Is It Over Yet? The Perimenopause Thread

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  • TwinSal
    TwinSal Posts: 1 Member
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    I have been wondering if I am in the peri menopause phase despite being regular. I am 46, have had more frequent mood swings, and also much increased appetite. I have also had bowel issues, and minor surgery for a fissure. Since getting these problems I only get pain at that time of the month in my back passage. This makes me wary about what I eat, and I feel that eating more oil maybe makes me feel better but not sure why. Anyone else have these issues?
  • Sumiblue
    Sumiblue Posts: 1,597 Member
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    My sleep has been pretty awful for a while now. I have trouble falling asleep and then wake up a lot when I do sleep. I never felt good when I wake in the morning. I’ve been taking sleep aids, Benadryl to fall asleep but that makes me very groggy in the AM.
    I just started taking melatonin-what a difference! I’m sleeping soundly and wake feeling refreshed. Such a relief.
  • icemom011
    icemom011 Posts: 999 Member
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    Sumiblue wrote: »
    My sleep has been pretty awful for a while now. I have trouble falling asleep and then wake up a lot when I do sleep. I never felt good when I wake in the morning. I’ve been taking sleep aids, Benadryl to fall asleep but that makes me very groggy in the AM.
    I just started taking melatonin-what a difference! I’m sleeping soundly and wake feeling refreshed. Such a relief.

    +1 for melatonin, it's been a savior for me too, i fall asleep and get more rest this way.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
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    I have been thinking of taking something too...I sleep like an 80-year-old now...waking up a hundred times a night.
  • Sumiblue
    Sumiblue Posts: 1,597 Member
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    Do your own research and/or talk to your doctor about melatonin. It is a hormone not a drug. It can be very helpful if used appropriately.
  • 1mumrevolution
    1mumrevolution Posts: 269 Member
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    Can I ask, how are you all doing with controlling weight gain in the tummy area?
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
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    1mumrevolution wrote: »
    Can I ask, how are you all doing with controlling weight gain in the tummy area?

    I haven't noticed weight gain going to different areas or anything. The places I gained at 15 are the same places I gain at 50. I can only try to control it through diet and working out - diet for the fat, and working out to try to measure smaller (which, amazingly, works for me and does seem more centered on the abs than anywhere else even though there's no actual/literal "just tone this specific area" exercise - that's a semi-myth but is a whole other story, I guess).

    So anyway, for me at least, controlling weight anywhere is the same as controlling it in general; I don't think as fat goes that we can ever really spot-reduce.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,840 Member
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    Where I gain weight has changed slightly, and I started noticing the change when I was in my early 40s and apparently that was about the time I went into perimenopause. Let's just say my figure became less "boyish" and a whole lot more "hourglass".

    So my weight gain wasn't particularly in the tummy area.

    A year ago, at 49, I hit the weight I was when I was from my teens to my mid-30s, and so I dug out all my small clothes from back then ... and made a rather disappointing discovery. What had fit my boyish figure back then, didn't fit my new late-40s hourglass figure, despite the fact that my weight was the same. I've got a whole collection of tops that simply don't fit anymore ... I can't button them, I can't squeeze myself into them. They fit me fine around the waist, and they're all right in the shoulders, but I seem to have acquired couple new features in between!! :lol:
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,052 Member
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    Machka9 wrote: »
    Where I gain weight has changed slightly, and I started noticing the change when I was in my early 40s and apparently that was about the time I went into perimenopause. Let's just say my figure became less "boyish" and a whole lot more "hourglass".

    Opposite for me. My hips are an inch or 2 smaller and waist larger. This is really helpful, though, as it subdues the hourglass and makes standard size clothes fit much easier. For decades, if it fit in the hips it was gaping at the waist. Still true but low rise styling has helped that, too. I noticed this in my late 40's, before peri for me. I think.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,840 Member
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    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    Where I gain weight has changed slightly, and I started noticing the change when I was in my early 40s and apparently that was about the time I went into perimenopause. Let's just say my figure became less "boyish" and a whole lot more "hourglass".

    Opposite for me. My hips are an inch or 2 smaller and waist larger. This is really helpful, though, as it subdues the hourglass and makes standard size clothes fit much easier. For decades, if it fit in the hips it was gaping at the waist. Still true but low rise styling has helped that, too. I noticed this in my late 40's, before peri for me. I think.
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    Where I gain weight has changed slightly, and I started noticing the change when I was in my early 40s and apparently that was about the time I went into perimenopause. Let's just say my figure became less "boyish" and a whole lot more "hourglass".

    So my weight gain wasn't particularly in the tummy area.

    A year ago, at 49, I hit the weight I was when I was from my teens to my mid-30s, and so I dug out all my small clothes from back then ... and made a rather disappointing discovery. What had fit my boyish figure back then, didn't fit my new late-40s hourglass figure, despite the fact that my weight was the same. I've got a whole collection of tops that simply don't fit anymore ... I can't button them, I can't squeeze myself into them. They fit me fine around the waist, and they're all right in the shoulders, but I seem to have acquired couple new features in between!! :lol:

    I wasn't boyish even in my teens. I always had a giant jutt butt and thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighs (not just thighs...thiiiiiiiiiiighs), even at 105 lbs.

    But I sure don't have any actual clothes from my highschool days. I'm pretty sure by now they'd all be dust, guarded over by a dead Knight Templar, its skeleton hunched over a rusted sword with cobwebs connecting its slipping crown to its tattered boots.

