drier down there and been having vulva issues and she said she would do a blood test, this came back fine ( fsh levels) and she said i was far to young to be perimenopausal....At that point i was 42 yrs old, im 43 now.
Well, she was obviously off sick the day they did the menopause module at medical college because that's not the case at all..
I was post-meno at 42, as was my mother. Both natural (albeit early) menopauses.
The average age for perimenopause is between 42 and 47 years of age. (So, you're definitely in the fun zone)
Has the spotting been a peri symptom for anyone else? I feel like i hit 40 and everything seems to be changing :blush:
I had my third child at 39. I had one really heavy period and that was that. No more periods! I didn't so much enter into ovarian failure but was catapulted into it :lac:(But my mother did the spotting thing)
Re dry fadge: I developed the delightful menopausal condition known as vulva and vaginal atrophy. Nobody told be about this. (They really should teach girls about this crap)
You are on a journey, lovely. And for some women it's like those books where menopausal women are strolling through lavender fields with looks of contentment on their faces. But for many of us, it's a shitstorm of biblical proportions. It affects every aspect of our existence and to top it all, we can have a fadge so dry that a brisk walk to the shops could set fire to our M&S full briefs (not really, but it will feel that way)
I stand there in Waterstones laughing manically at those positive menopause books with titles that contain the word, Goddess. For the love of all that is holy, can someone please write a book on the menopause that tells it as it is? Front cover should be a very sweaty (and angry) looking woman wearing odd shoes and no cardi (in December). Loads of swears, not to mention tips on how to stay sane and not murder somebody! We need full chapters on how to deal with husbands who try to grope our bottoms when we're mid-hot flush, trying to tackle fishfingers under the grill. And how best to cope with menopause coinciding with our children's adolescence. (This wasn't the case with me and my kids, but it was with me and my mum - and she chucked my Clash album out the window during one of her menopausal brain melts) :lac:
We need to hear stories from other Menowarriors who've came through this crap, marbles intacto (ish) :scared15:
Anyway, have I sold the menopause to you? :yesyes:
Has the spotting been a peri symptom for anyone else?
Errrr yeah, definitely, and everything else you've mentioned sounds peri too. Blood tests during peri are notoriously inaccurate, as hormones fluctuate from hour to hour and many GPs don't do them and work from symptoms only. Your changing cycle length and now the spotting thing sounds just like I was for many years, including a few months where I spotted for 5-6 weeks !
:roflmao:Nora, that was a classic Nora post, and DAMN YOU - write that book, this time about Meno. You hit every point that I felt/feel myself.
Oh Ladies you have really made me laugh and its much needed!!
I tried to explain to my GP that both my nan and my mum were done and dusted by the time they were 50 odd, Unfortunately now both passed over so i can't go and pick there brains about it.
I have done so much reading today and the amount of ladies turned away from the Doctors 'because they are to young' is eye watering. Infact im now putting everything together....Im under the gynae at the moment for some sort of skin complaint ' down below' dryness, sore, desert like....He said after my vulvoscopy yesterday not atrophy but maybe dermatitis or eczema and i read earlier that the change in hormones can cause eczema!
I can tell you now though, i will not be one of those women skipping through lavender fields all happy clappy as i head towards my transition, im ready to pull my hair out already with a vag that feels like the Sahara, no idea where i am in my cycles, spotting now for nearing three weeks with no sign of a let up and generally feeling washed out and at times forgetting what my name is!
Everything does seem to add up but trying to convince my GP is a whole new ball game!
