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[Joanne.rose]

Hi, New here! I'm Jo, 44, got the shock of my life last year, experienced awful panic attacks, strange sensations, night sweats, asthma, indigestion!! was completely in shock when I found out I was already going through menopause at 43. Now on oestrogel and merina and trying different supplements, finding HRT only takes the edge off. I'm amazed how awful hormone changes can make you feel!!! Looking for moral support really x

[CLKD]

   you may need a hike in dosage, how often to you have a review of your HRT?  Browse round. Ask away.  It does kind of creep up and then WHAM!

[Joanne.rose]

Thanks so much for your reply, I have been on 4 pumps maximum oestrogel per day since the beginning, which will be two years in May. I worry about it because today it's on the news saying increased risk of ovarian cancer, but gp told me I should be on it till 50 to protect against heart disease and osteoporosis!

[CLKD]

Have a read round you will see Dr Currie's article [Joint ROC etc. ]  and reassurance here - if only I could remember which room it's in  - we have a thread on that too 

Ask away!

[Joanne.rose]

Thankyou😊 I'll have a look for it x

[honorsmum]

Hi Joanne,

I'm 45 (just!)and started getting all sorts of crazy symptoms in the autumn, although looking back, I think things started to go astray earlier last year.
It really does feel like you're losing your mind, doesn't it?
Did your anxiety symptoms come out of the blue, or had your periods changed first?

My cycles started to vary in length, then I started to suffer from bad ovulation and period pains, with lower back pain, tiredness, etc and then I was hit with palpitations, followed by insomnia, anxiety, fatigue, the odd sweat, nausea, blood sugar issues, ridiculous hunger, changes to my skin and nails...!

Was your GP supportive - did they diagnose on symptoms or by blood tests?

[Joanne.rose]

Hi honorsmum, Thankyou for replying. It started with about a year of irregular periods, looking back I'd done 3 pregnancy tests because I was having such big gaps! Have a very busy life, full time job and 3 children now aged 19, 17 and 7, so didn't really focus on myself so much. I had other symptoms, occasional night sweats, personal dryness! I didn't even consider it could be menopause. My skin seemed to get increasingly sensitive, then I literally suddenly started to get horrific sensations of anxiety and a sense of impending doom which would last a few minutes then go! They started to happen mostly during the evening but at random times in the day, and I'd feel so hot eating my dinner id go and stand outside! I'm a mental health nurse and I couldn't identify any triggers to anxiety! When I went to the gp I saw a lovely woman who was so helpful, she told me straight away I was textbook menopausal, she did bloods but they didn't show anything, she prescribed me Hrt anyway. I only had one more unusually very heavy period and have had nothing since.
How are you coping??? I think it's horrible!! X

[CLKD]

It can be horrible.  'Natural' ain't all it's cracked up to be  ……..

[honorsmum]

Poor you! Your GP sounds like a gem, though.

I wouldn't say I'm coping, more surviving!
It's horrible, as you say. I had a 7 hour visit to a&e just before Christmas, because my heart was at 130bpm for hours and I kept getting this horrible sensation in my chest, like a bubbling rushing feeling - awful. I was referred for heart tests - ECHO scan, 24 hour ecg - and am waiting for the results, but I know it's not a heart issue!
My GP has run numerous blood tests - thyroid, diabetes, ovarian cancer, all the usual ones as well, and also a 24 hour urine collection to test for a rare adrenal tumour...all because she refuses to consider perimenopause, because my FSH blood test back in October was "normal."

She has tried to suggest it's all anxiety, but unfortunately I won't accept her diagnosis because 5 years ago, she misdiagnosed Crohn's as anxiety for 8 months, stuck me on Citalopram and it nearly sent me over the edge - I was so poorly and had such a horrendous reaction to the antidepressants.

So, in desperation, I have arranged to see a leading specialist in women's health, Dr Annie Evans, next month and very much hope she can wave a magic wand to help me find the old me again.

I have a son of 9 and a daughter of 11, and her hormones are just kicking in - my poor husband!

[BrightLight]

Hi Joanne.rose

I am 44 and just found out the same and your experience sounds so similar - my symptoms started with skin sensitivity and feeling hot in the evenings, anxiety unrelated to anything and terrible sleep.  My GP wasn't as on the ball as yours and it wasn't until my last period which was odd and accompanied by feelings I was very ill and with bad pain that they tested my thyroid and hormones and said "you know you thought last year that something underlying was going on - well it was, you are menopausal".

Shock doesn't even cover it - mainly because my head has to catch up and I do feel let down by my GP.  From reading here, there seem to be a few ladies that are experiencing this hormonal type of anxiety and doom yet the doctors don't always recognise it as symptomatic of menopause.  For me my periods didn't seem out of whack until the last one so I couldn't make the connection firmly enough for my own mind - I felt very alone last year, wondering why I was so up and down.

[Joanne.rose]

Honorsmum, I think you've had awful treatment from your gp, I think I struck very lucky, she was a locum covering somebody's mat leave so isn't there any more. She said hormones don't show until you're through it completely!

[Joanne.rose]

Brightlight, it's so nice to know others are around the same age, it makes you feel less freaky! I questioned why, but my gp advised me to ask my mum and she was 44, I told her she could have at least warned me!! I looked up the sensitivity and asthma and read somewhere it's do with producing more histamine when your oestrogen drops, not sure if that's proven or not? I feel as if I'm too young and have lost a decade somewhere!

Honorsmum I've convinced myself regularly I have a heart murmur since this started, before the hrt I had palpitations and felt sick and like I was going to have a bowel movement! The hrt seems to have lessened everything though looking back x

[BrightLight]

It really is nice to now people of similar age - I too feel like a freak - even wondered if people can tell!  How bonkers is that? !  Hopefully this sense of losing a decade will fade.........right now it is horrible.

I only wish I could have spoken to you last year as I was also finding out about histamine and trying to piece things together ha

The interesting and hopefully useful thing to share is that (fingers crossed) the skin sensitivity has almost gone, I can't be sure but it really did come and go for no reason - so perhaps it is a temporary response to the hormones and my body is doing what it is meant too and adjusting. The hot and cold thing is also dying down and the dry eyes - did I mention the dry eyes  

Now I just have a weak feeling, a sagging behind and in the front and anxiety issues - I am laughing but I am not - trying to rise above the self esteem bashing I feel at the moment.

I am so glad your GP talked you through things, I asked why and have been struggling with that quite a lot, a feeling of 'failure' or 'broken', irrational but it's how I feel at times, as if I did something or have some other problem.  My mother has passed away and never mentioned anything to me as a teenager (!) but her best friend 'thinks' she was about 47 and I am nearly 45.  My best mums friend is fine, well and still gorgeous and serene at 68, so there is hope

[honorsmum]

So pleased the HRT is having a positive effect, Joanne.

The histamine thing is really interesting. I had horrendous hay fever this last summer, something I don't generally suffer from. I saw the GP twice because I felt so lousy with it, and it was while listening to my chest that she first mentioned tachycardia. I was anything but anxious at that point - really content, actually - but my cycles were changing.
Right now, my eczema is awful - I wonder if it's all connected?

Isn't it interesting when you look back and piece together all those seemingly incidental, unrelated niggles?

[Hurdity]

Hi Joanna.rose  from me too!

Hurdity x