Perimenopause - Warning TMI!

[thekarens]

First off I'm 43...well, I'll be 43 the end of April, so I've started claiming it now.

In the "good old days" I could set a clock by my cycle every 28 days. Then about 12 years ago it switched to every 21 days. I felt cheated, but dealt with it.

So, come December, I skipped and I didn't think anything of it, skipped again in January and thought, hurrah! It's ending for good! Pregnancy never crossed my mind because I'm a lesbian and as I've told my gyn, my wife has had a hysterectomy so it's not possible

Come Feb I start and am bummed, but I think...oh well, it was good while it lasted. The only problem is it has NEVER ended...well, that's not true, it ends and restarts and stops and spots and oh what fun! I've always been a person that bleeds very heavily the first couple of days and then it tapers off, so the beginning of Feb heavy bleeding, tapering off, and spotting and bleeding off and on ever since.

I haven't had any hot flashes thankfully, but I have found that I'm depressed and tired and extremely forgetful. The other day I went into Walgreens for toilet paper and envelopes and came home with M&Ms! Last night I had to email my son's therapist to ask if he had an appointment this week (he has one every other week.)

I finally sucked it up and made an appointment for Monday just to confirm that it is perimenopause. That goes to show what a disruption all this has been in my life because my ded is $1750 per person and I don't EVER go to the doc.

To make this bike related and not just a rant I'll say I have no interest in getting on the bike and I love riding, especially mountain biking. I need to get on, but I'm tired, I don't feel good and I'm depressed. I struggle with endurance as it is. My partner gleefully speeds along with the 16-18 group for 45 miles and I struggle with the 12-14 for 25. On Friday we're supposed to do a Good Friday ride that's 35 miles at 15 and it's a no drop group and Saturday our club is riding with the local high school MTB race team. I'm considering pulling the covers over my head and hiding for the weekend.

I've read the average for perimenopause is 4/5 years, but can last up to a decade. I want to know how homicide doesn't occur more often if that's the case?

[ny biker]

Definitely talk to your doctor. For starters, a short course of birth control pills might be all you need to reset your cycle. But there could be other stuff going on, too, so it's worth having a checkup.

Good luck!

[indysteel]

Definitely talk to your doctor. For starters, a short course of birth control pills might be all you need to reset your cycle. But there could be other stuff going on, too, so it's worth having a checkup.

Good luck!

I'm 43 as well, and the irregularities in my period, along with mild depression and fatigue were largely due to thyroid issues, not perimenopause. In the very least, get a full blood screen to test for things like anemia, thyroid function, Vitamin D deficiency, etc.

[shootingstar]

Every woman is different. And there have been varying experiences even into menopause and onward that were posted in TE forums.

The latest for me (@54), is that I stopped having periods over 18 months ago. But now my hot flashes seem to be increasing abit. Annoying. But manageable. (I always had a history of uneven periods. Some of it was lack of iron or stress. Shrug. I've been checked over the decades. It's just "me". I could never predict my period on start and stop date accurately. Always kind of vague for me.)

Someone's mother I had heard, always had at least 1 surprise period episode annually after menopause until she died in her early 80's.

As for cycling, if you don't want to ride with others, then don't, but still ride at your own pace. Some cycling is always a good thing..and makes one happier. The natural endorphins are always a good thing. Always.

[SheFly]

I'm turning 45 this year, and was just at the doctor last week for a physical. I told her that my cycle is now every NINETEEN days (yup - you read that right), and some months lasts 3 days, some 4 and others 5. No rhyme or reason. I am also having more frequent occurrences of ovarian cysts, and just found out today that my pap smear was slightly abnormal. Yay. Means I get to go in for another in 6 months (and did I mention that today I got to have an ultrasound for the cysts? And that it was external AND internal?) Double yay.

My doctor hasn't indicated perimenopause, but that the abnormalities are fairly normal "at my age" . Ah - the joys of being an aging woman...

SheFly

[Sylvia]

I've read the average for perimenopause is 4/5 years, but can last up to a decade. I want to know how homicide doesn't occur more often if that's the case?

LOL.. I hear you on that one.. I'm 50 and perimenopause has definitely been a journey for me. I've had the mood swings, the depression, the lack of energy, the inability to concentrate, the slowing of my metabolism (and accompanying weight gain) any and all of it at various times. I've had my thyroid checked and blood work done and everything checked out. Actually had it done twice. And perimenopause definitely seemed to bring out any garbage from my past that I still needed to work on too.

So I've tried various things over time to help relieve some of these symptoms. Early on just taking St Johns wort and Estrovan along with increasing soy intake helped, but with time they didn't help much as the symptoms worsened. A friend of mine who is several years older but went through much the same thing, recommended the Mannatech Plus supplements, and those really helped me. I also spoke with a gyn nurse practitioner who recommended the Emerita Progest cream. That has also helped particularly with the energy part. This year I've also added 50 miles a week of indoor cycling and juicing to my regimen. I've found all of these things to help me but they don't get rid of the problem. I think with time the really bad low, lows have decreased. And now I feel like I have various things that help relieve the symptoms.

