Welcome aboard!!  I'm so glad you have found this site....it will help in many of your concerns with menopause.First let me list the 34 Signs of Menopause, for your interest:

1.  Hot flashes, flushes, night sweats &/or cold flashes, clammy feeling. (related to increased activity in the autonomic/sympathetic nervous system).2.  Bouts of rapid heartbeat. (related to increased activity in the autonomic/sympathetic nervous system)3.  Irritability4.  Mood swings, sudden tears.5.  Trouble sleeping through the night (with or without night sweats)6.  Irregular periods: shorter, lighter or heavier periods, flooding. & phantom periods.7.  Loss of libido8.  Dry vagina9.  Crashing fatigue.10. Anxiety, feeling ill at ease.11. Feelings of dread, apprehension, & doom.12. Difficulty concentrating, disorientation, & mental confusion.13. Disturbing memory lapses.14. Incontinence, especially upon sneezing, laughing.15. Itchy, crawly skin (feeling of ants crawling under the skin, not just dry, itchy skin)16. Aching, sore joints, muscles and tendons..17. Increased tension in muscles.18. Breast tenderness.19. Headache change: increase or decrease.20. Gastrointestinal distress, indigestion, flatulence, gas pain, nausea.21. Sudden bouts of bloat.22. Depression (has a quality from other depression, the inability to cope is overwhelming, there is a feeling of a loss of self.  Hormone therapy, ameliorates the depression dramatically).23. Exacerbation of existing conditions.24. Increase in allergies.25. Weight gain.26. Hair loss or thinning. head or whole body, increase in facial hair.27. Dizziness, light-headedness, episodes of loss of balance.28. Changes in body odor.29. Electric shock sensation under the skin & in the head ("take the feeling of a rubber band snapping against the skin, multiply it (exponentially, sometimes) radiate it & put it in the layer of tissues between skin & muscles & sometimes a precursor to a hot flash)"30. Tingling in the extremities (can also be a symptom of B-12 deficiency, diabetes, or from an  alteration in the flexibility of blood viessels in the extremities.)31. Gum problems, increased bleeding.32. Burning tongue.33. Osteoporosis (after several years)34. Brittle fringernail, which peel & break easily.

Some add'l signs from Dearest:

--acne--skin eruptions--itching wildly and erratic rashes--shoulder pain/joint/arthritis flare-up or development--internal shaking/tremor-like feelings.

Hope that helped with some of your concerns!!Keep posting and keep reading!!If you have any further questions don't hesitate to ask;)

((((Hugs))))~*Snowy*~

(Edited by Snowbird at 3:50 pm on Oct. 8, 2001)

  broomhilda

You're not alone!  I twitch, and buzz too, and I have a friend who does it also.  Mine started last April, also in my calves.  In the last six months everything from my scalp to my toes has twitched.  A specific spot might twitch just once, or off and on for a couple of weeks.  My calves and feet are almost constant.  I get big twitches, small twitches, fast ones, and slow ones.

I haven't been to a neurologist, but my internist says it's nothing to worry about.

I was afraid of having a disease too.  But I'm starting to realize that, after six months, I would be showing other signs by now.   I sometimes get terrible aches and pains in various places, but have found that exercising the affected muscle actually helps a lot.

Good luck.  You're not in this alone!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I repeat over and over on the site that any complaints a woman has during menopause should not automatically be attributed to the process of menopause. That's an important dislaimer. In short, before assuming, not that you are, that any of the things you've mentioned in your message are associated with peri or postmenopause, you should be checked by a doctor you respect, trust and admire -- one who listens to you and doesn't just hand you a prescription to resolve your problems.

That having been said, let me tell you that during those "worst" years of perimenopause, I experienced SO MANY strange, inexplicable and, oftentimes, bizarre feelings in my body, I conjured up notions of having a brain tumor, Parkinson's Disease, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Menniere's Disease, a heart condition, paralysis, a potential stroke, glaucoma -- have I left anything out? And I say none of this with humor.

Perimenopause is the singularly most uncomfortable time of a woman's life. I've posted many times about the internal shaking. It's been my nemesis and continues this day to plague me.

I had the facial tremors and buzzing sensations on a daily basis. The feelings were so strange, they almost defy description. No one could see it, but it felt as though I were having a stroke. I'd often experience numbness in my face and on my left side at the same time -- a red flag would go up because I thought I was definitely having a coronary situation or stroke. Facial ticks, facial tremors, an electrical buzzing in the back of my neck and various parts of my body drove me to distraction.

The good part about this story is that most of those symptoms DO go away once you've been without a period for about a year or two. Those feelings, in the majority of cases, are due to the hormonal fluctuations your body is experiencing. Imagine turning the thermostat in your house up and down a dozen or more times a day. Your house wouldn't know whether to turn on the heat or air conditioning.

