66 Peri menopause / Menopause Symptoms you may experience which may help some ladies
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SIXTY-SIX PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS: Part one 1 - 49
These are very real physical changes and conditions. Some symptoms alarm a woman that she may be suffering from a serious disease. Perhaps you know the more common ones related to menopausal symptoms in this list. But many of these may surprise you, as they have not been typically associated with this normal physiological transformation.
1. Change in Menstrual Cycle, Cycles may get closer together or farther apart, lighter and shorter in duration or much heavier, lasting longer than one has been accustomed to. Menses may seem to take forever to begin with dark spotting for days until you actually flow, or you might feel like you have your menses every two weeks.
2. Menstrual Flooding can come on with sudden onset and feel like you may hemorrhage to death. Or it can be a gradual build up just when you think your menses will end and you start gushing for days. Flooding commonly accompanies the woman with uterine fibroids as she transits into menopause.
3. Headaches, Migraines, especially before, during or at the end of your menses debilitate and radically interferes with normal functioning.
4. Decreased Motor Coordination, Clumsiness, almost begins to make the woman who experiences this feel like she is certainly less than graceful during perhaps an already awkward period in her life.
5. Lethargy, a persistent feeling sluggishness physically and mentally, that seems to negate ones ability to do much.
6. Physical Exhaustion , and Crushing Crashing Fatigue that can come on so suddenly and grip you into feeling like you will collapse unless you stop this instant.
7. Exacerbation of any Chronic Illness or Existing Condition transpires as hormones decline or deviate from their normal balance.
8. Insomnia, this includes a new or unusual pattern of either difficulty falling asleep, or dropping off to sleep for a few hours and then awakening with the inability to return to sleep.
9. Sleep Disturbances sometimes are from nightmares, night sweats, or just a vague sense of restlessness keeping you up or disrupting your precious revitalizing retreat from this realm of responsibilities.
10. Night Sweats often begin between a woman?s breasts, initially a night or two before her menses, waking her from sleep, later more profoundly disturbing with up to total body saturation, followed by damp or sweat drenched chills.
11. Interference With Dream Recall interrupts the sense of normal sleep, if you are someone accustomed to vivid or at least some detailed memory of your dreamtime.
12. Muscle Cramps can occur anywhere in the body from legs to back to neck, and sometimes reflects the need for more calcium, or simply that your progesterone levels are too low.
13. Low Backache often worsens before or during menses, but if your hormones remain at low levels, you can experience it on a regular basis.
14. Gall Bladder Symptoms of pain, spasms and discomfort felt in the right upper abdominal quadrant under the ribs, which may be accompanied by belching, bloating, and intolerance to certain foods reflect the increased liver load with declining hormones.
15. Frequent Urination, or sensations that mimic urinary infections is a disturbing symptom often unrelieved by actual urination. It is often experienced as the sensation of needing to urinate all the time, even immediately afterwards.
16. Urinary Incontinence, the uncontrollable and spontaneous loss of urine, or the Urge for Incontinence, can occur suddenly or feel continuous, and not only in response to coughing, sneezing, jumping or running.
17. Hypoglycemic Reactions happen when suddenly your blood sugar crashes and you must have food now.
18. Food Cravings, often for sweets or salty foods, but can include sour or pungent foods.
19. Increased Appetite, especially at night and after dinner contributes to that unusual and unwanted weight gain.
20. Dark Circles Under Eyes can also be caused by adrenal exhaustion and thyroid dysfunctions, but no amount of sleep seems to eliminate it.
21. Joint and Muscle Pain, Achy, Sore Joints, Muscles and Tendons, which sometimes develop into actual carpal tunnel syndrome, or give rise to the questioning of other disease possibilities.
22. Increased Tension in Muscles demonstrates itself in those hunched up shoulders as you work or talk about anything uncomfortable, along with promoting lower back pain and a stiff neck.
23. Increased Hair Loss or Thinning anywhere on body, including your head, armpits, pubic area.
24. Increase in Facial Hair especially under your chin, or along your jaw line. It may be defined by generalized hair growth, or a specific and coarse single strand of hair that pokes out, even curls.
25. Unusually Hair Growth, around Nipples, between Breasts, down your back, places where your hair was finer, less coarse.
