Perimenopause

[Klane1118]

I'm a 41 year old woman experiencing perimenopause.  I'm looking for other women who are experiencing perimenopause as well so we can help support eachother through this roller coaster ride.

[SG1967]

I'm 51 & am experiencing lack of sleep, I wake at 4am, sweating & can't get back to sleep.  My resting heart rate has gone from 68 to 73 which is a concern.  I'm under a lot of pressure at the moment with managing my partners business & I've taken on 2 new projects of my own this month alongside my studies for my degree, gluton for punishment.  

It's the resting heart rate that is concerning me, I'm overweight, 5ft 8  & 260lb so I know weight is a big factor & if I don't act now it will only get worse with this perimenopause thing.   Is the lack of sleep also causing the resting heart rate to go up & if so can you recommend anything to stop this insomnia?

[Klane1118]

I’m so sorry to hear that. This has been the most difficult transition for
me too. I would wake up in full panic about 3am every morning for a year.
I’ve had the depressed feelings and all. It does get better and it will
for you too. My doctor recommended walking and slowly but surely some
symptoms started to wane. You will get through this. I’m living proof I
thought I was going to die two years ago. Now I feel almost back to my
normal self. Some days are still better than others but I’ll take where I
am today over two years ago. Now my most bothersome issue is the weight
gain!! Ughhh!!!

[Heather060810]

What kind of stomach issues were you having?  I am experiencing some now and I don't really know what to think of them...is it hormones, disease, side effects from an antibiotic I was on or whatever else it could be.

[DL1438]

Oh Hello fellow PM Pals! 45, no children here. Been on this train for about 2 years now. Love the random bouts of irrational rage, full blown anxiety attacks (never had till now--and had one this morning as soon as I stood up from bed!), the wierd shooting pains that make me think I'm having a heart attack and send me to the doctor as complete lunatic, the periods that have no rhyme or reason, when they do show up--and all of this is super inconsistent, maybe every 6 months or so...Yeah, it's a flipping ride and apparently it's a sweet sweet long one too!

Bless everybody--we're ok. Sense of humor helps. I have no magic remedies. And plan on riding this plane without medical help..we'll see how long I can stick with that. I'm not into pills - rarely even take an aspirin. I do vitamins and swear by this natural sleep powder called CALM..it helps on those ridiculous 'my brain is going to figure everything in the world out and it's gonna happen at 1:40 a.m.' nights. It helps shut it up.

Who knew I was gonna get all this special stuff at this stage in life... keep your chins up ladies!

[DanielleinDC]

OMG, you too? I get weird pains in my chest that I now associate with mild reflux. And I've also had sharp pains in my upper back. Luckily I haven't had hot flashes or night sweats yet, but then I eat a fair amount of soy (usually tofu), which supposedly helps.

[Klane1118]

I had indigestion. I did a round of probiotics and that stopped the issues
I was having.

[Klane1118]

I love it!!!  You are so right!  I have been there, went to the doctor, emergency room and all.  I am through the worst of it thankfully.  I'm with you I don't want medical intervention although a couple of times I was about to throw in the towel. We will  get through this and on the other side, life will be all about us!

[mary21667]

I had my ablation done several years ago.

best thing I ever did. 

Black cohosh seems to help quite a bit with my hot flashes but every one is different.

[Delci4445]

My initial symptoms were disguised under other medical issues. Now that I understand what is going on, I am coping better. I was told the hot flashes would go away or lessen within a year. Nope. Still struggling.

[DL1438]

Ugh so I’m having tingling/sweaty hands and feet, arms tingling a bit off and on over the last two days. Almost like anxiety but without the racing heart...I feel pretty good otherwise but it scares the crap out of me. And that’s the worst part I think, I don’t want to go to the Dr. every other day for these crazy symptoms...and the Dr. doesn’t help much other than offering xanex (which I’m not turning down next time!) I just want to stay rational for everyone’s sake! 

[Pep316]

Hey Girl, I’m 40, I have just started on HRT. Now after doing it alone since I was 36, the hot flushes, the emotional roller coaster of anxiety to despair to anger and then repeat , the HUGE weight gain (around 25lbs in 6 months 😞 ) ment I had to give in and give this HRT a go xx hope u r coping ok ... kind thoughts sent from the UK xx

[LJ55]

Hello, I am 50 years old and think I am just starting perimenopause. I still have my period and have only missed it once so far.  About 3 weeks ago I started to feel an internal shaking in my head (along with swoshing and buzzing), in my neck, my shoulder, sometimes it's in my stomach. It was scary and I went to ER and they did a CAT scan, ecg, ultrasound, blood work and nothing. I was reading online that internal shaking can be a symptom of perimenopause. Have anyone else experience this? The doctor said it might be stress and anxiety but from what I am reading on these posts it seems like anxiety is symptom of perimenopause. It has been quite a challenging few weeks. I started to exercise everyday and trying to eat better. Some days it is really bad and other days I can hardly feel it. It is especially bad when I lie down to sleep. I have not been sleeping well this past few months as well and that is a change for me. Usually, I can sleep like a log for 10 hours if I am tired. Now I lay in bed tossing and turning. Now with the internal shaking, it's even worse. It's waking me out of my sleep at 3am. Like I am being jolted out of my sleep. The hard part is not knowing what it could be. I am going to the doctor on Monday to follow up. Are there tests one can do to know if these symptoms are from perimenopause? Thanks for listening!!

