Women of a certain age...

[ChickAletta]

Hi ladies,

What a lovely group .. I hope it’s ok for me to post and spill my worries?!

I’m only 37 but my mother had finished her menopause by 45 so un wondering if what I am experiencing could be the start of peri? I would be so grateful for some advice or maybe some reassurance. I have self-diagnosed health anxiety which makes me question every last little thing.

So I have always suffered from migraine with aura, since I was 11. There is a family link there. I would get them occasionally and was always able to cope with ibuprofen and quiet (not easy now when i have 4 children!). Since the beginning of the year, my cycles seemed to have shortened slightly (between my pregnancies, they would also change slightly - from clockwork days to 33 days). I can now have them 30-33 days apart and I’m sure they are lighter than they used to be. My migraine with aura have become more frequent - at least once a month. The main thing that’s worrying me though is that I also seem to have developed ‘standard’ migraines that always begin about 2 days before my period and will go on for 10 or 11 days!! I have head pain, brain fog, fatigue during these days and I’m just finding that I’m losing weeks of my life at the moment. They haven’t happened every single month since they began - I had one in Feb, March - in the months since then the headaches were mild but this month I’m in the middle of an awful one and I feel completely wiped out. I’m on day 9 and praying I feel better soon. I feel sorry my children who I just don’t have the energy for in the way that I should.

Do you think this sounds hormonal?

Thank you xx

[JHR]

Another great thread....lots of help for me once again...so glad I started posting here its been such a huge help

[Carnation]

Hi ChickAletta

Yes, of course you can have an early menopause, I did. It quickly followed an operation halting my periods. Then lucky me got the full blown menopausal symptoms again later in life. Aura migraines is another thing I get now.
I'm not so sure it is linked to a monthly cycle because I haven't had a period in yonks. But there is a connection with blood flow if you look it up. So I'm not so sure it's connected but could possibly be a trigger.
There's not much help from GPS on menopause or aura migraines apart from giving you medication.
If you look online there are possible triggers such as stress, fatigue, bright light, noise, dehydration, some foods like cheese or chocolate but mostly people don't know the cause. I purposely eat cheese during my last aura migraine and afterwards too and it's definitely not that with me.
Someone suggested it keeping a diary when it happens to find out the cause but there's also the factor of it possibly being hereditary as my mum got them and so does my cousin.
Hope some of this helps x

[Carnation]

JHR, it's much better than Googling

[alpacagirl]

Hi, hope everyone has been doing well . ChickAletta I hope you migraines have settled down. I don't have any experience with full on migraines ( was never even prone to headaches when I was younger). During perimenopause I started with frequent headaches. Yours do sound hormonal seeing as they pop up around the same time of your cycle. My health anxiety kicked in around perimenopause too, there's just so much change that happens in your body at that time and all they ever tell you about is hot flushes ( which I don't even have haha). No wonder we all end up thinking we are dying of some horrible disease. I've still been getting daily pelvic pain. Doctor finally sent me for a pelvic ultrasound and aside from my bladder not emptying 100% everything else was fine. I thought for sure I'd at least have some fibroids or thickened uterine wall or something to explain my heavy periods. So still none the wiser as to what is causing the pain. Seeing a urologist in January but I don't think that's where the pain is from plus my bladder symptoms have settled down. My hips etc ache all the time and pain is aggravated when I do a lot of walking or housework so I guess probably just some ligament or muscle/joint pain. Trying to lose some weight to see if it helps. I feel like an old granny some days . Keep telling hubby 50 is the new 70 He's struggling around with all his pain too. At least we understand what each other is going through LOL.

[Pkstracy]

ugh I am so over having a period, I am going to be 52 soon you would think I would be stopping by now, once I made it to ten months without a period and i was like yay two more months and it will be a year, nope she decided to show up, this was two years ago. Now I am on day two of my current period and it's like what I had when I was teen, cramping and moderate bleeding, and having to wear a pad from front to back, (two of them). I am hoping this one will be my last one, I had one in end of June -July which lasted 10 days. I skipped all of August and was thinking I would skip this month as I have been going anywhere from four -eight months without a bleed...I cannot wait until this is over, I feel like sitting down and having a good cry.

[Pkstracy]

Been crying today, my brain and anxiety are in a tizzy thinking my period won't stop I am on day five and not bleeding heavy but still bleeding, I am down to only wearing one pad and changing every 8 hours or so. But I just keep wiping blood. I know bleeds can go on for seven days sometimes 8 or 9 but I am so over this. I just don't feel like myself right now. My insomnia is still in full swing to where I want to sleep all day and up all night. Blue I am right up there with you in the panic mode over my periods now. How are you doing today?

[Carnation]

PK, your emotions can affect your period cycle, so can dieting. You've been through so much and you have to take this into account.
The best thing you can do is find ways to relax so your body can feel calm.
Nature is unpredictable sometimes, it's nothing to worry about x

[BlueIris]

Pkstracy, please don't worry? I know it's hard. I tend to wipe blood until day 8 these days, although it's only heavy until the end of day 4 for the most part. It's scary, it's weird, but we're strong and we can get through this.

[Pkstracy]

Carn, thank you, yes I know I do need to relax The funny thing is I thought it was going to stop as it was looking like how it does at the end, brownish, then just ten mins ago light blood, ugh.

Blue thank you that makes me feel more at ease as I posted to Carn, I thought I was done, then nope had to put a pad back on.