26. Acne, quite disturbing to any woman who dealt with this in adolescence and never thought it would recur.
27. Infertility causes grief in the woman who postponed pregnancy in her earlier years and now wishes to conceive, carry to term a healthy baby, and discovers she is unable to do so.
28. Loss of Breast Tissue begins with the decrease of progesterone production. Women often feel as though their breast have become empty sacs devoid of their normal fullness, with or without sagging.
29. Breast Soreness/Tenderness/Pain/ Engorgement and swelling, occurs particularly a few days to one week before bleeding actually begins, which usually potentiates complete relief of any pain or swelling.
30. Painful, or tender nipples have been described as this exquisite localized pain only in the nipples and suggests estrogen excess.
31. Cold Extremities feels quite strange especially in the presence of a hot flash, the combination of which is not impossible.
32. Being Accident Prone, bumping into things, not even realizing it until the bruise reveals itself later and then lacking the ability to recall the causative incident feels perplexing and a little scary at the prospect of something more damaging.
33. Hot flashes initially may be described as mild to severe flushes of heat waves, and for some women these evolve into intense outbreaks of sudden heat with sweating and turning bright red all over.
34. Loss of Sexual Energy, our Libido, can be marked by a gradual or sudden disinterest in sex, to the development of an actual aversion.
35. Painful Sex often described as if one?s vagina would tear open at the point of penetration along with feelings of abrasion during intercourse.
36. Vaginal Dryness, Irritation, sometimes accompanied by a consistent unusual discharge - typically odor free, negates a woman?s ability to be sexually active, or able to enjoy or be comfortable in her body.
37. Dizziness, feeling lightheaded and the loss of physical balance, and even a bit wobbling at times, requires pause in movement to prevent falling over or deepening into vertigo or feeling faint.
38. Ringing in the Ears, Tinnitus, can be experienced as a pulsing sensation, a whooshing sound, an almost musical or buzzing sound with a fuzzy sensation.
39. Abdominal Bloating comes on suddenly often after eating, or seems to be all the time, and can be visibly evident making you feel that you look like you are pregnant.
40. Weight Gain disturbs most women, particularly when it seems to happen over a couple of days, settles in the waist, buttocks and thighs, promoting a visceral thickening from the waist down, the classic middle-aged figure.
41. Fluid Retention, Edema, commonly with swelling in the legs and ankles, though not limited to this area and it is unrelieved by urination.
42. Palpitations or Heart Racing usually comes on suddenly, without warning or provocation, and dissipates spontaneously. The experience can be so wild and intense that a woman may become alarmed and wonder if she is having a heart attack.
43. Irregularities in your Heart Rate may feel more like your heart has just done a flip-flop or skipped a beat.
44. Constipation/Diarrhea, intermittent or alternating, results from declining hormone levels, which increase the demands on liver function and alters intestinal motility.
45. Tendency towards Candidiasis can increase, even if you have no prior known history ? and if you do, it may worsen.
46. Gastrointestinal Distress, Increased Flatulence, Unrelieved Gas pains, Indigestion, Nausea all can reflect intestinal changes due to hormonal imbalances.
47. Slow Digestion often goes along with the bloat ? what previously took four to five hours to digest, now seems to take all night. It seems worse in the evenings.
48. Lack of Appetite may be experienced as more of a lack of interest in food, going to the frig and standing there with the door open and staring blankly. Feeling completely uninspired, you busy yourself with something else and forget that you need to eat.
49. Changes in Body Odor especially disturbing when it seems to focus in the groin area, but can be anywhere on the body.
50. Puffy Eyes, not only from sleep disturbances, but also can accompany low progesterone.
51. Facial Pallor alternating with Facial Flushes is often intermittent with hot flashes.
52. Flare up of Arthritis worsens with low progesterone levels and increase sugar intake.
53. Loss of Bone Density, Osteoporosis, is not only an elderly woman?s disease, though it seems to develop over an extended period and is triggered by the decline of hormone production.
54. Dry Hair, Change in Skin Tone, Integrity, and Texture, becomes more wrinkled, and may begin the thinning process.
55. Changes in your Fingernails characterized by easy breakage, bending, cracking and getting softer.
56. Itchy, Crawly Skin with a strange sensation like insects crawling around under the skin ? quite different than the dry skin feeling.
