am I perimenopausal??

Posted , 8 users are following.

Hello ladies. I am so glad I've found you all. I have been heartened by reading your discussions and relieved to know I'm not going mad! My periods have been irregular and ridiculously heavy for about a year now. I work away from home a lot and often stay in hotels so this had become a real issue for me. I have suffered with bouts of anxiety and depression for about 20 years but had been symptom free for many years thanks to Citalopram (SSRI) .. however in november the stress of work, heavy periods and being away from home took its toll and I crashed into a frightening bout of hideous anxiety. I am used to the symptoms but this was something else.i felt so desperate at times I didnt know what I woulddo and I was scared. I am convinced my current anxiety is linked to my hormones and am now thinking I may be perimenopausal. I am desperate to find a solution as ive now been off work for 11 weeks and am dreading going back. Ive had a few good days but then I crash again and it all feels so hopeless. I feel physically sick and am struggling to eat.i deliver training on mental health so feel really u useless that I am struggling to manage my own. Is this all down to my age??? I am 48

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  • Posted

    Welcome anita. You have come to the right place. Everyone is so supportive, I don't know how I would cope without this forum. You are having a rotten time. I know the longer you are off work the harder it is. I'm retired but had about 12 weeks off following surgery but when I went back I did graduated return. This meant I didn't start working my usual hours for 4 weeks. Is that possible for you? It does help. I know there are ladies on this forum who will give you great advice re the menopause but I would consider HRT. Others won't agree but we all respect each other's advice.
    • Posted

      Hello matron. Thank you for your response and yes I am planning a phased return to work. My problem is that my job requires a lot of travelling away from home which is making me really anxious. I am currently taking the sleeping tablet zopiclone aswell to relieve the nighttime anxiety and help me to sleep. Im finding it quite difficult to get up and going in the mornings and cant imagine putting in a full days work at the moment!
    • Posted

      It's hard getting up when you've been off for a long time I know. Zopiclone is great in the short term and you are right it does help anxiety. Travelling is not normal for most of us so it is going to be difficult for you initially but think positively and don't think about the bad points. If you're away from home could you take a Zopiclone earlier than usual so you don't feel so groggy on a morning? It's going to be trial and error I suppose.
    • Posted

      I keep trying to reduce the zopiclone as im worried about addiction but whenever I do I seem to have an anxious day the next day. Do you have experience of this drug?
    • Posted

      Hi anita 

      i take Zopicllone have been using it years ... 

      but i take it on and off and have reduced it ..

      mine is 7.5 mg, but i never take that, its either half on occasion or a quarter 

      ( pill splitter ) 

      jay x

    • Posted

      Hello Anita. I was prescribed Zopiclone following major surgery. I found it helped me to drift off to sleep and kept me calm. I did find it hard to stop and I ended up going cold turkey. Eventually I bought the sleep aid tablets from the chemist to help. This was about 14 years ago. I now sleep without any help although it's pain that keeps me awake now (I have rheumatoid arthritis).
    • Posted

      Hi jay. Im taking 7.5mg but if ive had a few good days I split them and take half. It may be psychological but I think I am more anxious the next day when I reduce it. Have you taken them for long periods at a time?
    • Posted

      Hmm thats what I worry about. Been taking them for about 6 weeks but I cant bear the anxiety so I keep taking them
    • Posted

      You are lucky your GP will keep prescribing them. A lot of doctors only prescribe 2 weeks supply. Whenever I fly long haul I ask my GP for them but she only prescribes 6 tablets. 
  • Posted

    Anita, I understand the anxiety as I have suffered from panic attacks on and off for about 20 years. Good mental health genes do not seem to run in my family. I have found that peri had increased my general anxiety, off and on. Evening primrose oil 3x day helps me stay asleep when I go to bed at night. Before that I had terrible insomnia. I don't have hot flashes or night sweats. I have had foggy thinking previously.

    First, make sure that you are not deficient in vitamin D or iron. It seems that most of us are deficient in vitamin D from middle age and beyond if we don't take a supplement. I also take B vitamins, omega3, D3, C, calcium, magnesium, and raspberry leaf. Vitex/Chasteberry didn't agree with me.

    The irregular, heavy bleeding sounds like peri. I skipped periods for several years then started flooding, clotting, and spotting for ten months-clots sometimes as big as the palm of my hand! I think my whole uterine lining was sloughing off at one time! Never had any pain or cramps, though. I am 57, going through a late, prolonged peri.

