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[WCR123]

So I am 50 and perimenopausal. About 5 months ago I started to feel
my anxiety getting bad ( and I am not an anxious person). Then about two months ago I started to get this off balance feeling. Like my brain is
Moving at a slightly slower pace than my head. It makes me a little sea sick and is very disconcerting. I also get headaches often, have plugged ears often and have a tight neck. I have had an MRI, Catscan and have seen a neurologist with nothing showing up.

Is it possible that these are meno symptoms? The dizziness is daily, sometimes better and sometimes worse but daily. I go see a meno specialist in a few weeks but it is hard for me to believe that my
Meno symptoms are all in my head ( literally!!!!).

Jen

[nearly50]

Yeah, I get this quite often and your description of your brain moving slower than your head is exactly how I've felt for the last couple of days. I've had a headache at the same time too, and stiff neck.   Never bothered mentioning it to a doctor, I'm just assuming now that everything new is down to hormonal issues at the moment. I do try to do neck exercises and take magnesium with calcium and think that helps. Maybe a massage for your neck would help a bit?

How are your periods? I think I feel like this when I miss periods, but not quite sure.

[Elizabethrose]

Hi ladies

No expert but I wonder whether these headaches and symptoms could be migraine. The fact that they seem prevalent around your periods is indicative that that could be so. They can cause dizziness, horrible ear pain and a feeling of blocked ears, neck pain, weird brain awareness and really so many other symptoms. The silent ones are difficult because without the headache the symptoms of prodrome can be really scary if you don't recognise what's happening.

Peri desperately triggers them for so many women x

[Megamind]

Elizabethrose, I have wondered if mine were migraine as I get horrible ear pain but always my right ear but I have a friend who gets really bad migraines with aura and numbness in her arm etc and so my symptoms didn't really match hers but I have read some of your posts about migraine and silent migraine and I did wonder.

[Elizabethrose]

Megamind, there are so many weird and whacky symptoms and we are all affected differently. To be honest every migraine can be different.

With some of mine I get shocking earache, toothache, jaw ache, neck ache, sinus and eye pain. So often this is misdiagnosed as sinus problems, the docs have told me many times over the years that migraines are frequently misdiagnosed as sinus problems. The Trigeminal  nerve seems to be involved in the migraine trigger and this will of course affect all areas of the head and face. x

[WCR123]

I have been wondering as well if my dizziness is migraine related as well. But I just don't know how I would even figure out if that is the case. My dizziness is every day and not just when I get a headache. I have gone off caffeine and MSG to see if it makes any difference...

Jen

[Megamind]

Megamind, there are so many weird and whacky symptoms and we are all affected differently. To be honest every migraine can be different.

With some of mine I get shocking earache, toothache, jaw ache, neck ache, sinus and eye pain. So often this is misdiagnosed as sinus problems, the docs have told me many times over the years that migraines are frequently misdiagnosed as sinus problems. The Trigeminal  nerve seems to be involved in the migraine trigger and this will of course affect all areas of the head and face. x

Interesting. I have always said 'I'm sinusey' but that is me just assuming it's sinus pain although this never started until in my 30's. I get forehead pain, top of head, ear, neck and eye. I had a loose tooth and started getting trigeminal nerve problem in my right cheek bone but then I had the tooth out and it improved a little but now I've noticed it's coming back a bit but not as bad and I've also had it in my left cheek.

[Elizabethrose]

Megamind that sounds very like migraine to me. Such a pain in the neck! Mine started at about 40 when I started displaying signs of peri. I finally went to docs when the migraines became impossible to manage and diagnosis of peri was given at 41/42.

WCR123, I get dizziness with some migraine where the room will spin. It is horrible to try to deal with. it could be that you are suffering with silent migraine, where the symptoms of aura and prodrome are present without the headache. I'll try to find some previous threads with similar discussions and post them here for you to read.

[Elizabethrose]

Ladies, have a read of this on silent migraine. There are a couple of links I've posted that may prove useful.

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,33983.0.html

[WCR123]

Interesting. It's so disorienting and sickening when I am moving my head or scrolling on the computer and the image keeps scrolling even after I have stopped. I am super prone to motion sickness so it makes me feel quite ill.

So I guess I would need to find a headache doctor to figure this out? That could take a while....

[Elizabethrose]

Have they checked you out for an inner ear problem? These can be a constant thing upsetting balance and causing dizziness, One of my friends had terrible problems with this for about two years, couldn't drive, ski and ended up almost house bound for a period.

[WCR123]

I went to an ENT when this first started but she did very little. Only confirmed that I don't have a sinus infection. Think I may need another referral....

[Megamind]

Thanks for the info Elizabethrose.

[Elizabethrose]

My pal had BPPV, Benign Paroxysmal positional vertigo and had to perform the Epley manoeuvre in order to even stand. It was a nightmare for him. An ENT specialist should recognise this easily though as do most GPs worth their salt!

This is a link to a site with lots of balance/ dizziness conditions. It also describes BPPV.

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/balance-disorders

You're very welcome, hope it helps! x

[Lostit]

Very interesting to read. I can't give any answers except to say that I have felt like this since January 2016. Started with dizziness,felt off balance,full ears, rhinitis, stiff neck, tight muscles around head and sore scalp. Dr's said labrynthitis although none of their testing could get me to have a classic labrynthitis attack much to their annoyance. Had mri nothing to show. In short ENT Dr's can find nothing wrong  with my ears. My guess is that is all meno related mostly due to the crippling anxiety that appeared just as my hot flushes and night sweats increased. Dr's seem reluctant to accept anxiety and depression as menopause symptoms.  Yet they recognise Post Natal Depression as a condition.  Are they not both caused by hormonal changes? I think there is a connection with silent migraine. I think if you research all the symptoms of meno, inner ear disorders and anxiety you will find that they are very similar.  I have found that keeping busy, exercise and massage the most helpful. Dr's don't seem to know how to help unless they can give you HRT which many women are unable to take. I have good days and crappy days but those days are not quite as bad as they were in the beginning. It is a horrible time😣