57. Muscle tone seems to slack and sag, and loose its previous response to normal exercise.
58. Pelvic Pain can be random and independent of cycles and may feel continuous for some women.
59. Dry, Itchy Eyes felt in the deep posterior aspect of the eye socket, as well as superficially.
60. Teeth Aching or the experience of a strange sensation in one?s teeth or gums, often accompanied by an increase in bleeding gums.
61. Change in the normal Tongue sensation, which can be accompanied by a feeling of burning in your tongue and roof of mouth, malodorous breath or change in breath odor, and/or a bad taste in your mouth.
62. Memory Loss or Lapses in time, makes one feel disoriented and less focused, especially when you go into another room to get something specific and seconds later cannot remember what you went to retrieve.
63. Feeling Faint for no known reason (this does not include standing up too quickly)
64. Tingling in Extremities not only feels weird and like your hands or feet are falling asleep, but if persistent can be a symptom of diabetes, B12, potassium or calcium deficiency, or a compromise in blood vessel flexibility.
65. Sensation of Electrical Stimulation,or Shock occurring in the tissue under the skin, and may signal you that a hot flash will begin.
66. Increase and worsening of Allergies occurs as hormones become imbalanced, so can our immune system.
153 likes, 3046 replies
Eliaimee1970 jayneejay
Posted
i have the mayority and now one my teeth hurts not bad it comes and go seems monthly and now it start hurting !
heather29740 jayneejay
Posted
Just read this I've been diagnosed with half the list.
No wonder I'm such a miserable old bugger, it's a wonder I've still got the will to live.
My wee annoyance is that your hair .
starts falling out your head and starts growing out your chin I could give santa a run for his money if I let it grow lol.
lisa95354 heather29740
Posted
Jaynee.... You are hilarious with the Santa joke. Have you had your thyroid checked, if not, get it checked. that could be causing the loss of hair. My beautician just told me that hormonal changes reak havic on the hair. Also there’s a supplement called, Biotin that helps with hair growth, very in expensive, it’s at any store and very helpful. Take care !
sarah31970 jayneejay
Posted
The latest of these that i am dealing with is insomnia. I have scoured the internet and books for all sorts of tips and tricks but NOTHING works. I fall asleep fine initially but then either wake up and can't go back to sleep for hours or keep waking up numerous times throughout the night. I am at my wits' end. Has anyone else gone through this? Please tell me it gets better...
maria_03422 sarah31970
Posted
Hi Sarah,
im up every night around 3 am and i fall asleep again around 6am...im so tired!! it was fine for a while, and it showed up again.
i drink a cup of chamomile tea before bed seems it helps some nights..
lisa95354 sarah31970
Posted
Morning Sarah, Read my reply to Amanda. Those items will help you sleep. Are you also consuming caffeine, if you are, immediately stop, it affects everything from sleep to anxiety and hot flashes.
amanda64199 jayneejay
Edited
I'm the same. I had night sweats that woke me up, so I started taking black cohash which has helped, but I find I wake up and even though I'm tired I can't go back to sleep. Also my periods stopped in December. I had a smear test in February and I started again 😐 I'm 52 this year so I'm hoping the fizzle out again
lisa95354 amanda64199
Posted
Good Morning Amanda, At bedtime, try taking 5- HTP, L-Theanine, melatonin, chelated magnesium. It has to be chelated, The first two are also for anxiety, you can take them in the day, as well. I take menopause support compounded from my pharmacist and this is what’s in it ....Ingredients in meno support vitamin D, E, B1, B2, B6 niacin, B 12 calcium, magnesium, so I isoflavones, black cohosh root extract, red clover blossom extract, dong quai, Chasteberry, licorice. it works very well, but it especially helps with, for some reason, the anxiety. The only feeling I can describe it as is a quick, fleeting moment, like I feel like I could either scream or lose my mind. For some reason, this only appears to happen, while I’m laying in bed at night getting ready to sleep. Also that seems to be the only time the rapid heartbeat starts ...WTH! I know that sounds terrible but it’s definitely not a good feeling. So you had a Pap smear done and your period started again? Try to think of this as, it’s temporary, whenever you’re having a hard time with this, it’s temporary. I know it’s not temporary in the sense of like a month or a week, unfortunately, but it will get better. I think I was 51 when my period stopped. it will get better, so don’t lose faith 😉 Google Eckhart Tolle's quote on accepting, he’s all over Pinterest 😃 Hope you have a blessed day !
cindy17746 lisa95354
Posted
Lisa,
Your message really helped me. I am home sick, flattened by peri today, and really struggling emotionally, as I always do. I need to learn to accept that this is my life right now. And just right now. I will Google his quote.
