Is it right that you're only in perimenopause if your periods are irregular. Mine have become a touch lighter but my PMS is absolutely awful and I have terrible anxiety most days and panic so much I can't sleep with taking a sleeping pill. I'm so tearful as well and seem not to be able to cope with the slightest stress. It's all so frightening. I'm in the UK and my Dr. has tested my hormones two or three times but just says they are within normal range but I know something is going on. I suffer headaches, a couple of migraines which I've never had before, bloating and breast pain and days of low mood.

Can any of you reassure me that I'm not going mad.

You're not going mad, Wuzzie.

You sound hormonal to me! Keep in mind that "hormone tests" are not to be completely trusted, as our hormones shift all the time. If you are having these symptoms, you are hormonal! Do some more reading on this site, and you'll find many other women experiencing the same things.

(((HUGS)))

JJ

Wuzzie, Welcome to Power Surge! You are most assuredly NOT going mad...you're just on the same roller coaster with the rest of us. How long have you been feeling this way, Wuzzie? And how old are you now? I hope you'll log on often and read through all of the older posts on the board...it truly is comforting to find out that you're not alone in this journey. Take care, IrishLass

I think we all tend to forget that girls, nowadays start their periods at a much younger age. I'm almost 52 and started mine when I was 15. Today, it seems common for girls as young as 9 or 10 to start. When you look at it that way - does anyone really think someone who started their period at say...10, is only going to reach menopause at the 'normal' age 50? (good grief!) Like I said, we are a new genreation of women and we're re-writing the book on menopause, just as the generations coming behind us, will re-write it as well. Our world is changing, our doctors are not. They still rely on what they learned in medical school which is completely out of touch...

Isn't that sad?

Thank you for your replies - I think this site is great and is keeping me sane. Answering your question Joliejacq I am 47 years old and I think my symptoms probably go back about 3 years, the worst of them anyway. But they are really bad right now. I think that saliva testing is quite normal in the US but it doesn't seem to be readily available in the UK...??

Wuzzie,

At 47, you are right at the age to be in the thick of peri!

My symptoms began mildly at age 39, but it was in my late 40's that everything really took off. No fun!

I'm now 54 and one year post-menopausal, and everything has calmed down except the tendency toward anxiety/depression. (I don't even have hot flashes anymore!) Now if only we could get those final symptoms DONE, I'd be ready to fly!!!

JJ

Wuzzie,
just tuned in and feel a connection as I am a Brit living in the US. 40 years old and hormones normal but feel like i am losing the plot most days. What really helps me is adose of magnesium when i feel the flutters. When in the UK, I stock up on the brand by Wassen, forget the name of the product exactly but they are in Boots.Works for me and for the breast pain, take 2 evening primrose oil. dont let the GPs tell you that you need happy pills because it is really your hormones. Only take medication as a last resort,
Hugs

Nutty, do you take primrose oil for anxiety/depression and does it help?

What a great place this is - thank you all. I take Starflower oil which is supposed to be stronger than Oil of Evening Primrose but it hasn't had any effect on me - taking it for 3 months.

I've been reading about Bioidentical Hormones which you ladies in the US seem to have available. We have nothing like that in the UK although we can get hold of Progesterone cream but not easy.

Has anyone tried it and did it help?

My daily walk with my dog does help with the anxiety but it seems to creep back gradually through the day and is at its worst just before I go to bed! I feel very shaky when I wake up in the mornings also.

Yes, I take evening primrose oil for mood swings though sometimes I forget. I am due to menstruate soon though and this past month, have ben taking the oil faithfully and have noticed a true difference. Not nearly as cranky, no crying and no boob pain so I believe in it so maybe that is half the battle?? The magnesium i get in Boots is calle Magnesium OK by Wassen and it also helps. i used it for palpitations which stopped immediately and the whole anxiety thing subsided once I knew I wasnt having a stroke!
Just know that we are all in this together, even if your family, friends and GP dont believe you so chin up and boobs to the sky as they say!!
Keep in touch,
Nuutylady

I'm not going to make the mistake of saying evening primrose oil maybe doesn't live up to all the things it is claimed to cure, because I got dissed on here big time a few months ago, which has made me wary of posting since.