    Or...something like that.

    Because I'm old. (#spoiler)

    :lol:

    It's not so much the hips for me ... I've always had slightly wide hips ... it's the bust.

    I went from 10-year-old boy to Dolly. Well, OK, not quite but there's definitely a difference between slender me before and slender me now.
  • annetrout
    annetrout Posts: 20 Member
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    I dont know if this has been addressed in the previous posts...there are 19 pages of them! But has anyone figured out what is helpful for PMS mood swings? I tend to get overly angry and frustrated suddenly and I'm pretty sure its hormone related. I dont want to go on antidepressants, and I just started buying St.Johns wort for this. Then I read that most of the st. johns wort sold is just filled with fillers and no actual extract.
    Anybody know of better options that I can get OTC that would be helpful for moods? Or where I can get St. Johns wort that is the real stuff?
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
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    annetrout wrote: »
    I dont know if this has been addressed in the previous posts...there are 19 pages of them! But has anyone figured out what is helpful for PMS mood swings? I tend to get overly angry and frustrated suddenly and I'm pretty sure its hormone related. I dont want to go on antidepressants, and I just started buying St.Johns wort for this. Then I read that most of the st. johns wort sold is just filled with fillers and no actual extract.
    Anybody know of better options that I can get OTC that would be helpful for moods? Or where I can get St. Johns wort that is the real stuff?

    I hope someone will chime in on this. I'm sure people mentioned some herbal remedies and probably HRT was mentioned. I don't know if antidepressants are the way to go, though, because if it isn't actually depression then...?

    I have been thinking of maybe trying cohosh or something but I'm not sure yet. I do know what you mean about the PMS in general, though. It's weird...there are days I could swear I have PMS, but I actually haven't had a period in 10 months now.

    Anyway, lots of words to bump you up, basically, LOL.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
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    annetrout wrote: »
    I dont know if this has been addressed in the previous posts...there are 19 pages of them! But has anyone figured out what is helpful for PMS mood swings? I tend to get overly angry and frustrated suddenly and I'm pretty sure its hormone related. I dont want to go on antidepressants, and I just started buying St.Johns wort for this. Then I read that most of the st. johns wort sold is just filled with fillers and no actual extract.
    Anybody know of better options that I can get OTC that would be helpful for moods? Or where I can get St. Johns wort that is the real stuff?

    2 things discussed earlier in the thread were progesterone cream and evening primrose oil, but I can't give you any specifics. You'll want to do your research.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
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    I'm thinking about chasteberry. It helped me in the past (before peri). I'll let you all know if I go this route and if there are any results.
  • bioklutz
    bioklutz Posts: 1,365 Member
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    Look into SAMe. Maybe ask your doctor about it and make sure that it doesn't interact with anything you are currently taking.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
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    Machka9 wrote: »
    I've broken down and purchased black cohosh ... but I haven't taken any yet. Still a little concerned about the side effects. However, it is my second to last resort for all these hot flashes and night sweats.

    I've been taking black cohosh for years with no noticeable side effects. Never had a hot flash. I'm almost 51 and have been impatiently waiting for them.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
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    tom_miss wrote: »
    I have been told by GYN that I am peri menopausal at 46. I also have a 3mm uterine fibroid and a hell of a time trying not to gain weight. I gave up trying for over a year but I am frustrated by it (30 lbs.) My question to anyone that can help is; can one lose weight while going through this? Working out and eating right has not helped.

    Is "3mm uterine fibroid" a typo? I can't imagine being told about fibroids 3 millimeters, and my fibroids were a non-issue at 3 cm. While they are considerably bigger now, my issues due to them are psychological rather than physical.

    Lots of peri and menopausal women here successful at weight loss. There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
    edited November 2017
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    gentlygently wrote: »
    I had horribly heavy periods in my late 40s, and big hormonal swings - tried the pill, and had a mirena coil put in. What a mistake. Huge body reaction and 4 years on stil have Chroni Fatigue (lost my job amd all). Wish i had just stuck to the Tranexamic Acid - which is fantastic for the heavy blood loss.

    Last year the hot flushes started. My doctors asvice was effectively 'dont bother too much with all the unproven vitamin/minerals/teas etc - hang out for as long as you can and then go onto HRT'

    I did an HRT trial as I could see I was tipping into depression, no harm in seeing what difference it makes for 3 months.

    Fantastic result - i feel normal, no flushing, better sleep, no depression and best if all I have regsined control of my temper and actually turned back jnto a nice person again(!).

    I have even got the mental resilisnce to control my eating and so lose some of that middle-aged spread.

    Some time after I read this post I started exploring using Tranexamic Acid for my own extremely heavy periods with my GYN, and since I am with the VA and this med is not in their formulary, it took until Friday for me to get the Rx, which happened to be a day into my period. Holy cow it was like someone shut off the facet! I am cautiously optimistic and am actually looking forward to next month to see what happens when I start taking it before I've already had a day of hemorrhaging.

    The FDA approved Tranexamic Acid for heavy periods in 2009 and I am very disappointed (but not surprised) that my GYN didn't know anything at all about it.

    http://www.mdedge.com/obgmanagement/article/63932/new-treatment-menorrhagia-enters-us-market#2206OBG_Article2-fig1
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
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    bumping so I can read later

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