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
viva50. jayneejay
Edited
Anyone here whos done with periM? Totally menopaused after all this rocky ride?
Pls share with me ur story if heavy prolonged bleeding indicates being close to finally bringing in menopause.
Thank u in advance
Cheers
Zigangie viva50.
Posted
Hi viva,
I went through all these things being told my problems were due to depression, I ended up in the mental health unit several times. I kept telling people I'm physically ill but none would listen. Depression makes you feel physically ill. Anti depressants dermatologist (horrendous itching) neurologist cardiologist, psychiatrist and more oh haematologist lol. Cervical cancer scare (apparently because you are depressed you cause this also).
At some point I was told via a blood test that I was peri menopausal, I asked the doctor if it could be this causing my problems and was told not to expect any symptoms until I was 51.
At around that age my periods stopped and to add to all the misery I was boiling hot all the time, I didn't get hot flushes or even break sweat ever just boiled inside. At this point I had done some research and found this and other menopause sites asked my doctor for bio identical HRT and within a month things began to return to normal. Not everything I still have huge sleep problems but have my fingers crossed that that will improve in time as well.
Some symptoms pain especially soles of my feet and two frozen shoulders took over 6 months to go. Others like being hot frequently needing to pee nausea and heart palpitations went quite quickly anxiety and depression began to lift within 3 months. I still feel so very tired but have not had crashing fatigue since I started HRT.
If I miss a dose I know the next day, I become forgetful and keep forgetting the word I need. If I miss several doses (I forgot to pack it for a week away) then the heat returns along with nausea and a horrible taste in my mouth which I had from very early on in peri. My sleep goes back to waking every hour.
Oh and I didn't have any prolonged bleeding, mine was miss a few have a few always on time and even after they stopped I had the feeling bigger boobs and slight back pain that I had always had every month for over a year after.
My problems began in 2005, I was 43 so 53 now I lost 10 years of my life to this. No one ever suggested it could be to do with meno, my mum didn't have any problem with it so she just thought it was depression too.
michelle46271 Zigangie
Posted
Hi Zigangie
Haven't heard from you for a while. Hope you are reasonably well.
What HRT do you take? X
Zigangie michelle46271
Posted
Hi Michelle,
Things are much better thanks, I've only really been replying to ladies who are having problems with peri etc
The only long standing problem I have is sleep. Either not enough or too much. This is pretty much how things began, no sleep waking up every hour and after a while a marathon 12 hours to catch up. Still hoping one day it will normalise. I've tried doubling my estrogen dose but as it seemed to make little difference gone back to the lower dose.
If I forget one night I know the next day as I will start groping for words and forget what I was saying mid sentence again.
If I forget for longer (forgot to pack it for a weeks holiday) then the heat comes back as well and forgetting everything, mild nasty taste and slight nausea which was gone after 2 days back on it.
I'm on oestrogel and Utrogestan. 2 pumps of oestrogel and 2 utrogestan pills for the first 12 days of the month causing a 7 day bleed.
My shoulder pain went but took around 6 months to go (I'm certain it is because of the HRT, I'd had the first painful shoulder for about 8 weeks before I started HRT and the other shoulder had just began to play up a week before. It got no worse but I was still aware of it at 3 months in. The first one went at about 6 months.
michelle46271 Zigangie
Posted
It's nice to see you are getting on ok. I am on Evorel patches but I think I have way to go yet. I am still jittery and frightened. I am thinking of the gel instead of the patch. What do you think ? X
Zigangie michelle46271
Posted
I did think of trying the patches instead at least I would have had one on when I went away. The gel can be a bit of a pain waiting for it to dry before getting dressed.
It's more annoying when it's cold you've just had your bath and waiting around to get some clothes on. It takes about 5 minutes to dry.
Just as it has worked so well I think I will stick with it.
The gel is recommended by quote my GP "the menopause guru" if I put his name I get moderated. The reason it is so well liked is because you can adjust the dose quite easily as you can throw some of the dose away. I'm on two pumps but have been prescribed 4 so if three suited me better that would be easy to do. Some women for example use 2 and 1/4 pumps by using half the amount of the third pump.
Whereas with patches it's a bit hit and miss if one is a bit too much although some women cut them down a bit.
As I said earlier I've tried a few weeks on 4 pumps but it didn't make any noticeable difference.
I would imagine when the time comes to come off it the gel will be easier to decrease very slowly.
I don't know how long you have been on it? The first week I used it was amazing. My sleep went back to how it was in my late 30s. But I went through a patch where I thought I would stop taking it as at about 6 weeks in some of my peri symptoms came back with a vengeance. All was well by week 10 and as I said earlier the frozen shoulders were gone by 6 months.
