Hello Everyone,

I'm 37 years old, will be 38 soon and since I was about 35 have been having a myriad of symptoms that I'd like to get your opinion on.

Let me start also by saying that I have had many full exams by docs and the only thing they can find wrong is my thyroid is a little slow.

My periods that used to be literally by the clock have gone from a precise 28 day schedule to anywhere from a 21-28 days schedule, which one endocrinologist laughed at me for even noticing and told me it's completely normal. It may very well be normal but it's odd for me!!

Fatigue: Oh God the Fatigue!!! Some days, most noticeably just before and just after my cycle I can barely move out of bed and feel a sensation of heaviness radiating from the center of my chest outward to my arms. My limbs feel like lead and it's all I can do to shower or move. I actually am not working now because of the low stamina and lack of any endurance. Also, sleeping 14 hours a day when I have the fatigue, but still no relief. I feel better for about 2 hours after a long nap then the fatigue hits again.

Palpitations: Last summer they were severe enough to send me to a cardiologist, who sent me to an electrophysiologist, who placed me on a holter and then an event monitor and caught over 200 episodes in a week and a half of palpitations but said that it was benign. That episode lasted about 3 weeks and then disappeared as quickly as it came! Also had a CT scan of the heart and was cleared with a clean bill of health. They happen most frequently just before and after my period.

Crying spells: just out of the blue.

Periods of increased energy about mid-cycle where I clean everything furiously and can work out and perform normally, as soon as I ovulate this seems to vanish.

Cramping all thru the month where I feel like Im having period cramps but I don't have my period.

Nausea

Panic attacks that come on at night and seem to literally 'sweep thru me' starting at my head and going to my legs and are gone in a matter of seconds. I know, sounds crazy, but it's scary.

Waking at around 2-4 am and unable to go back to sleep.

Having to have the air conditioning on at night, even in the winter, just to be able to sleep. This started several years ago and if it's not between 58-62 degrees in the apartment then I can not sleep because I get so hot.

Speaking of hot, flashes of heat that sweep thru my whole body.

Forgetful ...soooo forgetful!!!

Dizzy spells that have been severe enough to send me to my GP who said she didn't have an answer.

I suspected perimenopause and mentioned it to my GP who did a blood test that she said was 'for hormones' and when it came back she said everythng was 'within range'. She also did a pap smear which was normal.

So tell me, am I losing it or could this be peri? Any suggestions are helpful and since I'm new to this I may have many questions!

Thank you so much for reading all of this and for any help that anyone can give!

Hello Melissa,
You are not losing it. I could have written your post word for word. It certainly sounds like it could be peri to me. I have had a hard time finding a diagnosis or any support from my doctor. He told me I'm too young for peri - my symptoms started at age 39- I am 40 now. I went from an intelligent, confident, positive woman to a forgetful, anxious, insecure baby. I actually broke down crying uncontrollably in a meeting with my doctor while I was telling him I was afraid people were beginning to think I was crazy. I had such severe symptoms that I was sure I was having a heart attack and went to the ER on two different occassions only to be told everything was normal. I'm afraid I can't offer you much in the way of any cures - everyone is different - my doctor convinced me to try 0.25 mg of Xanax when I start to feel "weird". I have found some relief and take it on average 5 - 7 days a month - usually right before my period. I find myself worrying about horrible things happening to me or my loved ones when I don't logically have reason to be overly concerned - but I can't help it.

This sight and the wonderful ladies on the message board have been my saving grace. I now know that I am not alone in this strange journey. I log in every day to read what's going on and smile to myself and say "see, you're not crazy! It's just peri!"


Welcome to the sight and I hope you find relief and are able to deal with your symptoms easier.

rlsmarty

Hi MelissaLyn !

I don't think it's "normal" to have regular period intervals for many years and then suddenly have short or long intervals, unless "normal" is referring to peri normal.

Irregular periods are a hallmark of perimenopause. You have some other classic symptoms.

