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[Dandelion]

I have a friend who is always flushing.
I asked her if her flushes start in the upper body and radiate out.
She said yes, and she feels like she has got a heating element there, and is often hot when the rest of us are not.
She also has been getting irregular periods.
She said she keeps getting fobbed off by doctors as they say she is too young to be starting menopause.
I told her she might not be too young, and some women start in their thirties or early forties like me who started at 42.
I told her to go back and ask for a blood test, but I know that these can be inaccurate. That's how my gp dealt with me.
My blood test was not conclusive and a repeat test was necessary, but after my doctor felt my soggy neck she was willing to start me on hrt, but only if I got a smear first, as I was reluctant to get a smear, because I didn't see any point as I was suicidal anyway back then. I got the smear, then the hrt saga started.
I told my friend it might a while to trial different hrt's to see which one suited her best.
I dunno what else to advise her as you cannot really force someone to ask for a blood test if the doctors are reluctant. She sees the same doctors surgery as me.

[Briony]

I recently suggested a friend in a similar situation emailed Dr Currie. She then took the email to her doctor who was more supportive. Another strategy is to ask her GP to investigate whether she has a hormone imbalance - as opposed to starting meno. My previous GP  was far more accepting of the consultant saying I had an imbalance (at 40) rather than 'was in a meno'. Remember, obviously, that hot flushes can be caused by other things (admittedly rarely) so worth getting those checked out too. x

[CLKD]

Get her to join here so that she can send a personal e-mail to Dr Currie.  She can then take the answer to her GP and wave it at him!

Or go to the Practice Nurse in her Surgery?  Or make a double appt. with her GP and ask for proof that she is 'too young', ask what he is judging his knowledge on ……..

[Pollie]

I like that -


"Investigate a hormone imbalance " 


Nice one Briony !

[CLKD]

However, that means blood tests which are reliably unreliable  ……..

Go to the Practice Nurse and discuss! then let us know.

[Hurdity]

As far as I understand she does not need to join the forum in order to use the e-mail consultation service with Dr Currie. It is available to anyone as it is advertised on the front page of the website, not the forum, and is charged through your telephone (I think it still is done this way).

http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/index.php (scroll down).

If she is under 45 then a blood test should be carried out - according to the new draft NICE guidelines:

Consider using a FSH test to diagnose menopause only:

in women aged over 45 years with atypical symptoms
in women aged 40 to 45 years with menopausal symptoms including a change in their menstrual cycle
in women aged under 40 years in whom menopause is suspected

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/GID-CGWAVE0639/documents/menopause-draft-guideline-nice2

No doctor should tell a women she is too young to start menopause - this is irresponsible and absurd if she is having irregular cycles. The doctor should order full blood tests including thyroid function etc - as CLKD says - to see if there is a hormone imbalance - and I mean that seriously. Flushes can be caused by other hormonal issues like thyroid.

Ask her to go to see another doctor in the practice and write down her symptoms and that she would like blood tests - she shouldn't have to ask for these. I would do this in preference to e-mailing Dr Currie in the first instance.

Hurdity x

[Briony]

I'm being serious about a hormonal imbalance. My FSH was normal and periods were no different to previous years (always been all over the place) so GP dismissed meno 'especially at your age' (and considered no other hormonal cause). Then had years (literally) of trailing from one specialist to another. A neurologist was the one who suspected my hormones - without even asking about my menstrual cycle, and then they tested my estrogen (more than once) to find at times it was often ridiculously low, yet at other times, above average. I'd guessed this was the case from the start.    GP was then happy to accept it was a hormonal imbalance (AKA 'peri-menopause' I suspect!) and treat me for it.

[CLKD]

Why does it take so long before GPs will listen 

[Spangles]

I took a premensil menopause test which I got from Boots, it cost around £18. Basically it's a urine test, you get two, you do them 1 week apart, it measures FSH levels in urine, two positive tests indicate menopause.
I had to do this and take it to my GP before they would listen and guess what....... They had never heard of such a test!
However with the evidence in my hand they had to do something.
Still makes me cross that I wasn't just listened to in the first place!
Good luck
Shellb
xXx

[ancient runner]

"Hormonal imbalance" is interesting - when I was in my 20s I went through a phase of having awful night sweats. Suffered a lot with "cystitis" as well where often no bugs were found, and I had proper teenage spots. Later went on to have children and am really only now having irregular periods at 54. But it seems to me that at that point, I had some serious oestrogen problems, looking back. My mum had the same night sweats apparently.