    I use bioidentical, liposomal USP progesterone cream now for about two months, and it has stopped all that bleeding. I can now leave the house! I am obese, which complicates peri with excess estrogen. I had an estrogen dominance, which I just recently had proven by hormone testing. I decided to go to a wholistic doctor and pay out of pocket, and the doctor now prescribes the compounded bioidentical progesterone for me. Previously, I purchased it from Amazon and that worked just fine for me, too. It is not for everybody. You have to weigh the risks vs. benefits for bioidentical as well as synthetic hormones. Sometimes doing nothing can be riskier than the hormone option. It's up to you and your doctor to decide what's best for you. My plan is to stop the progesterone in three months to see if I've made it into menopause.

    Have you tried taking a probiotic for your stomach? About a year ago I would get sharp, high pains occassionaly in my stomach, especially an hour or two after eating until I started taking priobiotics. That stopped it immediately. I don't have to take them daily anymore. I read something about sugar causing an overgrowth in candida in your stomach and that can cause those pains and a probiotic will help get your gut flora back in check. I don't know if it's true, just that it worked great for me and another family member.

    I took citalopram for a year about ten years ago. It worked for depression but not for panic. Is it supposed to help with generalized anxiety? I took busparone ten years ago, too, but it doesn't do anything for panic.

    I have also experienced additional unexpected benefits to taking the biodentical progesterone besides stopping the bleeding. The anxiety and gloom and doom feeling is fading and my insulin resistance has decreased and I use less insulin now. Seems like hormones have their hand in everything!

    Maybe you need some kind of HRT or nutritional supplements. Maybe you need some more sunshine-I know I do! It's winter here in my part of the United States. Good luck and keep us posted!

    • Posted

      Fancygoldfish

      What great advice - a great posting.

      Like you, my 'nutty' gene pool's not great - but we sibling are all blessed with our late mums great SE London sense of humour. And believe me, that has got us sisters through some cr***y times.

      I was systematically prescribed SSRIs as a first course of treatment for Peri symptoms. All because I said, amongst a ton of other things, I had a few tears watching 'Don't tell the Bride'!!!! (maybe the Nurse Pract'r didn't have my sense of humour?!!)

      Truth is, my eldest steer has had on-ging mental health issues for the past 13yrs. She's had to be sectioned many times and only functions well with a ton of antipsychotic/ depressents/SSRIs. Get her balance off whack (or worse still when she decides she can do without them!) = complete nightmare.

      I see how these meds help our sister but they are rally of for m

      e right now. Just the side effects alone I recogise in my sister -

      and I haven't got any of them as my symptoms of Peri!

      Clearly I know these meds work - but only if you really need them. I went to the Docs asking for my Libido back and got prescribed meds that dampen it - great!!!

      The care of our sister is left to me and my next sister up. Both

      sisters love(d) HRT. In fact S, who's 62 and has been 'using' for 7yrs had it suggested to her that she wean off now. Lets just say, in no uncertain terms, she showed her GP what she'd be like without HRT - the Hulk has nothing on her!! Let's just say she came out with smiling, waving her repeat prescrt'n for HRT. And as for her GP.....I think he took some coaxing to come out from under his desk :-) !

      I'll be happy to go down the HRT route as I won't be a martyr to menopause. And if I can get through this without a broken bone, I'll be happy. Wrinkles, sagging, grey dry hair & skin = they're all part of getting old but if they bother you, you can get them fixed easily. After all: beauty only skin deep its what's inside that counts. I'll take the wrinkles and sagging, and my family's hair is naturally blonde or sandy so the silver streaks look like expensive hi-lights. I'm much more concerned about the physical (and mental of course) aspects of getting old rather than cosmetic You can see I'm not vain.........but I'd still like to get jiggy once in a while before I forget how to do it!!

    • Posted

      NOTE TO SELF: Stop posting messages from my Tablet!!!!

      'My eldest steer'!!! Where did that come from??!!! My eldest

      sister would find that very funny:-) !

      Apologies for the poor grammar/punctuation/layout - I HATE

      predicted text gggrrrrr!!!

  • Posted

    Hi Anita. Welcome to salvation ! I thought I was losing it, till I found this forum. I'm 48 and have had a whole host of bewildering and worrying symptoms for a couple of years now, which I now manage with natural remedies. Still have my off days and when I do, I just check in with the ladies here. Read and take heed of all the advice before making any decisions on what to take. Big hugs x
    • Posted

      Thank you so much. Yes I'm so glad I've found the support of this site. Definitely thought I was going mad and the only one experiencing this stuff so it's good to know I'm not alone.

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