Oh yes it’s very common for cycles to shorten, then the opposite can start happening where you have anovulatory cycles, so you skip a bleed or many. I always had very regular cycles and it wasn’t until after my symptoms peaked that I started to get bleeding sometimes after just 10 days and it was quite heavy for me. I also had cramping which I never had before. It didn’t last long, then they lengthened.
No, my oestrogen never stays low enough to cause low E joint/dryness symptoms. My mum never had symptoms so I probably won’t have enough oestrogen sufficiency to need to add it back. Obviously too reactive to it to try to get high levels for bone protection, so it’s an easy decision for me. However, it dropped from about 100 to 10 on Thursday and I felt so much better once the drop completed. It started rising again yesterday (about day 21) and I felt the symptoms hit again. I also used to feel much better at end of cycle so I know my low E is where I feel the best.
I had lots of temp symptoms. Started with feeling hot all the time in peri followed by severe shivers and shakes as E zoomed up high. I had proper hot flushes in early post meno as E dropped and they made me feel energised rather than soaking wet. It was a feeling that crept over me as heat rose in my back so definitely different to before that. Now I have those occasionally, more short and sweet.
Despite us being anomalies, in some different and overlapping ways, the short cycles are very standard.