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folklaur
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| Posted: Sept 16 2008 at 1:38pm | IP Logged
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How do you know if you are there?
My (.) for the last year has been all kinds of wonky. I used to have at LEAST a 30 day cycle, sometimes going as long as 42 days. Never less than 30 though, for sure. For that last year or so, it has been more like 23 - 27 days, and although it has always been heavy, it is really, really heavy. Sometimes, after 7 days (that is how long I usually have it) it will be gone, but then a few days later I will spot again. Plus - my PMS syptoms (anxiety, IBS, and now a new one - the few days before, and especially the night before I get it, I am SO HOT. SO hot that I feel ill, or I will awake during the night and be soaked in sweat.) My cramps the first two days are debilitating. The second day has always been difficult, but like today I am sitting here curled in a ball with a heat pack and a buzzy pillow. Ugh. 
I don't have a ob/gyn dr. here yet.
Does this sound like peri-menopause, or something else?
Is there anything I can do, naturally, to help especially with night sweats thing. It's awful. I never sleep well anyway, but being hot brings on a panic attack to boot.
I can't take any hormones, due to having a pregnancy-related DVT.
I am going to be 38 in December.
What do you think?
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St. Ann
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| Posted: Sept 16 2008 at 3:56pm | IP Logged
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Laura,
many of the described symptoms remind me of me at 25-30 years old. At that time I was under a lot of emotional stress. There were many life changes at that time and a lot of healing was going on with me. I was so physically ill the first days of my (.), that I couldn't go to work, much of what you describe. That doesn't mean that what you are experiencing isn't perimenopause, but it could be your body reacting to stress or major changes that are difficult to deal with....??????
When you do feel like that , don't feel guilty about pampering yourself. Just do it and let your kids pamper you!
Hugs.
Stephanie
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Stephanie
Wife and mother to Hannah '96, Maria '99, Dorothea '01, Helena '03
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Anneof 5
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| Posted: Sept 16 2008 at 4:08pm | IP Logged
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http://www.project-aware.org/Experience/symptoms.shtml
This site lists 35 common symptoms of menopause (really peri-menopause). I think there was a point in time where I had about 30 of them! 
Magnesium glycinate can help with the sleep and cramping. A small snack of a healthy carb and fat (like half an apple with 2T peanut butter) half an hour before bed can also help with sleep.
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folklaur
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| Posted: Sept 16 2008 at 4:52pm | IP Logged
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Anneof 5 wrote:
http://www.project-aware.org/Experience/symptoms.shtml
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Thanks for the link!
Oh, my goodness, but it would explain quite a few of the things I have been concerned about lately (my hair loss, my bouts of vertigo, the tingling sensation, my ringing ears) that I had not associated with menopause at all.
Spoke to my Mom, she said she started menopause symptoms around 36.
sigh.
So - do I talk to a Family Dr, or an OB/Gyn? And is there anything they can do to help me?
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Anneof 5
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| Posted: Sept 16 2008 at 5:49pm | IP Logged
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It depends on your provider. Some will want you to go on artificial hormones, others know about natural bio-identical hormones (I use those). Blood tests for hormone levels can change from day to day so sometimes they do not measure those. They may check your thyroid function. I would do some reading up on it first to see what you are comfortable with. Anne Louise Gittleman has a good book on it as well as Dr. Christiane Northrup (watch out for the more "new-age" type stuff-ignore that part-she does have some good ideas to suggest). There are some good websites (www.womentowomen.com)-lots of articles-
but if you are not in favor of artificial hormone replacement, make sure a drug company isn't the sponsor of the site. Nutrition plays a key role in how your body copes with these changes. I wish I would have known that years before I started with all the symptoms. HTH!
Anne
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folklaur
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| Posted: Sept 16 2008 at 6:13pm | IP Logged
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Oh, thank you!!!
I can't do artificial hormones for sure, due to having the DVT. I wonder if bio-identical would put me at risk also? Since pregnancy itself is a risk for me, I just wonder how that works.
Anything I can do through nutrition would be excellent.
Again, thank you very much!
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Topic: peri-menopause?
