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[LittleClaire]

Hi Everyone,

I am new here just joined today. Hope you’re all ok.

I am 37 and have been having strange symptoms since mid June this year. I have had 3 lots of full blood count taken, deficiency tests done and even an ultrasound on my neck due to swollen glands that won’t go down, lo and behold all came back normal! Convinced it is my hormones I got two of those FSH tests off Amazon, took both at different points in the month and both were positive. I was on the pill also until about 3 weeks ago but decided to come off it to see if there was any change in symptoms which I think are slightly worse. I also have one child she is 2, was hoping for another but not sure if that will happen now due to possible peri.

I have also rang my doctors who have given me an appt for a HRT review in November so hoping I can give them my symptom list and be easily believed(I’ve found that hard so far) as doctors just say all normal nothing wrong, end of story and I’ve been expected to just go away and “put up” with this awful crap feeling and people thinking I’m going mad and it’s in my head etc.

Just wanted to know if anyone else was in a similar situation with age/symptoms etc.

My symptoms are:

* Hot flushes in face
* Sweating in the night (mainly legs)
* Dry, itchy skin (groin, anal, inside thighs, under arms, lower stomach)
* Sore/dry palms of hands
* Hair falling out and breaking
* Bald patches on eyebrows and genitals where hair not growing back
* Heartburn
* Gritty eyeballs
* Heart racing/palpitations
* Random aches in muscles and joints
* Sore tongue / gums
*Tingling in hands and feet
* Moods erratic (improved a bit since coming off the pill strangely enough)
* Tired/lack of energy
* Headaches
* Ears ringing
* Waking a lot in the night can’t sleep

I have to say I don’t get all symptoms all the time together, some appear then disappear, and some days it’s worse than others. Some days I can feel totally normal.

I guess I just want someone to tell me I’m not going round the bend 

[jaypo]

Hi and welcome to the forum 
Peri can happen at any age,my friend was in her late 30s when she hit it.
Drs (some) will tell you,you're too young but this simply isn't the case,so if all other tests have come back negative,then it could be peri x

[Taz2]

Welcome from me too and, no, you are not going mad! 

Good advice from jaypo. I just wondered whether your blood tests also covered vitamin deficiencies? These are sometimes not included. A low vitaminD level made me feel really unwell a couple of years ago.

Taz x 

[CLKD]

U R not going round the bend!

Perimenopause are the years leading up to the final period, some find that keeping a mood/food/symptom diary of use to chart progress.

As oestrogen levels drop the body may become dry: inside and out.  Deep in the ears, nostrils, vagina, anus, skin; between the toes, scalp  ....... and muscles may become lax = aches and pains. 

No lady is too young to go into peri ...... medics want everything in a 'box' but life isn't like that!

Do check your toothpaste ingredients as SLS [I think] can cause burning, certainly bananas, chocolate will set my mouth off at breakfast if I get the 'wrong' paste on the brush.

[LittleClaire]

Hi again,

Thanks for all your replies. I think I will try and write down when the symptoms seem worse and what I’m eating prior to that, as I’ve read that eating certain bad foods can make things worse. I had normal results back on the complete blood count twice but when I mentioned I still had symptoms I had extra bloods taken for further deficiency including vitamin D, calcium and blood and bone diseases which all came back negative. I actually apologised to the nurse on my last visit to them as I felt like I sounded like a broken record going back several times to find nothing clinically wrong. This month will be my first “proper” period since coming off the pill (been on it since Jan 2023) so haven’t had a true picture of my cycle yet. Because of doctors not finding anything previously I automatically think I’m going to be shot down at my appointment in November when I just want to ask to be put on HRT to see if it helps 

[joziel]

It would be a good idea to get a full thyroid panel run, before pursuing HRT. Just to check...

Thyroid symptoms and menopause symptoms are extremely similar. You won't be able to get a full thyroid panel done on the NHS, because they will only test TSH.

Take a look at Medichecks where you can get the Advanced Thyroid test which includes TSH, free T4, free T3 and thyroid antibodies. It also includes lots of the nutrients people are recommending you test for here, like B12, folate, ferritin etc. (Your GP will also test those.)

If all that checks out okay, then likely you do need HRT. My symptoms started at 38yo with migraines and occasional night sweats. But I didn't realise what it was until things got a lot worse at 42yo...

[LittleClaire]

Thanks for your reply.

