I am 39 years old and have been doing the peri-menopause thing for almost 7 years.  I was on hrt, but the side effects were killing me.  The sweat flashes are the pits, I can't sleep, and lets not talk about the weight problem. My husband is totally not understanding, and I think I am loosing my mind! Is anyone else having these problems so early?  I have been to 3 doctors, and they all say its in my head.  But I know its not! Help.

(Edited by gj9528 at 8:47 pm on July 2, 2002)

Hi, I have not been here for awhile, but I really understand your feeling.  You are not alone.  I stopped having periods at 43 1/2 and I couldn't believe it.  I started having hot flashes a year later and my doctor put me on estrogen.  Then I decided to quit that and I am now using a progesterone cream plus a very low dose estrogen patch.  I only have some very mild flashes at night.  Maybe that would help you.  Good Luck!

I have had symtoms for 11 years since I was 35. By 40 I was nuts and had bad night sweats and hot flashes and mood swings and crying jags. And by then no period for 2 years. The doc put me on meds and I took them for 5 years no problem but I wanted to go off them and did a year ago may but now I am still after all this time getting hot flashes and its getting worse! I can't sleep and concentrating is hard but I hate drugs even natural ones because they are made up of same compounds. What is safe? And I don't trust any doctors because they get paid from people selling the drugs. What can we do that is SAFE???

Hi Kay,What were you taking for drugs? Were they hormones or something else? Have you tried any of the herbs or soy? Those can help alleviate many of the symptoms. Especially since you haven't had a period in 2 years . - my guess is they'd be very helpful. There are many women's formulas on the market. Try one for a few months( usually it takes that long for herbs to work) and if it doesn't work , try another combination. I know it can be frustrating, but if I hadn't menustrated in 2 years I'd definately try the herbs before using hormones.

Suzie

I was taking estrogen and progestrone not natural but pills from doctor. I have a hard time swallowing the large pills that the natural vitamins or minerals are. I haven't really heard that soy works all that much.  Someone told me to take cohash today, have you heard of that?

Hi everyone, my first post ! YAY! anyway, I'm almost 33 and was on the pill for about 10 years or so, when I decided to stop, 8 months later I still hadn't gotten my period so I decided to get checked out. Thyroid was checked and was told I was "post-meno", and they put me an a 10 day progestin (sp?) and that did nothing, so I went back on pill. Period came back, and all was fine again. I recently decided to go off the pill again, this time for good. Hot flashes are pretty prevalent, no night sweats yet. mood swings are there.  I am going to try Black cohosh I think,  Soy also helped, but I'm not consistent enough with it.kim

Hey Sadiesmom.  Welcome!  Do I understand that you are now post-menopausal?  You said you are 33 years old?  That is really young to be going through this stuff!  I was 43 1/2 when I stopped having periods and I thought that was young!  I am using a progesterone cream and that does help with the flashes some.  Maybe that would help you?

Hi, Pam-Yeah it is a bit young, My mom was in her early 40's when she started going thru it also. She did the HRT, got Breast Cancer, and has lymphodema in her left arm (right after a plane trip to FLA). She seems to think I was 9 or 10 when I started having my period. 2 aunts so far have had Breast Cancer, so I definetely won't be doing any HRT...Right now I take calcium, and vit. E...so far that's it.

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting anything on the message board.  I've been showing signs of menopause for at least 5 years, you know late periods, periods every 21 days, lets not forget the intense PMS.  I'm 47 now and just got my labs back and I'm "post menopausal".  Haven't had a period in 9 months.  I was on estrogen every day and progesterone for 10 days.  During the 10 days of progesterone I should have been locked away.  Now I'm not on anything and feel great except for the hot flashes during the summer.  Now that the weather has cooled off, no more hot flashes.  We'll see what next summer brings, maybe it's worth doing the estrogen for a couple months cause it did stop the hot flashes.

gj,I too started at a young age.  I was 27 when i had my tubes tied after my last child.  That's when all this started.  Night sweats, depression, weight gain and so on.  Then when i had a hyster (left both ovaries and tubes) everything got worse.  ALOT!  All my symptoms became more noticeable and seem to have no end at times.  Pretty much i've just been taking a multi vitamin and kyolic garlic.  I did just start using progestrone cream this last week again.  My weight has gotten so out of control.  I've never been this big before, not even when i was pregnant.  I think mine was brought on from the tubal, and the hyster made it worse.   Take care and keep posting.

Hi!  Since my last visit I found something that works well for alleviating hot flashes.  Mine started to get worse so I found this natural cream called Bi-est.  It is estrogen from soy and progesterone from yams only at a higher dose than you can get without prescription.  Pete Heuseman who has been on this website doing chats from time to time is the Pharmacist that I contacted.  He is very helpful and I am sure that if you want to contact him he would be helpful for you too.As a further note, I read that Progesterone cream alone does cause more weight gain so if you are struggling with that the Progesterone cream may make it worse.