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[Annierus3]

Hello everyone, I find the site a lot of comfort as I truly believe I am going mad.
I am firmly in peri, and not had a period of 9 months. However, my symptoms really scare me, and I always feel like I must have some awful disease.
The main things over the last 6 months have been:
Huge Anxiety
Tiredness
Muscle aches - almost like the fighting off the flu
Sore mouth
Then in recent months I have experienced allergies- skin rash, tingly mouth,
Gastro problmes, lots of gurgling on my stomach, very bloated, comstipation/loose,
Random pains
Do Isound like I am going crazy, just feel desolate and anxious.
This is stopping my enjoyment of life.

[CLKD]

It's The Change.  HORMONES 

You are not going mad.  As oestrogen levels drop the body may become dry: inside and out.  Also muscles may become lax = aches and pains.

This can lead to itchy skin, deep in the ears, nostrils, vagina; and hiatus hernia which can cause indigestion, reflux etc..  Have you tried any over-the-counter medication for any of your symptoms?  DH has found that Nivea cream has eased the skin on his legs and I use one with lavender in for my sore heels.  Nurofen for pains helps.  Rennies - several chewed - eases heartburn and I try not to eat too soon to going to bed.

What awful disease might your symptoms lead up to?  Many ladies worry that peri symptoms are going to be fatal.  In general most of what you describe is 'normal' from where I'm sitting!  Browse round.

Which symptom would you like to ease first? 

[Annierus3]

Thank you for the reply. Honestly, what I haven't been dying of over the last 3 years isn't worth having. I suppose the worst thing is when I get seemingly ‘new' symptoms. So this last 6 months it's been a skin rash, not itchy or anything, just tiny spots, and the feeling like I'm going to get ulcers but not getting any. Then searching the web, puttingnit all together andbgetting a death sentence! How accurate is that 66 symptoms of the menopauseist that goes around. I am so anxious my stomach is in constant knots.

[CLKD]

Why not discuss an anti-anxiety medication on an as necessary basis to see if symptoms ease?  You are still here after 3 years  .  Do you think that any of your peri-menopausal symptoms require HRT?

Some ladies find keeping a mood/food/symptom diary of use.

[AgathaC]

Hello Annierus3. Believe me that I could have written your note. I'm 46 (although CLKD will tell you that I'm sometimes 47 when my memory fails!) and I've got most of the things you mention. Anxiety, tingling, gastro problems. I've managed to diagnose myself with lots of serious illnesses over the past three years and regularly convince myself I'm not going to make the weekend. Some days are awful, some really awful, some okay and some good and the best part is that I don't know what day I'm getting when!!! I really think this perimenopause lark is horrid and it's hit me badly. I think CLKD is wise when she says which of your symptoms do you want to deal with first? I'm starting with my weight and what I eat hoping this will help lots of other problems. The diary really is helpful. I was feeling exactly this way last August and I'm still here!!  (just fatter, more anxious and with greyer hair  )

[CLKD]

    AgathaC

[Ladybt28]

Hi Annierus3 - welcome back - No - "its perfectly normal - happens to everyone"  - that's if you listen to the stupid doctors or other numbskulls who haven't  clue    If I'm sounding angry it's because I had another stupid conversation this morning with an hrt nurse who should know better - but that's another story!

Its rubbish isn't it and this menopause lark seems to evolve over the years.  Starts out with one set of symptoms and then just morphs into a whole host of others!  I think the thing  is that when they come a few of at a time - then do-able - but when they come all at once and stay then it's nigh on impossible to cope.  If it happened to a man then every single symptom would have a sure fire "works every time" answer years ago!!

I've had weird rashes - allergies I never had before - weird ringing in my ears - it's all so random like you say.  I'd say that the 66 symptoms list is pretty accurate - I mean look how many women post on this forum - there are 43240 posts by 11289 members! - we can't all be mad or dying! - we just feel like we are!

Are you on hrt Annie or are you just struggling on? My friend is doing the stuggling thing - I went straight for any help going - but then I've always been like that although as quite a few of the ladies here will tell you finding the answer can be almost as traumatic as the symptoms - I'm just of the view life's too short to struggle and we need to look after ourselves.

I posted under "screaming inside" and nearly all the newbies post under "Going Mad" - its very common  . 
Tell us what you're doing and no doubt loads of us will pile in with some weird and excellent suggestions as to what might help - we all know we'll try anything when your desperate.

[Annie0710]

We all suffer differently but there's also ladies that are hit really hard.  I feel like my symptoms came all at once and really struggled with it all.  It was literally stripping me of who I was, physically and emotionally.  It was taking all my femininity from me and probably was a factor in the anxiety that developed too.  I felt like I was fighting flu daily and with nausea and dizziness.  It really can be a cruel time

It does get easier, or perhaps we learn to deal with it, or perhaps both. 

But you're not going mad, or if you are, we all are too x

[jillydoll]

No, your not going mad, but it does seem like it.
I actually thought I was going to die, which made the anxiety worse.
It's THE worst time of my life, even now, I over think things, worry myself silly,
which in turn brings on the dreaded anxiety.
I was convinced something was going to happen to me, I even wrote letters
to my sons, and grandkids, in case ‘I didn't make it through the night.'
Hrt has helped me enormously, I've just got to get the dosage right.
Things have got a lot easier, and you do learn how to cope, with the help of hrt,
for me anyway.
It certainly is a very cruel time, as Annie0710 says.
I have, however , shredded those letters now, and sometimes feel a right numpty for writing them.
Hang on in there, things do get better,

Jd xx