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[KarineT]

My main symptoms are dizziness, chilling sensations, anxiety, low mood & negative thinking, blocked nose, joint, muscle and bone pain, slight digestive issues (heartburn & nausea), and sometimes a slight sensation of crawling insects on the skin. The strange thing is that I don't really have any hot flushes or night sweats but from time to time I might feel a bit warm in the face and upper body and it can happen either at night or during the day.  I would never have thought that the menopause could csuse all of this.  And I will never be able to understand how two hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone, which purpose is mainly for our reproductive cycle, could affect the body so much once they are no longer being produced.  Before puberty the body didn't have these hormones and it wasn't a problem.  Let's hope that things will improve for me and that these horrible symptoms will go away.

[Uptick]

Well, I had all of those and and a lot of other symptoms, so you can consider yourself lucky. The warm feeling you describe is probably a mild hot flush.

Although oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone are mainly reproductive hormones they are far from being just that. The thing is reproduction is the main evolutionary driving force and our bodies are basically reproductive machines. It's not just about producing eggs and spermatozoids, getting pregnant and conceiving another human, it's about a lot of intertwined biological mechanisms necessary to get you fit for reproduction and remember that humans take a long time to reach this, compared to other organisms. The fact that you don't need them until puberty and don't have any of the nasty side effects of menopause is because you have never been exposed to them in high amounts and menopause (or more specifically perimenopause) symptoms are basically a withdrawal syndrome, instead of purely low oestrogen levels.

I really hope you can throw a meno-party next Jan, hang in there.

[KarineT]

Thanks Uptick for the detailed reply.  Now I understand why the menopause is problematic to most women. This 'withdrawal' is probably because the body got used to having these hormones and depended on them for, say, 35 years.  Apparently, we and the whale are the only mammals who go through the menopause.  Men probably experience a decline in testosterone as they get older but they don't have to go through what we go through.  Anyway, I really hope that January will mark the end of my periods because I don't want them back.

[Uptick]

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[befuddled]

Hi Karine, i had about a year of negative thoughts, thinking about the same things over and over again, also mood swings and low mood, that's what led me to see the gp about trying hrt.  Now only been taking it for around three months, but my mind and thoughts seem a lot more settled, the low mood has lifted, and the mood swings/tears have all but stopped.   Wish i'd started it sooner!

[KarineT]

Hi Befuddled,  do you know if you've reached the menopause yet?  Because with HRT it's probably impossible to tell.

[befuddled]

Really not sure, either post meno or very late pre meno.  i hadn't had a proper period for around 18 months (a bit of spotting early this year) when i started hrt.  I think it's because of the uncertainty that my gp put me on this regime (estradot patches with utrogestan 25 days out of 28), so my body can have a bleed if it feels the need to.

[KarineT]

So you hadn't had a period for 18 months but what symptoms did you have apart from the negative thinkkng?  Is the negative thinking what drove you to go on HRT mainly?

[befuddled]

Yes it was the emotional stuff that made me try hrt.  The physical stuff, mainly fatigue and hot flushes, had been around for a couple of years, and i could cope with them ok.  But then the psychological stuff started up, sudden mood changes and tears for no good reason.  So dramatic and unpredictable and started to affect my relationship.  And that phrase you used "recurrent hypothetical negative thoughts" really rang a bell with me.    So much time wasted thinking about things that were not relevant to me/my life, or things that were just not going to happen in reality, but my mind kept going back to "but what if, what if, what if...."