I actually thought it was my thyroid when I first started having symptoms as I googled them and thyroid kept coming up. When I had my first blood count I asked them to check this which was only TSH, not the T4, T3 or thyroid antibodies. Again it came back normal so I actually ordered a private hormone test online and paid £42, which tested all 4 and all were within the normal range. I was a bit shocked as I’d expected the levels to come back either too high or too low. Which is why I’m even more convinced it’s perimenopause. I wonder if the nurse will do a hormonal blood test to try and confirm or diagnose it before they give treatment or if they go just on symptoms.

[joziel]

Can you post those results along with the ranges used by the lab?

Just being within range might not be enough, if you are scraping the bottom.... 

If your T4 is high but your T3 is low, it can also indicate an issue with reverse T3 (rT3) which can give you hypo symptoms...

[LittleClaire]

Hi,

Yes I have those. I have taken screenshots of my results but I am using my phone, does anyone know how you attach a photo?

Thanks

[joziel]

It's best just to type them up really. I don't think the forum does photos...

[LittleClaire]

Ahh ok, I was looking for the button to add an attachment.

TSH 1.25 mu/L
Lab range 0.27 - 4.2 mu/L

T4 21.1 pmol/L
Lab range 12-22 pmol/L

T3 5.2 pmol/L
Lab range 3.1 - 6.8 pmol/L

TPO antibody 13
Lab range above 35 is abnormal, below 34 is normal


Hope that makes sense

The website I ordered from was monitor my health.

[joziel]

Your T3 is pretty good there, but your T4 is high in range.

When T4 is high, it can be a sign of high rT3. Usually T3 would also be low. It might be good to test rT3 as well, but that is an expensive test (£150).

For eg, here are my original thyroid results before I went on any meds:

TSH        1.37        (0.270-4.2)
free T3    3.9        (3.1-6.
free T4    18.6        (12-22)
rT3            32            (8-31)

You'll see my T3 was pretty low. My T4 was on the high side (yours is higher). And my rT3 was over-range. If you google Dr Westin Childs and reverse T3, you'll get more info up.

There are many reasons rT3 can be high. For me, I was eating hardly anything and very erratically. My body was trying to slow down my metabolism. It's taken me over a year and going on and off thyroid meds (with a large dose of T3) along with a reverse diet and 4x a week strength training and high protein... to get out of that place. I'm now waiting for my lab results 6wks after coming off meds.

[LittleClaire]

I’d never even heard of reverse T3 until you said. I wonder if I should mention this when I go to my appointment or don’t the GPs normally do tests like that? Like you say it’s quite expensive. I just feel with my symptoms and age not far off 40, surely it has to be perimenopause. If anything I’d say I was more hyper than hypo due to the night sweats, flushes and heart racing. And I have quite bad rage with my moods which I don’t know of that can be related to thyroid issues?

[joziel]

It's very likely peri-menopause to be fair. And no, your GP won't test rT3 or understand what you're talking about even.

Those are classic low estrogen symptoms so why don't you trial some HRT. The 'test' will be if you feel better... it's a trial treatment.

[Hurdity]

Hi Little Claire

 

You mentioned being on the pill since Jan 2023 - can you say which pill this was?

If it was the mini pill in particular Cerazette - this is known to reduce estradiol levels through suppression of ovulation:

" In contrast to traditional progestogen-only pills, the contraceptive effect of Cerazette is achieved primarily by inhibition of ovulation."

  "Treatment with Cerazette leads to decreased estradiol levels, to a level corresponding to the early follicular phase. "

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/1698/smpc#about-medicine

So your symptoms could be the result of the POP rather than that you are naturally becoming peri-menopausal ( notwithstanding jaypo's comment that peri can happen at any age.

If it wasn't cerazette then ?? could be peri.

Also if you know when your mother became menopausal - there appears to be quite a strong heritability to this, so that could be indicative, if she went through an early menopause.

Personally if it were me I would either wait a few more cycles without taking anything ie natural cycles to see how regular they are, and if they don't resume regularity then get some FSH tests done by the doc as recommended 6 weeks apart to see what's happening.

Alternatively, if you're happy to do so and you weren't on a COC already (which is doubtful if you started getting symptoms while on the pill), consider taking  one of the pills especially designed for younger peri-menopausal women - which provide estradiol (bio-identical to our own oestrogen as opposed to the synthetic producs available in some of the other COC pills) as well as a progestogen so should prevent menopausal symptoms as well as providing contraception.

The two types available are QLAIRA and ZOELY. Qlaira will give you a higher estradiol dose overall which as you are still young - may be preferable (the dose varies throughout the cycle between 1-3 mg).

Hope this helps!

Hurdity x