As others will probably say, work with your doctor and hopefully you will find things that work for you.
Also ask others, like you are doing now, to see what has worked for them.

[OakLeaf]

I'm postmenopausal now, but I hate to tell you, perimenopause started in my late 30s and lasted a good ten years for me. And the irregular periods continued right up until they stopped. (I'd always been clockwork until perimenopause too.) Consider yourself lucky that you don't have to be spending the money on pregnancy tests that I spent every time I was two weeks late, for five years.

I didn't start having hot flashes until after my periods stopped AND I quit eating soy. Thankfully, they've been very mild, and are tapering off.

Hope the symptoms become tolerable for you.

[shootingstar]

I usually have my mild hot flashes at night when am in bed. I have not noticed any relationship between tofu and hot flashes because I rarely eat tofu. I just forget to buy the stuff.

Thank goodness, the thought of hot flashes in humid summers during the day... Some of you gals are tough.

As for not wanting to bike even by yourself at your own pace, because you are tired/demotivated, I occasionally remind myself this: there are people who are paralyzed for life and can't bike like us. Our problems could be way worse.

[thekarens]

Oak and SheFly gave me things to look forward to

I appreciate everyone sharing their thoughts and experiences. I'm not completely miserable every day all the time. I have my good moments. It just seems like the bad have been outweighing the good lately.

Shootingstar, I have a friend that was an avid, and I mean crazy, runner. She LOVED it with a passion. She ran 24 marathons and then had to have her knee replaced. The doc told her no more running, period, so she's taken up cycling, but she's not that enthusiastic about it, so I get your point.

[Crankin]

My peri-menopause also started at 38. I had years of horrible PMS, with physical symptoms, not emotional, and it pretty much morphed into peri-menopause with the same symptoms. My periods became heavier and closer together. Or, I went 6-11 months without one. Then, they just stopped at age 48.5. Hot flashes started about a year later and lasted for 4-5 years. Nothing that kept me from doing anything. I hated having my period, so that was a reward. Of course, I have osteoporosis, but I have a strong family history, as well as other risk factors, so there's probably nothing I could have done to avoid that. It took me about 12 years to finally find a medication I can take to help with that.
I'm thankful I didn't gain tons of weight or have any cognitive/emotional symptoms.

[emily_in_nc]

I started getting heavier and closer-together periods in my early to mid-40s and had a couple of scary episodes of "flooding" in early peri-menopause. Now, finally, in the last year or two, I've started having longer spacing between periods. 40 days, 60 days, but then I'll get one at 14 days, then back to 28 days.... This last one has been my longest gap between -- my last period started Dec. 4th, and I just now started today for the first time since, so what's that, almost four months? It's been a nice break, and I was SO hoping that I was done. I'll be 52 in 1.5 weeks and ready for it to be over, but not enough to do anything unnatural to hasten it along.

I have not had terrible peri- or menopausal symptoms as yet. A few minor hot flashes, but nothing debilitating, and nothing else that serious, though my memory is not what it used to be.

At least for me, I'd have to say that peri-menopause has been about an 8 year journey so far, though it's hard to remember back to know exactly when it started.

[shootingstar]

I think I was in periomenopause for over 3 yrs. It was such gradual, gentle process that crept through me.

[Irulan]

Any comments on changes in libido levels? For the most part, things are going pretty smoothly here with occasional mild hot flashes and a real decrease in bleeding days/time. I'm down to just some spotting every few months or so. The biggest thing for me is lack of libido, and no rhyme or reason to the levels. At least when I was menstruating, I could tie in the highs and lows to my cycles, and there were highs. I suppose this is related to dropping in hormone levels.

[zoom-zoom]

I need to come back to this thread later when I have time to read all of the responses and contribute more, but at 40 my cycles are generally 23 days and have been for at least the past 5 years. Totally annoying, especially since I bleed for ~8 days, so I feel like I have my period at least a third of the time. I'd have a hysterectomy if I didn't dread the thought of no activity for 6 weeks or more. I've had endometriosis and adenomyosis since my first period, so there would be benefit to being rid of the uterus and my one "hamburger" ovary. Menopause doesn't sound so bad, right now...

[Biciclista]

I'm 61 and my hot flashes are more vivid (shall we say) than ever. I am glad you are going to the doctor, although i started with all this nonsense in my late 30s too, the bleeding didn't stop until i was 54. OH BOY I was glad. woohoo! I went to the doctor after a long pause and she said, "we don't count it until a year has passed" so sure enough 11 months later, i had another period. but then it really stopped. I do not miss it. nope. But the silly hot flashes, come on, do they EVER stop?