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[honorsmum]

I'm a skinny minny by nature - 5 ft 4 and under 9 stone most of the time - and have Crohn's and IBS. Usually, I can happily miss meals (breakfast or lunch) and eat too many cakes, biscuits and chocolate to make up for it.
Until the New Year, I had been struggling to eat - no appetite and feeling sick at the thought of food.
However, in the last few weeks, I've gone completely the opposite and am hungry almost as soon as I've finished eating. I am having to eat as soon as I wake up, and then again less than 2 hours later, and so on throughout the day. I also wake up hungry in the early hours, which coincides with palpitations, adrenaline rush etc. I have to have protein bars to hand at all times!
The only times I've been like this before were during both pregnancies and when I was on steroids for Crohn's.
Hormones? It seemed to calm down last weekend, when my period arrived, but is back again.

Also, I'm getting spots. Not just on my face, but strange places like the nape of my neck. They are weird - no head as such, just painful lumps that take ages to heal.

My nails grow quite fast, but all of them have broken and flaked since last weekend.

Are these all peri related?

[toffeecushion]

I don't know if it is peri, but I also have spots with no head, but quite painful.  They are mainly around my hairline.  I am also finding my head very itchy.  I thought maybe I wasn't rinsing my hair properly.

[BrightLight]

I don't know if it is hormone related either - but I have completely lost my appetite in the last year, it comes back sometimes but generally it is noticeably different.  I started to eat little and often to keep blood sugar levels straight - so I guess you are counterbalancing in an intuitive way with your protein bars.

I also have the nail thing, but recently they are growing fast again (?)  Oh and the spots with no head, just lumps that quite quickly go down (I only ever had spots as a teenager on my back).  Intermittant flaky scalp just at the front and sometimes greasy (yuk) but again it comes and goes and hasn't been around for a while.

All I can say is that this is a crazy time in life and I do suspect hormones are at the root. 

[honorsmum]

Interesting.
I forgot to say - I went gluten free for a month recently, almost on a whim, and as an unconscious side effect, stopped eating all cakes and chocolate. I have always been addicted to chocolate, but I seem to have lost the taste for it recently.
I'm back to eating gluten now, because I thought that cutting out starchy carbs in bread etc was affecting my blood sugar levels, but still not craving cakes, biscuits and sweet things.

I find I start to get twitchy and low feeling if I don't eat soon enough, especially in the evening.

[CLKD]

I went off chocolate for about 10 years, suddenly.  It made me feel sluggish.

Try eating every 3 hours ……. that sudden hunger is hormonally based, as the body craves energy !

[honorsmum]

I went off chocolate for about 10 years, suddenly.  It made me feel sluggish.

Try eating every 3 hours ……. that sudden hunger is hormonally based, as the body craves energy !

I can't wait 3 hours,CLKD - I'm having to eat at least every 2!
 I have 2 breakfasts, lunch soon after midday, cheese and biscuits mid afternoon, smoothies, dinner, and a hot milk and snack before bed...plus oat bars in the early hours.

[CLKD]

Bananas are good slow release foods.  Tinned rice pudding? hot or cold.  RedyBrek?

[honorsmum]

I've got tinned rice pudding here. 

[Kathleen]

Hello honorsmum.

I am 5 foot 2 inches and about 9 stone and have always had a small appetite but I have noticed some strange fluctuations since starting meno so hormones are playing a part I believe.

Btw the only time I took steroids for UC I became obsessed with food and could easily have snatched snacks from the mouths of strangers on the street. I thought of nothing else, it was like food pornography. Most odd but come to think of it steroids are hormones too aren't they.

Take care.

K.

[honorsmum]

Hello honorsmum.

I am 5 foot 2 inches and about 9 stone and have always had a small appetite but I have noticed some strange fluctuations since starting meno so hormones are playing a part I believe.

Btw the only time I took steroids for UC I became obsessed with food and could easily have snatched snacks from the mouths of strangers on the street. I thought of nothing else, it was like food pornography. Most odd but come to think of it steroids are hormones too aren't they.

Take care.

K.

Hi Kathleen,

I was a food monster on steroids for Crohn's too! I just ate and ate and ate, which I enjoyed because I'd only ever had a good appetite when I was pregnant. Unlike most people, I felt great on steroids - like the real me, with bags of energy and enthusiasm (and my house was the cleanest it's ever been, from being awake at 4am every single morning!)

The hunger I'm experiencing now isn't so much fun - it's like an emptiness that needs filling, regardless of whether I actually want to eat, if that makes sense.

[CLKD]

AHHH steroids - they made my dog really hungry!

So little and often ……. keep snacks by the bed and munch if you have a bathroom visit in the early hours.  I love shortbread!

[Hurdity]

Hi honorsmum

You definitely need to work out all the slow release foods (low GI) so that you can avoid putting on weight at these hungry times. Have I asked if you've had your thyroid checked? Overactive thyroid can make you hungry.

Also oestrogen and progesterone definitely have different effects on blood sugar metabolism so your extreme hunger could be related to your hormone fluctuations. If you read about diabetes and the menstrual cycle it goes a clue to this - but also says that their effects on blood sugar can be different for different women!

I used to get very hungry at some point just before my period and sometimes get very low blood sugar symptoms too - and needed to eat more.

Not sure about snacks by the bed? I would never eat in the night ie a time when I'm not active! I want my body to self regulate and if necessary burn fat if any energy is needed! My evening meal should provide enough though.... 

Hurdity x

[honorsmum]

Hi Hurdity,

Initially, I thought a lot of my symptoms were maybe hyperthyroidism, but I have had thyroid tests done several times in the last 7 months and all come back normal (if anything, on the side of hypo, ie TSH not suppressed).
Are such hormonal fluctuations normal outside of peri/meno years?

I have to have a snack by the bed, because I am getting hypoglycaemia in the middle of the night at times - really unpleasant.

I am trying to eat more protein with every meal, as well as slow release foods like granola, porridge etc.

[CLKD]

Whilst your meal 'should' provide enough ………. if you are extra hungry then it obviously isn't enough! I was advised in my mid-30s to eat every 3 hours even through the night - so when up with the pup in the night [2.30-3.00 ish regularly  ] I had biscuits before going back to sleep - which she soon latched onto  …….. because going through the night is a LONG while for the body to make up energy the next morning ……… and it had to be 24/7 or I would have awful low blood sugar attacks when I would feel suddenly sick and dizzy, so had to be strict with myself 

Fortunately slipping   splitting  nails hasn't been a problem but I do get the odd 'teen' spot 

[Briony]

Know just what you mean about those weird headless spots. They are painful and unsqueezable    Someone on here told me they are typical in the peri meno years. I too have had the hair itching. Tried everything but only Piriton works (trouble is, it knocks me for six too!). As for the nails, I have made a discovery. Mine break as soon as I stop taking progesterone. Literally, three days after and they will break off doing the most simple of tasks such as opening a can of cat food! Don't know what regime you're on, but look out to see if there's a pattern x