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[VanillaLover]

Fed up with it all today !

Looking at my records and it’s now over three years since I first noticed strange cycle lengths (more than seven days shorter than normal). Eighteen months since hot flushes started to be a real problem. Over the summer I missed a period entirely for the first time. Immediately before that I had a cycle of 16 days and immediately after was 20 days ! In general, crazy short ones aside, I would say cycles are now getting longer so 33+ days now rather than the 22-25 I was having up to about a year ago.

How much longer do you think I have to go till the actual menopause? I’m so bored and fed up of feeling crappy.

What experiences did those of you who are post meno have timescale wise? I am 46 and been on HRT about a year already,

Thanks everyone

[CLKD]

How long is a piece of string.

Peri - the years prior to the last monthly period = menopause.  However, Nature can throw a curved ball: we can count 12 months without a bleed, then hey ho! We have to begin counting until we've been at least 14 months without a period 

My periods waxed and waned for 2-3 years.  What bothers you the most?

[VanillaLover]

Depends really. Things come and go. At the moment the anxiety, hot flushes and nausea. Last week it was more the aching, dizziness and tiredness. Sometimes I have have weeks of feeling well, then I can feel rubbish for a few weeks.

I have read that peri lasts on average 4 years…..I do kind of hope that I have “done” three of those already!

[Dandelion]

Mine started in 2009 at age 43, I didn't use HRT as I thought it was drug withdrawal.
I thought I was coming through the end, yet for some reason it has come back this year with vengeance, I am 56.

[EllaAurora]

Hi VanillaLover,
I can totally relate. For me the first symptoms (that I recognised) started in 2019, though now looking back I realise I had some milder symptoms even earlier than that. Hot flushes, insomnia and missing periods began mid 2020, so its over 2 years already. I've now been 2 years on HRT and feel that recently the fluctuations may have eased a little, but at the same time oestrogen is at its all time low, so I'm completely dependent on HRT and now trying to again tweak the dose. I feel oestrogel has lost its effect and some symptoms have returned. I'm hoping I'm already on the "other side' but as I'm on HRT there's no way of knowing for sure.

Have you tried adjusting your HRT to improve symptoms?

[CLKD]

Peri doesn't have a time scale.  However if hormones wax and wane some can really feel off colour.  How were hormonal swings whilst you had regular periods?  I could mark all mine as cyclic.

[VanillaLover]

Interesting question …. I always had some PMT type stuff but over the last say 5 years I have progressively been feeling more and more ill during my actual period when I guess oestrogen is lowest. At the same time hormonal migraines, hot flushes, tiredness, anxiety, aches, all that stuff has been progressively ramping up in the background until it got quite overwhelming.

I would say I’m quite a reactive person to hormones all in all.

I haven’t tried increasing HRT yet but it could come to that. I’m convinced that my symptoms are all due to the fluctuations which I suspect are still huge. However I might review that if I’m still struggling in a few months!

[MabelBabel]

I'm not post yet, but have been peri since at least 2015, so minimum of 7 years of joint pain and muscle tension, sleepless nights, low moods, night sweats then finally the good old constant debilitating hot flushes, which finally put me on hrt.

[CLKD]

My periods waxed and waned for years, finally stopped during 2002.  After about 5+ years I think 

It was 3-5 years B4 vaginal atrophy caused problems.

[GraceM]

I first had symptoms about 8 years ago and they have just increased over the years.  I only started HRT this year.  No sign of periods ending - they just get worse.  Its been a long road!

[VanillaLover]

Oh crumbs ….this is not cheering me up ! Still I’ve got through three years so far….and it can’t go on forever can it!

[CLKD]

Peri dips into menopause proper eventually. 

[Bevey]

Every woman is different, so you can't extrapolate any woman's experience of the menopausal transition and apply it to yourself. Some women get through the symptoms in a very short period of time or have none at all. A case in point: my best friend just stopped having periods at age 49, and she didn't even skip cycles, she just stopped, with no symptoms. For me, I've been going through it for the past five years, but I can definitely see that the symptoms have diminished significantly throughout all of 2022. I'm well 80% of the time now. A massive relief!! My periods originally came closer together, with missing 1-3 periods in between, for about two years. Then my periods started to space out. I recently turned 54, and I haven't had a period for over four months and counting! This might be it for me, and, without the fluctuations, I'm feeling so much better physically and mentally. Believe me, though, I suffered massively: anger, crying, hysteria, hopelessness, bloating, forgetfulness, apathy, hot and cold, feeling spaced out. The list goes on... I'm so proud of myself for persevering! It's been the most massive fight of my life!

[Kathleen]

Hello ladies.

I never really had a perimenopause, my periods were regular and then stopped suddenly at age 54. The symptoms soon started to accumulate though and at 57 I asked for HRT. I am 66 now and still fiddling with Oestrogen and progesterone doses and my remaining symptoms are the emotional ones.

Obviously we are all different but this site confirms that we share many similarities as well.

Take care everyone.

K.

[JoJo42]

I started with peri meno symptoms at 38 (didn’t know what it was at the time then and thought I had some kind of arthritic disease or worse). After I found out it was prob meno I tried loads of natural remedies. nothing worked. Finally had to give in and go onto hrt age 42. On patches since then (now nearly 54) also on daily vagifem for the last few years. Still having periods. Have tried to come off hrt a few times over the years due to different things cropping up but have always ended up back on hrt after a few weeks when debilitating physical symptoms returned. Have resigned myself to being on it forever. I seem to have long spells of being stable and then there’ll be another glitch and things need tweaking and then ok again for a while. Rollercoaster.