Thank you!
Kat7201 cindy17746
Edited
@cindy17746 I hope you feel better soon. You're not alone. This forum is full of people who understand and empathise. You're not going mad, you're not abnormal. You're just not in your best place right now. But right now won't last forever. Sending best wishes for a better tomorrow. 🌈
lisa95354 cindy17746
Posted
Thank you for the positive words Cindy, I’m really so glad to hear that. We really have to be advocates of self-care during this time. I really believe that this is a time of self evaluation, self-awareness, and time to change things in our life that have been stagnant for years. May it be relationships, jobs, where are living, Family dynamics, friendships. It’s time to clean house, unfortunately there’s a lot of negative aspects. thank you for the positive words Cindy, I’m really so glad to hear that. We really have to be advocates of self-care during this time. I really believe that this is a time of self evaluation, self awareness. Time to clean house, whether it be relationships, family dynamics, friendships, moving etc...I am a work in progress, or as I read this morning God is making me into stained glass 😉 Its so importanr we limit, sugar, caffeine, alcohol etc... and try to get the proper amount of sleep even though it seems impossible. But with those supplements, it makes it much easier. I think with women, we have to control so much in life, not be controlling, but control so much, and we have so many plates in the air, and there’s no controlling this and it becomes frustrating. So it’s much easier if we just accept it. Ofcourse that’s easy for me to say, as I am post menopause. also google videos of Dr Christianne Northrup and Menopause, she’s amazing. She also has a supplement that’s very good. Its called A-ma-ta, I had a cracked thumb nail for 10 years, and I started taking her supplement, and the nail healed in like a couple weeks. I had tried everything before that. Also check out Louise Haye's positive affirmations, and her videos. Remember you’re not alone. Thank you again for the kudos. if any of this repeats, I’m not sure if it’s my phone or this website as I dictate these comments. take care 😃
amanda64199 lisa95354
Posted
thank you. I'll definitely give it a try. I too have the anxiety at night when I'm having the insomnia. The only way I can describe it is thinking I can't breathe and I might die. It's an awful feeling
Thank you for your reply 🙂
lisa95354 amanda64199
Posted
Good Morning Amanda, I think we all get that feeling and it’s a terrible one. My sister's post menopause for several years and she still gets it. I just had that damn rapid heartbeat when I got up. My husband is on a fishing trip and I thought to myself, my god if I die here in this kitchen... who’s gonna take care of my dog till my husband gets home. Just reassure yourself when that happens, that it isn’t death, you’re not going to die, it’s just a transition in our lives. Take deep breasts also and try to hold them for five to 10 seconds. If you can, go out and walk barefoot in the grass, it’s called grounding, it helps. also tell yourself when that happens, do the breathing and tell yourself all out, this is going to pass, this is going to pass. Also if you’re spiritual/Christian, pray to God, it really helps. Ask him to take that feeling from you:) And always remember... you’re not alone in this !
cindy17746 lisa95354
Posted
Hi Lisa,
We are on the same wavelength, it seems. I've read two of Christiane Northrup's books, and really enjoy her. I started taking Amata, but noticed no change, although I really didn't give it much of a try. How long did it take for you to notice a change in your symptoms? I read Louise Hay's book "You Can Heal Your Life" and started a journal of the many things I read, but I haven't visited it in a while- I think I need to. My diet is EXCELLENT- I am a very healthy eater, and yet I continue to have really rough days. I think I am doing everything I can, but need to explore natural supplements, like plant-based estrogen a little further. I've tried many varieties, but as soon as I have a bad day, I quit them, thinking they are not working, or that they are making things worse.
Thanks again for taking the time to write. I try to explain how I am feeling to my loved ones, and they just don't understand, and it's kind of hard to explain, as well! This forum is a godsend.
Take care,
Cindy
amanda64199 lisa95354
Edited
thank you Lisa
I'm Reiki so I try to meditate and ground myself whenever I can. I used to think my mum was making a mountain out of a mole hill when she was going through this. If she was still alive today I know she would be telling me I told you so!