37 is not too young for peri. It doesn't mean menopause is right around the corner though, you might have symptoms for many years before you finally stop menstruating.

Did you have hormone tests done ? Did they check your estrogen and progesterone levels ? If not, you might want to have that done. If your doctor won't do it, or if you just don't feel like asking, you can order test online ... you spit into a tube, mail it to the lab, and get your results back. I just mailed a tube today, In a couple of weeks I will do another one. (I'm trying to capture my lows and highs.) If you find out that, say, your progesterone is low, you can use progesterone (pills or cream) to raise it up and create a better estrogen/progesterone balance. I am just getting into this myself, so I am not an expert yet. There are many women on this board who are using hormones who can give you good advice if that's what you end up doing.

Thank you Rlsmarty and Sandra!!

I can so relate to going from positive, confident, active and intelligent to just zapped of all energy and being completely confused by all of this.

I'm very glad to know that my heart is in good shape, but I guess I worry alot in the back of my mind because when I went to the ER last August with a heart rate of 145 and palps every few beats the nurse I got was so rude to me and my husband that we ended up reporting her afterwards. I certainly don't want to end up in that situation again.

Sandra my GP did a blood test which she said was 'for hormones' and when it came back she said it was within range, but I have been reading here on the board that this may not be accurate. I am going to get a gynecologist next week and when I go I am going to ask them about doing the spit test. If they won't do it I would be very interested in ordering it from online.

I can see from all the info on this board that I have tons of reading to do. I'm ready to educate myself as much as I can about this situation in my 'ok' feeling times so i can try to prepare for the bad times.

Thanks so much to everyone who posts their stories here, even though I hate that anyone has to go thru any of this. It helps to know that others are going thru it also and that I'm not alone in this!!

I am 39 and suffering with all the same symptoms. cramps so bad i cant stand them, periods coming and going as they please, lightheaded terrible dry skin you name it i suffer with it at some point through the month,
my thyroid test came back fine my hormone tests came back border line that was in the summer.
since the test i started having all these symptoms last month i felt so bad I was sure there was something wrong with me, seriously wrong i felt terrible a bit like i was watching my body from the outside,
Anyway I went to the Drs yesterday, he told me my skin is the first thing to go with hormone problems its so dry on my face, anyway he has also given me a two month course of norethistrone he said its what they give women starting the change, i asked if i am peri he said had my periods got less instead of more frequent he would have said yes, but he says i have a hormone imbalance. why i havent got a clue, what caused it i dont know.
i told him if i feel as bad as last month i will be straight back to him.
I dont know whats wrong with me if i am peri or not, all i know is my hormones have gone mad.
are we peri or not ? seems to me the Dr only says yes if you miss periods or get them less more periods is just hormone imbalance, so what s that all about,
i wonder ??? i must admitt i dont care what I have as long as these tablest make me feel better i dont care.

Hi Campresse!

I'm going to get a gyno and I'm wondering what they are going to say about my levels. No matter what they say I am charting how I feel from day to day and I've been charting my periods for a few years now so I am armed with the info I need to support my gut feeling that something has become imbalances, either thru peri or thru some other means.

I would be interested to know how you feel after using the Norethistrone.

I have the dryness too, my hands seem to have aged and are dry all the time, I now use a face cream at night for dry face skin which I've NEVER had before and I have dry skin on my arms so bad it sometimes flakes so basically what I'm saying is that I use tons of lotions now. I also have supplemented with things like Oil of Olay soaps in the shower and moisturizing body washes. I don't like spending extra money on something I am just going to wash down the drain, but I have to admit that my skin feels so much better after using them instead of just plain old soap.

I forgot to mention that my hair is probably 30-35% gray now and I have to color it every 2 months or so to keep the gray at bay. I got my first grays at 28, but they were only a few strays here and there.

I hope you get 'back into balance' and are feeling well soon!!

Melissa, I've posted this before, and hopefully it will relieve your mind somewhat... This is one of the 'signs of perimenopause...

WHY YOU GET THESE SYMPTOMS....