Our bodies become very sensitized during this process. Feelings are frightening -- we can walk around for days feeling vertigo/dizziness and/or a ringing in the ears (tinnitus). There were days I had to grab onto a bannister or railing for fear that I was going to fall over. My legs still pose a problem -- becoming weak and feeling as if they're not going to support me any longer. Pain in the feet, calves, shoulders, joints aching and paining often to the point of bringing tears to your eyes.

My suggestion to you would be to get yourself a thorough examination by your doctor. Have a blood workup, sugar test, thyroid, hormone levels, total lipid / cholesterol profile. Insist on an Echo cardiogram, not just a cardiogram.

Our bodies are composed of so many different types of hormones -- not just estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Our bodies react to the constant ebb and flow of these hormone levels. Our central nervous system, nerve endings produce electrical impulses. Those electrical impulses are felt differently by every woman. Some women never feel them, while others are fraught with all sorts of strange sensations.

Once you've been given a clean bill of health by your doctor, the singularly most important thing you need to do during perimenopause is do relaxation techniques. Learn breathing exercises. Use the paper bag method I have described in many areas of the Web site and on these boards. Feed yourself affirmations every day that this, too, shall pass -- that you are not dying -- that although you feel as if your body is going to hell in a handbasket and you're never going to survive this transition, you will. That, most importantly, there is nothing to be afraid of even though it feels at times like someone is holding a gun to your head and ready to pull the trigger.

Oh, Lord, would it were so that they'd find a way for women NOT to have to go through menopause. And, further, I am sick of hearing *some* people say that it's all in our minds, or it's our nerves, or if we had better things to do with our time, we wouldn't think about it. I've never stopped being busy during this transition, but that didn't ease the symptoms.

To those people, I say ... until you've walked a mile in another person's shoes, you can't know what they are going through. Women in menopause aren't hypochondriacs. I have to be dragged and feeling as if I'm not long for the world before I go to the doctor. Why? Because during perimenopause, I have learned... doctors don't have answers to most of our questions other than to prescribe tranquilizers or anti-depressants or hormones.... and although some of these medications may help in the short term and to get you over the "hump" of perimenopause, most of them don't work in the long term -- or through the duration of perimenopause and it concerns me that there are no real long-term studies on these SSRI's (anti-depressants).

If you feel you need to take something to get through this process, absolutely take it. Don't make a martyr or yourself. However, remember, these medications only temporarily mask the symptoms. Learning ways to relax and cope with the changes you're undergoing works far better over the long haul than anything else.

I have provided various relaxation and breathing techniques on this, the anxiety and the panic boards that can be tremendously helpful.

It has been my experience and I believe that of many other women who've passed through Power Surge over the seven years it's been online that once you are in the throes of perimenopause, for about one or two years -- perhaps a third (but not often), you will experience every conceivable symptom on the list of 34 symptoms (I posted somewhere this morning, but can't remember). I went through severe migraines and was *never* a headache person in my life. They lasted about a year or two - on and off, not every day, but they eventually stopped. I went through the facial tremors, buzzing experience as though I'd had my finger in an electrical socket. The migraines and severe palpitations, hot flashes, night sweats, crying and severe mood swings, horrific depression so much so that at times I would put my head on the pillow at night and whisper to God, "Please, if I have to feel this way tomorrow, let me not wake up."

Those feelings -- horrible as they are -- don't generally last for the full transitional period. They usually occur during the worst phase of perimenopause and only last about a year or two. That doesn't mean you won't ever experience them again in some milder form, but the severity and frequency will certainly decrease -- and hormone therapy isn't the magical answer. Many women using hormones still experience many of these symptoms.

Just remember that as long as you've been given the okay regarding your health by your health care provider, these are symptoms of menopause and, yes, I say symptoms. People have said to me, "Why do you call them symptoms? Menopause isn't an illness."

I tell them that I know menopause isn't technically an illness, but seeing as how I have never felt worse in my life, I will not say that I am well.

I get very passionate about this subject and one of the reasons I've kept Power Surge an independent entity is because it allows me the opportunity to express myself without wondering who's going to pay the bills if I tell the truth about the medical profession and some of the techniques of the pharmaceutical companies.

I will never get rich from Power Surge, but knowing that this community has helped so many women understand what they're going through without just dumping medical abstracts at them and pushing pills on them has been the most gratifying and "freeing" experience of my life.

Become your own best friend. Learn the situations and people to avoid. Stay away from toxic people, toxic foods. Turn off the news. Don't listen to all the stresses and tragedies in the world. Try to surround yourself with as much peace and quiet as you can.

Finally, let me add my favorite words -- this, too, shall pass. Believe me, I thought in my heart I would never survive menopause, but the internal shaking eases up even though it's hell while you're going through it. The palps will stop as well. It just takes time and a LOT of patience!

Be good to your body and it will return the favor in spades.

Dearest