[Jp21]

I have never heard of internal shaking, but I’ve been woken up and trembling before. Good luck to you at the dr. Get your hormones tested. 

[Jp21]

Bio identical progesterone helps me. 

[mary21667]

I started HRT and quickly had to go offf due to chest pain back in February  

Still have mild hot flashes and night sweats 

but black cohosh seems to help.

i can never take any hormones now as I just had an admission to the hospital for a blood clot in my lung . 

Sleeping with a fan also helps.

Hang in there!

[mary21667]

My hot flashes are going into their .5th year....

[mary21667]

Melatonin for sleep and black cohosh for night sweats 

[Klane1118]

Hi there I The UK! I am fairing well. I finally started feeling more like
myself after almost three years. Having a spell but I know this too shall
pass. I know what u mean about the weight gain, ugh!

[Pep316]

Hey lovely, I haven’t experienced the internal shaking and I have been
going through this for four years now since I was 36, but everyone seems to
have their own concoction of symptoms so could well be one of the ones that
isn’t often spoken of, a more rare side effect, like paranoia, that’s
something I get now that I never had in my life... and I anxiety in
OVERLOAD, life really didn’t prepare me for how hard this would be xx

[Vylent_Fyre]

Hello! I just wanted to update my status and give everyone going through perimenopause some of my experiences..  

For over a year I had horrible heart racing and pounding. Didn't matter how little I moved. Just rolling in bed would make my heart rate jump 25bpm. It wss awful and horrifying. My RHR was in 70s. 

I finally got referred to hemotologist who did a very thorough check of my blood work two months straight. My ferritin was a 6 and 8 months on iron pills got it up 30 but it dropped to 20 in 3 weeks. He prescribed me one iron infusion, venofer 400mg. This was done 3/8/19.

The next day, after having pretty scary side effects, I noticed a difference! Energy was better, I slept better abd my heart wasn't pounding or racing as hard and fast. Every day I got better and better. By March 18th I noticed a drastic difference in my heart! I barely feel it and most times I feel PVCs the week leading up to my next menstruation cycle. Otherwise I rarely feel my heart now. What a huge difference! 

I'm also taking multivitamin with 18mg iron. I should note that I wss diagnosed with Crohns and i really believe it is a combination of Crohns and heavy menstruation cycles (thanks peri!) That caused my iron and ferritin to get so low. 4 weeks later my blood work showed my ferritin was 108! That was so great! I think I read that your ferritin needs to be Above 70-80 to not have symptoms. 

I also had many other vitamin deficiencies. I strongly urge everyone who has heart symptoms to get their vitamins and minerals all cheeked out .and request a FULL iron panel. Make sure it will include checking your ferritin and total binding iron, etc. My hemoglobin was borderline too low but it wasn't alarming enough for others to check it in more depth. 

As for the internal tremors... I get that in my lower abdomen. It feels like a cell phone is going off!! I was told it is from estrogen being too low. It is scary and I haven't had it in my head but I did think it is hormone related.

My endocrinologist checked my estrogen, FSH and LH among other thyroid hormones. Everything was in ranges except my FSH and LH were extremely high, in postmenopausal levels, but my estrogen was high also so that's how he figured out I'm in perimenopause. 

I've learned that our bodies needs drastically change as we go through this transitional phase of our lives. Perimenopause is basically when our ovaries aren't producing like it should do everything else tries to kick start it. Like ovulation etc. I use to feel ovulation every single month. I've inky had one ovulation in 2-3 years! That's how I know I'm in perimenopause even though I'm still having fairly regular cycles. I had 3 periods 2 weeks apart back to back. Just now i was a week late but last month I was a week early. Maddening! But I truly believe knowledge is power.

I also take a beta blocker and triple calm magnesium. Increasing my magnesium has helped with sleep and the racing heart at nights. ❤

Please get your blood work checked out. And advocate for your best health care!! I pushed my doctors when they kept trying to push anti anxiety medicines on me. I was never anxious before, let's not slap band aids on my symptoms and get to the ROOT OF THE CAUSE..... 😆