Have a lovely day. I'm going to go for a walk and enjoy the sunshine
crystals51917 lisa95354
Edited
I love your approach and belief in GOD! YES! Praying does help a lot. Everyday with menopause is not fair but I do trust GOD to see me through. I always say a prayer for all the menopause ladies here. We are family. ❤
lisa95354 cindy17746
Posted
Cindy… Sounds like we’re sisters from another Mister 😉 I have to be honest I am not that great with my diet, so it’s very interesting to know how good you are and it still affects you so badly. That definitely is very irritating. I am the same as you, I kind of have a hard time sticking with stuff. The Amata I would give a good 4 to 6 weeks. But I also went off that too. my pharmacist compounds an excellent Supplement line. For some reason his essential vitamins in the Meno SUPPORT is under “schott's wellness center'. and he has another line of vitamins under Carlsons and I know those are sold online and from that one I get the melatonin gummy and the chelated magnesium, and also Malic Acid Magnesium. The meno One is excellent, Have you seen the ingredients I posted that are in it before, if not I’ll send it to you. I think you can actually buy it online. His other vitamin line is called Carlsons . I’m the same way with skin creams. I’ll move on to something else after a while . Maybe as women that’s how a lot of us are. yes explaining this is very difficult, as much as I repeat things to my husband, he just doesn’t get it. I have fibromyalgia and between the fibromyalgia and menopause I can rip my hair out some days. He said the one day so surprised, “what’s the matter?“ I looked at him like are you kidding me, we’ve gone through this for years how can u ask the same question ....grrrr! i’ve gotten so p****d off at this menopause, I’m like I’m gonna eat what I want and do what I want, it is really beating a dead horse. my mother has passed on as well, when she was in the nursing home I did ask her about Menopause and I thought her response was so rude. She said oh the women of this era make such a big deal out of everything. I remember my mom going through this time of life and she was crying all the time, so I don’t know what the hell she was talking about. Plus she always play the martyr, so that was a little hypocritical She was a frustrating person anyway! it seems I’ve woken up in one of those moods today ...lmao! I love that you and I have tried so many of the same things. I said this before in this forum many times, I just don’t understand why women have to have such a hard time with everything. I mean we are the true caretaker of children, we are the multitasker‘s, we give birth, there are many more cancers we get compared to men, let’s not forget our periods. And all the crap that comes with that, we’re the ones that Domestic Violence is committed on mainlt, also the ones that are mainly kidnapped, sex trafficked, etc. when I get frustrated I just say aloud, thanks for taking a bite out of that Apple EVE:0 but I think it’s a little ridiculous to think we’ve been screwed as a demographic because a woman ate an apple how many years ago. I’ve never really jived with that explaination ! I’m really on a ramble today, thank you for replying back 😃 It’s very kind that you pray for everyone on the forum, I appreciate it. We just have to remember where it’s very kind that you pray for everyone on the forum, I appreciate it. We just have to remember we are in this in this together;)
cindy17746 lisa95354
Edited
Lisa,
It really helps, knowing we are all in this together. I will Google Carlson's and Schotts. I am open to trying anything. I have booked an acupuncture appointment for a few weeks' time. My doctor believes it might really help me. I hope so, and will let you know. Today is a very bad day for me. I got up, got to work, and have been struggling to get through the day. Fatigued, nauseated, dizzy, running to the bathroom. I get really p****d at peri too. I also get very angry at the universe, as well. It's hard to find joy in life when this is happening. But I'll keep trying. Take care of yourself- I hope the weekend is a healthy one.
Cindy
Kat7201 cindy17746
Posted
Hi Cindy,
I'll be really interested to know how you get on with the acupuncture. A friend of mine swore by it for her hot flashes / flushes, said it worked wonders. I've been thinking about going since but need to find a good practitioner. 🙂
cindy17746 Kat7201
Posted
Hi Kat,
A friend of mine swears by a practitioner who works not far from me. I am hopeful. 爛
lisa95354 cindy17746
Posted
Hang in there Cindy, I know some of the days can be very trying 😉 You have a blessed weekend !
lisa95354 crystals51917
Posted
Thank you Crystal, hope you have a good weekend 😃