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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 is no wonder that women who enter perimenopause often feel out of sorts.

It’s so strange that you can get into your 40s or 50s – 30s if you’re really unlucky – without anyone ever warning you about perimenopause. 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 that occur during the perimenopausal phase 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   , , , , , ,  

Scientists say new blood test can predict when women will go into menopause

Do you really need a blood test to tell you it might be menopause?

The headline made me smile a little. After all, most women can predict when they will go into menopause: my sources, usually reliable, tell me it’s likely to start somewhere between 50 and 51. Of course, perimenopause  is another matter entirely but that is one of those subjects you don’t want to dwell on too much because you’ll get an age range there of anywhere from about 35 to 70 plus and thinking about that for too long is unlikely to do much for your mental health. I don’t know about you, but in my experience the worst symptoms are the ones you have before you realise what is actually going on, the ones that start in mid to late thirties – irritability, anxiety, occasional tearfulness, various odd physical symptoms – and the trouble is that without any noticeable impact on the menstrual cycle combined with the fact that you’re long enough out of adolescence to have forgotten what out-of-kilter hormones feel like – it can take a while before the light dawns and you realise that maybe what’s going on is natural. After those turbulent years, the fifty plus bit is easier. The purpose of the new test is to help women work out how late they can leave child bearing and they say the test is a more reliable predictor than age. There are other tests that will tell you whether you are in menopause. I’ve had one in the wardrobe for the last year or so and never got round to doing it. But you know what? I think I’ve figured it out myself anyway.

Leave a comment   Menopause, Menopause symptoms, Perimenopause

Neti Pots

Yet another lesson for Izzy this week as the menopause education process continues. Who ever heard of a Ceramic Neti Pot – Black? You’re going to tell me that you know all about them, aren’t you? But like the bed fan, they are an entirely new concept to me. Apparently you fill them with salty water and then pour the water into your nose to wash out the nasal passages. This is supposed to help with sinus problems which, as you know, have become a midlfe problem for me and which seem to be linked to the much more bothersome vertigo.

I honestly cannot see how I can use one of these to pour water up my nose without ending up with water all over my face and in my hair but I have been taking a look on Amazon and, if I do decide to give it a try, then I think it has to be one of these;

Leave a comment   Menopause symptoms, Sinus, Vertigo   ,  
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