O/T Question re: perimenopausal symptoms

Hi Be4Me, I'm in it now. All I can say is its worse than the past 42 years of PMS. LOL The only thing I don't have is anxiety, however my mom suffered TERRIBLY from it during her change. My mother flat out refused all hormone replacement which left her on a very very mild anti anxiety medication, which we had to force her to take. That helped her tremendously. She had no choice because without it she would go into a full blown panic attack. Good Luck and I'm hoping someone can give some input here.

Before you go on meds, try fish oil capsules first. Fish oil changes brain chemicals and acts as a mild anti-depressant/mood stabilizer. However, fish oil also is a blood thinner so you need consider whether it will interact with any other medications you may be taking.

Just Google fish oil mood stabilizer and see what pops up.

My experience with menopause was that I became terribly depressed - I had never been depressed before but boy oh boy - it really hit me when menopause came so I asked my PCP and he wanted me to go on antidepressants. I went to my gyne and he had a better idea. He started me on a bioidentical hormone patch - then every year he diminished the dose slightly until , after 5 years he stopped it altogether. I had some hot flashes etc for a few weeks and was kinda miserable but that quickly went away and now - it has been 7 years on no meds and doing very well. I just needed that bridge between natural meno and being through meno. The day I went to the gyne he slapped a patch on me and by that evening all my symptoms were going away. I awoke the next day as my old self. I am not an advocate of women using hormone therapy forever as some women do - they are 90 years old and still taking premarin - but I think what my doctor did was very effective and short term hormones at the lowest possible doses are much less dangerous than long term hormone use. I was on estradiol patches. I am allergic to latex so I had some local reactions to the patches which I treated with cortisone cream - it was worth while to me to have the depression gone so I wasn't letting a little skin irritation deter me.

happy Housewife - your posting was very informative and helpful to me.

On 9/1/2014 sunshine3215 said:

happy Housewife - your posting was very informative and helpful to me.

I'm so glad

I haven't had a period since Jan 2014 and am going to turn 50 this month.

The last 2 years have been the worse for me. I am on Remifemin (Black Cohosh) for the hot flashes, which I won't have for a few months, then all of a sudden, bam, their back.

I also have had the worst anxiety I have ever had. It's hard.

I take a very low dose HRT 2x a week.

I also have insomnia. This is very hard on me since I used to be able to sleep 9+ hours a night and now I wake up every 2 or 3 hours. I just seem to toss and turn all night. Was taking valerian to help with sleep, but it sometimes is hit or miss. Plus, not sure how long it is safe to take longterm.

I can see how a lot of women go thru depression during this season of life. And, I am right there with you. I think the anxiety gets to me the most though.

I think exercising and trying to take care of oneself is always a good choice.

Good luck. We are all in this together.

My symptoms really hit hard about the time my only child went off to college, and frankly, it was a bad, bad year for me. I had very mild, rare anxiety issues before that but that was the worst side effect for me - the anxiety really deeply affected me to the point my dr. prescribed Xanax to take when it hit hard. I am afraid of dependency on anything, so I was very careful about taking 1/2 dose very occasionally, but just knowing it was available to me helped so much. The sleeping problems were bad to deal with, too. So, I bought a treadmill and started walking every single day. I needed to lose weight, and become healthier, and this was the best single thing I did. That was 2 1/2 years ago and I still walk every single day. I've lost about 60 lbs., but more importantly, I sleep really well again (except for a rare night I wake up drenched in the middle of a hot flash - even those seem to be diminishing). I have not taken any hormone replacement products at all, and have relied on vitamins and minerals. Vitamin E has seemed to have the most effect for me. I do take fish oil as well, so possibly that helps, too.

Every woman has to figure out what works best for her. Good luck...

Not TMI at all and I hope I can help. The main cause of all the anxiety and everything is the imbalance of hormones. A friend of mine recommended an anti-depressant, but I thought I might just be treating the symptoms. I’m in my mid-40’s (where did the time go?!?) and once I got the hormones in check, everything (the anxiety, depression, etc.) pretty much disappeared. I started taking Solgar PM phytogen complex and I feel so much better. I read some information by Dr. Christiane Northrup and she recommended it, so I thought I’d try it.

I just had my annual wellness visit and I asked my doctor why is it that when it comes to perimenopause and menopause that everyone always talks about hot flashes and night sweats? I have no idea what a hot flash feels like, but I can tell you what terrible anxiety and panic attacks feel like!

Best,

~T

Thanks for posting this. My issues started around 47 yrs. I just could not relax.I would try to lie down and the anxiety would start and would feel like I had to keep moving.Then it was a serious depressive state.

I have been on a low dose of effexor for quite some time but my fabulous Dr gave me Klonopin at my last visit for the anxiety and insomnia.That has really helped.

Also vitamin D seems to help.

It has been a very rough road for me and at 55 I am still having some issues but they are pretty mild.

I wish you the best,I never imagined I would feel like this.