I used to have a lot of anxiety and heart palpitations, the anxiety was on and off for a while during the first few weeks on it. I haven't had any heart palpitations since starting it.
michelle46271 Zigangie
Posted
I think I may give the gel a try. If I stopped using the patches and started using the gel do you think it would work straight away? I take the utrogestan tablets for 14 days of the month. I can't understand why I'm still jittery/revved up with a fast heartbeat. I was thinking it may be good idea to pay to see a gynaecologist. They could possibly see if my dosage is correct and test levels. My sweats have stopped though. I would love to feel like me again. Thanks for the advice x
Zigangie michelle46271
Posted
Hi Michelle,
I would think you could stop the patches and go straight on the gel, I know from what I've read that different types of HRT suit different people and some ladies have to try several before they find what works the best. I'm wondering if maybe you need a little bit more estrogen than you are getting?
michelle46271 Zigangie
Posted
Hi Zigangie
Do you live in the UK? I can't remember. I went to bed and came down again because I can't drop off so I've made myself a cuppa. Every night is like this,well has been for 3 months. It's frustrating. I live on about 10 hours sleep a week. I think you suffer the same don't you?
This forum has been a life saver for me. It's brilliant x
Zigangie michelle46271
Posted
Hi yes Michele I live in the UK.
It started in 2005 with finding it hard to get to sleep then not wanting to wake up. Then went to falling asleep only to wake again an hour or two later. By 2008 I would go for days not being able to sleep at all. It affected my mental health and I was put in a mental health unit a few times.
By 2010 I could not sleep at night at all and was falling asleep when the birds sang.
Now if I manage to get to sleep I'm very often woken within an hour by dreams as if I'm going into REM too soon. Still finding it hard to sleep until the early hours when I get to sleep I sleep for England.
I have a sleep study booked at Guys Hospital in October a psychiatrist has suggested I have delayed sleep phase syndrome. I have read up on it and they say it's very hard to reverse.
My thought is I don't think it's that and that maybe an appointment with an endocrinologist would have been more worthwhile as the first 8 nights on HRT I was asleep by midnight awoke with a start at 815 (as I always had done if not awoken by one of the kids because any later and they would be late for school )
As delayed sleep syndrome takes many months of moving sleep times forward with bright light therapy and melatonin and HRT made such a difference from day one I think it's more likely to be a hormonal problem. No one is prepared to listen to that argument though so I'm hoping that at the preliminary appointment the sleep specialist will consider and suggest looking into it.
Where you are at now is really disabling and you have my sympathy. Hope you get it sorted out soon x
michelle46271 Zigangie
Posted
Hi
I've just visited doctors no specialists yet. I am 46. I am on Sertraline and a low dose of beta blocker. My pulse was 127bpm last week. I am hopefully seeing a doctor today. I'm fed up with them fobbing me off. What were there reasons for putting you in care or did you want it. I think that sometimes. Well my mind is thinking allsorts?? Well I'm off to bed xxx
Zigangie michelle46271
Posted
I was in a bad place I took an overdose then pretty much lost touch with reality. Doctors didn't want to give me sleep Meds and I had been awake for almost a week. This has happened several times.
What is so annoying is during my hospital stays they give me sleep Meds and after a few decent nights sleep I wonder what it was all about.
I have asked to go in since then, my family pleading also but they just wait until I'm so badly affected I can't deal with anything and so depressed I don't want to live another day like it.
On a lighter note although I still have awful insomnia usually followed by a long 12 + hours sleep. HRT has lifted the horrible depression that went with it.
michelle46271 Zigangie
Posted
Oh poor you. I really do understand. I have been in some very dark places the last few weeks. I try not to think about it but thoughts are racing in my mind always. I have got sleeping tablets but try not to take them every night. I have gone for months with hardly any sleep. I know I have general anxiety. I've accepted it now and have talked it through with my husband. I always am anxious. I am going to get help now. I need to. Sending hugs to you. By the way how old are you? Xxx
Zigangie michelle46271
Posted
Hi Michelle thanks for the hugs.
I'm 54 in December.
lori87929 Zigangie
Posted
Hi Zigangie,
?I have had so many of the symptoms that were on the list above over the last 5 years but up until now I never thought that forgetting my words was a symptom of peri mens. It is such a relief to know that someone else is or has experienced this embarassing situation where you are in the middle of a conversation and can find a word for what you are trying to say. I have always been very articulate and to be stuck in struggling to find words has been very distressing to me. ugh. Thank you for making me feel like I'm not losing my intelligence or nuts.