Here is a little more on the most common physical symptoms --

Irregular periods

Your periods may come more frequently, every 24 days instead of every 28, or they may come later than they used to. You may have a light period that lasts only a few days, then the next month have very heavy bleeding. Your period may last a shorter amount of time, or go on and on for what feels like an eternity. You may skip a month, then go back to normal for several months, then skip two periods in a row...
This happens because, in the initial phases of peri menopause, your hormones are erratic -- and your periods are reacting to this instability.

The type of irregularity you experience is a usually a tip-off to what is happening in your body:

Shorter cycles (your period comes more frequently) usually signal that you are producing lower levels of estrogen during your preovulatory stage -- and that your FSH levels are higher than normal. With more FSH to stimulate them, your follicles are developing faster -- which shortens your cycle.

Extremely light periods usually means that you aren't making enough estrogen to build up your uterine lining. It can also be a sign of an anovulatory period.

Extremely heavy bleeding is also often a sign of an anovulatory period, but in this case, estrogen builds up the uterine lining at the same time that you aren't producing enough progesterone (since you haven't ovulated and so created a corpus luteum). Without progesterone to stop it, the uterine lining keeps building up, until the estrogen production finally drops off and the lining is shed.

Skipped/less frequent periods usually happens as your ovaries continue declining and your menstrual cycle starts cycling down. Over time, even extremely high levels of FSH don't produce enough estrogen for eggs to mature and for your uterine lining to thicken. As you get closer to menopause, your menstrual cycle usually lengthens. Periods come less frequently, there's more time between them. Then you may begin skipping periods. And eventually, in the biggest change in your menstrual cycle, you will stop having periods altogether.
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Melissa, many, MANY women today are finding problems with their doctors. Unfortunately it seems most still rely on what they learned in medical school...a women does not enter menopause until around the age of 50, so therefore anyone who is young (late 30's early 40's), is commonly told they are to young. But, like I've said before...todays girls are now getting their periods at a much younger age as opposed to years ago. What used to be 'nornal' was between the ages of 13 & 16. Now girls get their cycles as young as 8 or 9. Like I've said before...if any doctor thinks a girl who begins her period at that age, is going to follow the proposed "norm", needs to seriously go back and rethink... it isn't going to happen. You don't have to be a doctor to know girls who start younger, will go into menopause younger...so I'd say you're right on schedule...

Hi MelissaLynn...
It ALL sounds familiar to me. I'm 45 and my periods are normal....I'm on a 26 day cycle..like clockwork..so I get it when you say to vary from that is NOT normal for you.
Just about everything you've described, I've experienced. The heavy sensation in your chest...you feel it in your arms and legs and it's hard to move, walk or lift your arms. Dizzy..off balance...forgetful. My concentration is shot some days. I actually have times where when I've walked out the door to go somewhere, when I have the courage and energy, I have to look down to make sure that I'm dressed. I'm not kidding. I was walking the dog the other day and told my husband I felt like I was choking and started to tug and pull on my collar only to find that I had my shirt on backwards and the neckline was riding high. Of course we both laughed. Crying spells...yes, nausea...yes, cramping during non period times...yes, not hot flashes but I get night sweats where I'll wake up and I am drenched...like I just stepped out of the shower. These usually only happen a few days before my period. Panic/anxiety...oh yeah. I think I've woken (is that a word? doesn't look right...see what I mean!) every morning for the past year with anxiety...then the muscles tense up. Right now my stomach feels as hard as a rock..my neck and shoulders have NEVER been so tight. Lots of headaches and weird pulling sensations inside my head...zapping in various parts of my body. I've had a bunch of blood work done, hormones...all normal...in fact better than ever.

