Interesting thread!
I think mine kicked off 5 years ago, 44 years old. I was on holiday in August when I had an unusually heavy period for the first time. I was in a water park and had to scuttle with my knees locked together, back to the lockers for another tampon. This continued for the next couple of cycles. By Christmas time, I was flooding through super plus tampons within an hour. I had a hysteroscopy to check everything was ok and they put in a mirena. (I'd had two mirenas after child 2 was born, no trouble at all and no periods) Within a month, I'd lost it. I had a horrific bleed - it fell out wrapped round an huge clot. Cue trip to A&E for massive bleed. Discharged with more progestogen pills to stop the bleeding. I had multiple floodings and was stuck at home with them. So back to the gynae clinic where we decide to go for an ablation.
In all this time, not one doctor mentioned that this might be the start of perimenopause
The clues were there... regular light periods turning super-heavy and the cycle becoming erratic.
Since then my major symptoms are more anxiety-related. I rarely have flushes. I get the odd night sweat but I do get palpitations, upset tummy, feelings of dread, extreme health anxiety (I've lost count of the number of times a new symptom was a sign of cancer/imminent death), erratic cycles even on HRT.
I'm off to the doc this morning to have him check out a skin blob (just in case) and to ask him to up my HRT dose as I don't think the current one is working for me any more. As I'm typing this, my stomach is churning, my heart is pounding and my jaw muscles are so tight.