Perimenopause and Symptoms of PMS

You have probably experienced these symptoms even if you didn’t recognise them as premenstrual tension

A woman I worked with once told me she felt like an over-ripe tomato when she had PMS and was so sensitive to touch that she thought she would explode if anyone touched her.

For me, it’s noise. There are days when the chatter on the train in the morning goes right through my head putting me in a bad mood that can last all day. Noise sensitivity is, in fact, one of the symptoms of PMS although I hadn’t made the connection until I came across an amazing list of pre-menstrual syndrome symptoms recently. It includes:

  • bloating
  • abdominal cramping up to 2 weeks before period that may also be felt in the back, thighs, or vaginal area
  • poor coordination
  • rashes
  • breast pain and swelling
  • stiff neck
  • back/joint pain
  • indecisiveness
  • slurred speech
  • eye problems – dry eyes, difficulty focusing, aching eyes
  • tiredness
  • hand tingling
  • sensitivity to noise, touch or smell
  • dizziness / fainting
  • pounding or irregular heart
  • more – or less – interest in sex

Not to mention the mood and emotion symptoms that are more commonly connected to PMS.

There are some practical steps that can help alleviate these symptoms like avoiding sugar and alcohol, switching to a healthier diet, and taking regular exercise. It’s not a bad idea to have a little refresher on these techniques because by the time we get to peri-menopause when PMS symptoms can resurface as a problem, many of us will have forgotten both how wide the symptoms can be and what’s effective in dealing them. The article cited above is a useful starting point. It has certainly opened my eyes.

For more on the subject of menopause, you may like to read this useful feature from the New York Times.

2 comments   Alcohol, breast pain, Dizziness, Eyes, Health, Menopause, Perimenopause, PMS, PMT, Symptoms, throbbing breasts   , ,  

Low moods, hormones and perimenopause

Confusing symptoms, PMT and Perimenopause

The thing I hate most about perimenopause is the uncertainty that comes with this hormonal shift. There is the inconvenience of an altered pattern of periods – irregularity interspersed with regularity, lighter periods interspersed with much heavier periods, longer periods interspersed shorter periods, all of which together mean rarely leaving home without an array of sanitary options to cope with each eventuality. Add to that the fluctuating PMT-type symptoms - low moods, tearfulness, anxiety – and then the headaches, aching joints, the weird and/or horrifying dreams, the painful sore breasts and palpitations. It’s so strange that you can get into your 40s or 50s – 30s if you’re really unlucky – without anyone ever warning you. When the symptoms kick in they are confusing and it takes a while to work out what is going on. What’s amazing, and wonderful, is to find so many women going through the same experience and sharing their experiences and concerns on blogs and discussion boards. I’m not an advocate for any HRT or herbal remedies but I definitely do advocate looking at diet and exercise as tools to help combat the changes and, after a month of dining out and pre-Christmas festivities, it’s definitely time to take some of my own medicine. I know I would feel the better for it.

For more information on menopause, see this useful article from the New York Times.

2 comments   breast pain, Menopause symptoms, Nightmares, Perimenopause, PMS, PMT   , , , , , , , ,  

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Passenger on the Bus – PMT and Menopause

Did you ever have that sight test where you look into some kind of machine and you see a bus, and they ask you which row the passenger is sitting in? And if you are like me, you say ‘What passenger?’ And then you realise, suddenly, inexplicably, there’s a passenger sitting in mid air about 50 yards behind the bus …

Well, today, on a crankiness scale of 1-10, like the passenger, I am off the scale. I knew from the off it was going to be a bad day. For one thing, it’s Monday. For another, I had to go to work. For another,  it started with a parking ticket. €40, my friends, on top of the €220 for those excellent Pirellis last week. You could get a week in Spain for that kind of money. Yes, I was illegally parked but for goodness sake I have PMT (that’s PMS to my US readers) and cannot be expected to walk any more than I can be expected to forego my coffee in the moring. 

Then, at work, I was freezing all morning before the inner themostat switched unexpectedly and I burned up for the afternoon. It really improves the mood to know your colleagues can see you sitting there with a face so red it would frighten the Big Bad Wolf. And add to that breathless (Did you know that breathless may also be a menopause symptom?)

I am not going to bore you further with the details of the crankiness because, let’s face it, if you’re looking for menopause tips, then I don’t need to teach my grandmother to suck eggs on the PMT front. What I do find somewhat suprising is that it no longer necessarily heralds a period since even on the missed months, the PMT still shows up for a couple of days.

Fortunately, I’m so cranky, I was able to fly home unaided on my BRRRRRRRRoooooooom stick so I’ve saved on the petrol (that’s gas, to you US folks and anything but gas to you Irish folks). Ahhh. Home sweet home. Thank goodness for the empty nest, the sweet sound of silence, the soothing glass of cabernet sauvignon, and the prospect of dinner sometime this side of midnight. Turn on Michael Buble, darling. Menopause. It’s not all bad.

Leave a comment   Menopause, PMS, PMT   ,