It is a great supplement. I take it and find it helps my skin but has done nothing to help mood swings, pms or breast pain. But that's just me, and it may well work wonders for others.

You certainly aren't going mad. All the symptoms you describe as a 47 year old woman are part and parcel of this process. Hormone level tests – blood, saliva don't mean anything because with 52 odd hormones floating around in our bodies which can be affected on a daily basis by the food we eat, our hormonal cycles, how much sleep we had, and whatever stress we've encountered that day can affect those tests to the second they are taken.

What you are feeling is real and you don't need any doctor to give it a label. Read this board, read these women's stories, and all the wonderful advice available on this site, and find what works for you, to get you through this - magnesium, soy epo, flaxseed, walking, exercise, meditation ... whatever it may be. Some things work for some, and not for others. It's just a trial and error situation, but rest assured you aren't going crazy, and all of us here are in the same boat.

x

Geezzz JJ you're 54? You don't look a day over 51....honest!

Tay, you nut!


Some days I FEEL about 104!!! No, make that 101!!!


JJ

Hi wuzzie, hang in there ! Yes, I think your symptoms are perimenopause. I had my first missed period in Mar 2006, but I had signs/symptoms 4 years prior that I didn't recognize until now. Hindsight is 20/20, right ? :-) I felt very anxious at my job, chalked it up to idiot coworkers (all men, LOL !) and a stressful environment, got so bad I was having palpitations and feeling downright sh*tty and angry.

Now I'm having palpitations and hot flashes. Had chills too for a little more than a week but those seem to have stopped. But the good news is: I don't feel so upset and anxious any more even though I have the same stressful job and same idiot coworkers. >:-)

Like the bit about 'sh*tty co workers' - I think that happens to me when I'm feeling really low, angry and tearful! Hate everyone -sigh!

A couple of years ago I was experiencing anger so severe that I my blood felt ill rushing through my body, I was absolutely high from it, and I had palpitations. I tried to calm myself down and couldn't. Now I have the same exact job upsets but I don't get so angry any more. Now I tend to be weepy rather than angry. I don't like being weepy but I definitely prefer weepiness over anger !

Oh, during my anger period, I damaged things at home during anger fits. Good thing I lived alone and didn't have a BF at that time ! I'm not proud of this, but I threw a small chair at a bookcase and broke the glass in the bookcase door. I also spiked a laptop (and had to get a new one), ruined a landline phone, crashed a glass into a kitchen cupboard .... oh geez, what a mess I was at that time. And yet it wasn't anger all of the time, other times I would be just fine. I thought it was just severe PMS, and I suppose it was, but now I think it was perimenopause-driven PMS rather than regular PMS. Hell, I'd been suffering from PMS all my menstruating years and it was never so had as it was a couple of years ago. I'm thankful that seems to be over. Now I just cry a lot. :-)

Sandra - you poor love - all I can say that at least you inflicted your anger on objects that you yourself owned and didnt actually thump a person!!! I've thumped walls and smashed old plates in my back yard for realise in the past - poor neighbours aye!!!!!

As for the tears - its hard to hide them from other people when they're out of control isnt it!! Well it must get better at some point!

your definatly not mad girl...im from the uk also and i know what it is like even convincing a doc to do a blood test.....your lucky he did it but never the less it depends what the doctor means by within limits because an fsh above 9 is in peri be it border line or further.The migrains hit me like a storm and the pms along with your periods being slightly out of wack all signal peri.

good luck

Hi, I also am in perimenopause, no sex drive, migraines, you name it. My dr told me that as long as my husband was happy in the sex dept, thats all that was important. He actually told me to give him fellatio and just accept I was 'getting older"! I sure hope I am not going crazy!

What an assh*le that doctor is, sophiesmom !!!! As if the guy's sexual happiness is all that's important. I guess to him it is, if he's married I feel really really sorry for his wife. IMHO, pleasuring the guy when you don't want in return should only be done out of affection, not duty.

Oh My God!! What a horrendous thing for a doctor to say! I'd damn sure be finding another one!!

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR GET RID OF THAT SOB RIGHT NOW AND IF YOU DO HAVE TO EVER SPEAK WITH HIM AGAIN TELL HIM HE IS A SEXIEST PIG!

IMAGINE BEING MARRIED TO THAT WINNER?