I feel like a different person now..I used to be able to relax. I used to work with my husband doing remodeling of homes...too dizzy now. I'm going to have saliva tests done on all of my hormones again..I didn't do progesterone the first time. I found this forum a few weeks ago while googling "dizzy from tight neck muscles" and since then I've read alot of the posts and now in retrospect, I think I've been in peri for about 3-4 years. I had slight hair loss, heavy periods now back to normal, moodiness, loss of libido. My best friend was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago and died November of 2005...so alot of what I was feeling I attributed to her diagnosis and dealing with her dying...the stress of all of that. Then the grief I felt when she died...the intensity of that lasted about 8 months and then got better, but all the above symptoms either appeared or got worse...so i think the whole experience of her dying took it's toll and either I paid more attention to the symptoms or it depleted whatever balance my body was able to maintain. So I too wonder how much of this is peri as my tests were normal..at least the ones i took. The saliva tests will tell more as I'll get very specific with each hormone.

So....if you keep reading the posts you'll probably read more and more familiar stuff....that's what I've found so far.
This too shall pass....
Marie

Tay,

Thank you so much for that information. I started my period the day before my 9th birthday and I've always wondered if that had anything to do with going peri early. My Mom hit menopause when she was 47 and had it pretty rough so I'm hoping that things won't be bad for me too.

Marie, I'm so sorry that we are going thru this but I am so glad that I found someone who has that heavy sensation too. I absolutely hate that feeling but the more I try to fight it when it comes on the worse it gets. I once got up and decided that I was going to fight it with all the force I had so I jumped on my elliptical machine and tried so hard to exercise even though I felt like I had been poured full of lead. I lasted 7 minutes (normally I can do 30) and broke down in tears because I could barely make it back to the bed.

I am very sorry to hear about your friend passing away. Hang in there and thank you for your response!

I've been reading Dr. Lee books, and he and his co-authors seem to be quite confident that the #1 problem for peri women is estrogen dominance due to low progesterone. His books say if you are menstruating it's not likely you are low on estrogen. Progesterone creams are OTC so you can self-treat. The problem though is finding the right dose. If you are pre-peri and you just want to help with PMS, or if you are fully menopausal, your hormone levels are much more stable, but if you are peri your hormone levels are fluctuating greatly. If you are peri apparently you have to play with the doses a bit, adjust to your symptoms.

I think the first step is definitely seeing where you are with the saliva tests. Again this can be tricky during peri, since the levels fluctuate greatly. I am going to do at least 2 tests. I just did a 5-hormone test on Feb 2 when I should have been menstruating (but am not, I'm on the second missed period now). In 2 weeks I will do an estrogen/progesterone test. What I'm attempting to do is catch the lows and highs of E&P, as well as the levels of the other three (testosterone, DHEA, cortisol) which are apparently more steady. I'm not sure if this is really the optimal way of testing but during peri it does seem wise to not rely on a single test but do several. I'm thinking about doing more after these first 2 unless the first 2 results are so clear I don't feel the need to test more. If someone has a better idea for testing, I'm all ears. But my point is: testing is important. See where you are, then devise a plan that addresses your specific needs, e.g., don't take estrogen if you don't need it, and if you are low on progesterone take only as much as you need.

I was also wondering if I am experiencing peri. Can anyone can tell me if it is possible that me only being 27 and experiencing this? Two summers ago, I started with really heavy palpations-- I went to the doctors had the EKG and ECG, everything looked fine. The palpations lasted about a week, it happened to be when it was time for my period. That summer I also experienced a few hot flash episodes- where my face got so hot, I was in the middle of the grocery store and totally freaked out!!! It passed after a few minutes though. The doctor said it was maybe my thyroid so I went to see a thyroid doctor- they did find nodules, but everything functioned normally. He said they were not an issue.