Sochima822 lori87929
Posted
Lori, I went through this as well, and just now I'm starting to find the words and like you I'm very articulate and well versed but with this peri/menopause phase it has been just horrible in trying to articulate even simple sentences. It has taken time to come back but it will come back sooner if you read books.
lori87929 Sochima822
Posted
Thank you for the reassurance, how long did you go through this until you noticed it getting better. I do read, but I don't notice that it helps at all.
Sochima822 lori87929
Posted
Unfortunately, it took about 2-3 years to finally come out of it. Through reading I have brought back some of my vocabulary but it's not the same. It's a lot less. I also have an issue with quickly responding to people, it takes me a few minutes to come up with an answer sometimes. I wasn't like this before. Something in my brain slowed down. Do you have this issue as well?
lori87929 Sochima822
Posted
michelle46271 Sochima822
Posted
Are you post menopause? How long did your terrible symptoms of peri last? X
Sochima822 michelle46271
Posted
No, I'm not post. I'm in between. I still have symptoms but to a lesser degree and mostly hot flashes. It's hard to say how long my symptoms lasted all together, because in between I was on meds, when I went off all meds, it was a horrible 2 years of trying to balance myself out. I'd say about 5 years all together to date. How about you, are you still in peri? X
michelle46271 Sochima822
Posted
Yes I think so. I started all the symptoms about 5 years ago but they have been extreme the last 7 months. I didn't know what was happening x
Sochima822 michelle46271
Edited
yes, sorry to hear this. I was under my doctor's care so she would inform me that it was all due to hormones. She tried to put me on antidepressants but I'm not good at taking medicine. Basically, I listened to my body whether a medication was acceptable. I finally found St. John's wort and that put me at ease. At least for me, it stopped the heart palps, the anxiety and that overall can't go out feeling. My symptoms diminished as I only took when I felt symptoms. Are you taking anything for your symptoms?
michelle46271 Sochima822
Posted
I'm on HRT(trying to get the balance right) Like I was saying the doctor put me on Sertraline just over 3 years ago. That was when I was 43. I take evening primrose,daily balance oil,vitamin b's,magnesium. I do still get a tight,fast pulse lots of times though x
Sochima822 michelle46271
Edited
HRT didn't work on me, I ended up on a low dose birth control pill which I stayed on for 1 year to control the crying. Once I stopped crying I got off of it. None of the ones you mention worked on me, only St. Johns wort,which many women here use for menopausal symptoms. Macca for hot flashes and flax seed oil also for hot flashes. I refused to take antidepressants since I had a bad reaction to Effexor. Oh I also took Vitamin D3 for mood, CQ10 for energy, and Gingko Biloba for memory issues.
klm1213 michelle46271
Posted
hi Michelle, don't know if you're still on here or not but I just wanted to let you know you're not the only one. Went to my doctor because I was feeling off and had a very high pulse rate.... every symptom I had I explained to her and she didn't even mention that it could be perimenopause she just prescribed me and anti-anxiety medication and a beta blocker. Going back to her next week and demanding she do blood tests on me to see if I am in perimenopause, which I know I am I am 46 and have every symptom listed.
amy341731 klm1213
Posted
I seriously do not understand how doctors can keep ignoring the huge population of people who go through this!! The only answer is to throw some antidepressants at us?? I’m so fed up with feeling like crap and being told I’m just stressed..i cope with and have coped with a lot in my life but this perimenopause is complete nonsense (well, that nothing is taken seriously and that we should just live with it) I try to eat “okay “, walk a few times a week and try very hard to be happy and sociable..but these ever changing, sometimes debilitating symptoms are awful. I don’t have any real advice other than to try to do what works for you, stay hydrated and walk if you can. The holidays always adds an extra layer of panic but I’m going to try my best to remain calm and enjoy what I can. This all started for me at this time last year (I’m 46 now) so I was told it was holiday stress and to take an antidepressant and Id be fine..ugh..no it made it worse 🙁
klm1213 amy341731
Posted
I agree with you 100%. When I went in to my doctor about a month ago because my anxiety was out of control, which caused my heartbeat like crazy she actually asked me if I was bipolar because I was talking Non-Stop about how I was feeling and trying to describe it to her. Once I left the doctor's office, I was totally calm again. Any little thing causes me anxiety I tried to distract myself and not worry about it but it's hard. I've never had anxiety and my entire life to all of this kicked in a couple of months ago. I'm 46 also and I also started having symptoms about a year-and-a-half ago with weird periods, night sweats, hot ... I honestly think I could deal with everything else if the anxiety went away.