I really appreciate you all taking the time out to reply to me, it makes me rationalise things and realise that this is the path ahead for the next few years, atleast! :whistles:
Aye - it stops becoming 'cycles' and becomes random events I found that you don't know they are coming, or think they are coming and they dont. Of course everyone runs a different course on it, there are I believe some mythical women out there who just stop their periods and do skip through fields, but I've really not met any of those people yet LOL I started a period diary at the start of perimeno (which lasted 9 years for me) and in it I logged all sorts of facts and figures, lengths and heavinesses and symptoms.......At the start it was quite simple and noted shorter cycles and heavier (a couple of years) and then as I got nearer and nearer to meno there was no structure to fit into my nicely ruled tables as any manner of everything seemed to happen :roflmao:. There was no pattern, literally every imaginable type of bleeding occurred, no idea when one 'period' started and another began, sometimes there was 5 weeks gap, sometimes 5 days.....most disconcerting. Everything you have been told about 'cycles' throw it out the window. I don't have eczema 'there' but I have developed it on my face in patches since these changes.
Given that perimenopause can last a decade for some women, and the average age for periods to stop being 50 yo (sorry Nora a different stat to you!) then of COURSE it could be the start of the change ! Silly GP.
:roflmao:Nora, that was a classic Nora post, and DAMN YOU - write that book, this time about Meno. You hit every point that I felt/feel myself.
Maybe this can be my legacy to the world? :unsure:
I could write a tells-it-as-it-is book on the menopause which can be handed out to teenage girls at school, odd-shoe-wearing women in doctor's surgeries, and bewildered husbands who've locked themselves in the shed. Game changer! :yesyes:
Gosh, no don't hand it out to teenaged girls, that would scare them hugely :scared15:
Gosh, no don't hand it out to teenaged girls, that would scare them hugely :scared15:
But but but, it would also mean that they actually appreciate all that collagen, oestrogen, and plump dewy skin. (sobs) :weep:
:roflmao:...and the thick glossy hair, deep relaxing sleep, bowels bladder and digestion that just 'does its thing' without being planned for.....(and the rest)
You see, I don't think they would appreciate it, I think you only do once its gone.
Well I’m peri menopausal found out as I was getting what I call complete misery just one day sitting up and the world was ending , now I have a myriad of MH issues and I’m autistic but this misery felt so different and odd, sobbing (I don’t cry really apparently some autistic people find it hard even though we are empathy sponges hooray eurghhhh) also I was getting hot weird flashes, I couldn’t tell with my period as I’m on a pill cos of my weight and having PCOS that stops my period. I kept having all these symptoms and my sister who is 50 I’m 48 she was too, and she has marina thing. Took me forever to find out via blood test which I had to have so they concluded along with symptoms and test results I was peri menopausal hooray.
Nora needs to write many many books. On this and on MH on panic attacks we need her books
:roflmao:...and the thick glossy hair, deep relaxing sleep, bowels bladder and digestion that just 'does its thing' without being planned for.....(and the rest)
You see, I don't think they would appreciate it, I think you only do once its gone.
I never had the deep relaxing sleep lol. (I always had nightmares) :scared15:
Fight or flight has been kicking my @se since 1975 (probably from birth actually but my memories only go so far back lol) but I'm with you on the thick glossy hair. :yesyes:
I think you're right actually, Carys. Some stuff can't be taught, it has to be experienced.
I don't have daughters, but I do have two granddaughters and I hope they have an easier transition into puberty and into menopause than I've had. :weep:
Well I’m peri menopausal found out as I was getting what I call complete misery just one day sitting up and the world was ending , now I have a myriad of MH issues and I’m autistic but this misery felt so different and odd, sobbing
My mum was also autistic (I'm certain as anyone can be on this) and I remember her going through the menopause. It coincided with puberty for me, so things got a bit funky. (To say the least)
Two autistics going through severe hormonal changes? What can possibly go wrong! :roflmao:
I remember her crying a lot (and chucking records out of windows) and my dad spent a lot of time in the garage lol
I was getting hot weird flashes.
Awful things.
I've always had the thing with anxiety where my face turns crimson, but these meno flashes came from my abdomen upwards, and the sweat would soak the sheets! :ohmy:
Nora needs to write many many books. On this and on MH on panic attacks we need her books
They do say that everybody has at least one book in them. :yesyes:
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