Hi everyone, I just found this site and it's wonderful. I've been wondering for a few years now what is happening to my body and I think it's premenopause. I hope this question isn't out of line to ask about on this board, I'm desperate for some help with this.

Some background, I'm 36 years old, have 4 kids and am happily married to a wonderful man. I have gained 30 pounds within the past couple of years with no dietary change, I went from 155 to 185. Also was diagnosed with high blood pressure a few months ago and am on medication for it. I had high blood pressure during pregnancy and very mildly afterward, I thought it was white coat for many years. I went to the doctor on a regualr basis.

The real noticible trouble started a year ago come September. I was always able to have an orgasm from regular intercourse, then all of a sudden I just can't. This is very distrubing and distressing to myself and my husband. The blood pressure medicine actually helped some with the problem. Before the medicine I used to get out of breath easily with exercise or exertion (sp). I also had neck and jaw pain, migraines, palpations, racing heart, and bp readings of 160/119.

These bp readings made my doctor panic. She told me I was in danger of having a stroke and she sent me for all kinds of tests and put me on meds. She also heard a murmur. Most tests showed nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing that came up was mild septal thickening from the blood pressure being high for so long with no treatment because the other doctors just kind of blew it off as white coat syndrome.

Do you all think, am I going thru premenapause? Will the orgasm ability return after some time? Did anyone else have this happen to them?
Thank you,
A&W

Hmmm......I am not sure. I would think that the bp meds could cause difficulty in reaching the big O. I know antidepressants do. You seem kind of on the young side of this peri nightmare, but it could be. Hopefully someone can pipe up here and give you some better advise.

First thing that came to mind was THYROID! Hit me at 33.
You can pretty much rule out menopause if your not having hot flashes and irregular periods!
But then who knows????

Due to the weight gain my doctor did run a thyroid check and it came back negative. Since my doctor thinks I'm to young to have hbp that was hard to control she ordered test after test. Blood tests, ecocardiogram, ultrasound, cat scan with iodine dye that I was allergic to, I sneezed a couple times at the end of the test and got itchy. That meant staying an extra hour for observation. Arrrgh! I'm even seeing an engocrineologist, who now ordered a blood test looking for a adreanal tumor, that may cause the hbp.

I do get night sweats a couple times a month. I had them more often before I started the bp medicine, so maybe it's from the hbp? My periods are now 6 days instead of 7. The flo has changed too from heavy bleeding all the way thru, to heavy in the beginning and light at the end.

I'm just hoping to find an answer to all this.
Thanks,
A&W

mookiehantamom here,
i agree with shakininhouston . iwould think the bp meds would prevent orgasm . can u research and see if u can lower the bp by diet , not like atkins i mean organic , no white flour products , no sugar ( i use agave nectar from the cactus plant ) no processed food . honest it works i lost 60 pounds in 4 months doind this no excersise and iam 49 . i do believe the sex drive will come back . yr in my prayers

A&W

Listen up. I went thru the same thing, echo showed a little thickening due to docs thinking I had white coat syndrome too. I had the racing heart rate, and palps really bad. You mentioned the tests you took regarding your heart. The one thing they never checked on me was my cartoid artery on both sides of my neck. Have them check those. They didn't check mine and I had a stroke, but am fine now and can do anything. Aerobics, whatever, but I was very lucky, my left side was 99.9% blocked and hardly any blood was getting to my brain from that side. a couple of days longer, I would have been in big trouble. I had these symptoms like you had for about 2 years before my cartoid was finally checked. So ask if they checked yours. Not trying to scare you, just letting you know that if they checked you with dye and echo, and ekg, be sure they checked the cartoid arteries in your neck. If they did and they are fine, then you are probably having anxiety, and a little hormonal imbalance, you don't have to be older to have hormone up and downs, and anxiety. stress causes hbp, palps, skipped heart beats, sweating, nausea. If you ever get double vision, or if your vision is off in any way, get checked. That was my first symptom before they checked my cartoid arteries in my neck. Don't panic, or get worried. Just be sure they checked them. They can do it with a sonogram, it only takes about 5 minutes. Super easy, and fast. Teri