So, I started the pill when I was 15 and just ended it last month. I should be getting my period within the next week or two. Because I had been on the pill for so long, I don’t know what a normal period will actually be for me. I had read that even if you are going through peri-menopause and you are on the pill, you can still have your period. I did have a couple of months while on the pill, that I had no period (the months were not consecutive though).
Last summer I started with these electrical shocking sensations. I had seen in one of your forums that some women had experienced these weird sensations throughout their body. That is actually how I found this site, by searching for that. It is usually only when I get up in the morning- just upon wakening, I get this feeling that starts in the middle of my back, and kind of shoots down my legs, feet, and arms and hands. It is really freaky. It is not spasms and doesn’t really hurt. It is just like I am getting a slight shocking sensation. Sometimes I will feel it in my eyes too. It doesn’t happen every day, it comes and goes. It only happens in the am, and usually goes away once I am up and walking for a little while.
Finally, the past few months, I wake up at 4, then 5, then 6. I cant sleep a whole night through now. This of course makes me pretty tire throughout the day. I decided to go back to school, so I am doing that full time online right now, so I am home all day just sitting around doing homework. I have always had small anxiety/depression issues- I think the pill was causing them, that is why I stopped. But the anxiety and mood swings have not been so good lately. Can anyone help??? Do you think I could be starting to go through peri? My aunt started at around 35 and my mom had to have a full hysterectomy when she was about 40because of cyst/tumor.

Hi,

If I were you I would try to research ways to balance my body thru excercise everyday to supplements to prayer to positive thinking. At the same time see a dactor and get a full work-up. Somthing is bound to come up-- I find it hard to beleive it's peri- this early in your life--good luck!

I remember going to my GP and telling him I was having symptoms which I suspected were linked to menopause. He asked me how old I was. When I told him I was 41. He said "Oh thats too young you've got years to go yet" It made me wonder if all GPs go to medical school. I wish I had found this site at the time. So much good info and support. Trust your instincts and follow them up.

Forgot to add. When you say you were laughed at by your endocrinologist. I had a similar experience with a consultant gynaecologist. He was so dismissive. I complained and was offered another consultation. So one day I am told I am not premenopausal and 48 hours later I am told by another gynaecologist that I am.

When i first started this or shortly into it seeing is I can't really say there was a specific start time. I just noticed unusual symptoms becoming more frequent as time went. Anyway about 3 yr's ago I started to have the sleep problem, I would be up at 1 or 2 and it would take me 2 or so hr's to fall back to sleep. I remember just laying there thinking how am I going to work. There were times I was so sleepless I just cried in the middle of the night at 3 feeling sooo tired, but also feeling like my eyes were being held open by some unknown force. Before rthis I would sleep through anything and had no problem falling asleep. Now I have gone to the other extreme where I can't get enough. I no longer wake up in the middle of the night most nights, but even if I have a good night sleep I am struggling to get up and feel like I didn't sleep and am groggy through most of the day. I am 39 now so I was about 36 or so when that started.

Over the past few mo. I have added just about every symptom that I have read about to my list, some more bothersome than others. I get palp's daily, dizzy/floaty ,ache,fatigue, buzzing on my skin and crawling(like something is crawling through my hair), hotflashes daily, weight gain that I can't lose, weeping (I cry like a baby alot lately) and others.

My period was like clockwork also for many, many yr's. Every 27-29 days there is was, It was so predictable I could put on something because I knew it was goignt o be there. it never suprised me. During the sleepless nights I noticed my periods were very heavy and dragged on. I also would stop for 3 days or so and start agin for an hr. stop and start againd a day later or so. This was odd for me, but again I got used to that pattern and assumed it was not over until I hadn't seen it for a few days. Even still it was always right on time. 6 mo. ago that stated to change it started to come a few days early. This was NOT "normal" for me. That went on for a couple of mo. and I brought it up at my yearly and she just shrugged, rolled eyes a bit...like so what. Well it got earlier and earlier until one time it came 2 weeks early. Now I am going the other way. Your right...you know what is normal for YOU...Hugs Mikki

melc, you were having the hot flashes and palpitations while on the pill ? Have you had any since stopping ? If not, it sounds like your system took a hit for some reason. I think low estrogen is the cause of the hot flashes and palpitations. It's unlikely at age 25 that you would have had low estrogen, there are other causes of hot flashes and palpitations. However, there are some women who enter early menopause. I would discuss the matter with your gynecologist, ask to have your hormones tested.