[Victoria'smom]

I'm 42 now. I need all the information as I can. So this is the thread to talk about perimenopause.

[unaluna]

Im 73, so i am 20 years out. I would volunteer to do the drumming for the dancing around the fire, but at peri i became even MORE intolerant of loud noises - one evening i was in a dbt course where everybody started drumming on the table (per instructions!) and i about lost my mind! This was me:

[Victoria'smom]

That sucks I'm already sensitive to sound.

[Crazy Hitch]

My periods got really erratic now I haven’t had one since February. If anxiety is a symptom I’m doing pretty well on that front. No hot flushes but not everyone gets them. I’m 47.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I'm going through menopause the weird way. I had a hysterectomy 13 years ago and so without periods menopause is just a lot of guessing, symptom monitoring and hormone testing. I have had a big uptick in hot flashes lately so I think things are moving. (I'm having one now. Yuck. Why do I shower at night?). It's really important I get through it as fast as possible because I need to be on a med to reduce my breast cancer risk but it's for post-menopausal women.

I had the extremely heavy bleeding before my hysterectomy. I remember being at work and changing overnight thickness pads every couple of hours. I'm sure if I'd used regular pads I'd have been bleeding through in an hour but I didn't have the way to risk that at work.

I do not miss periods. I do wish I had something I could see as a way to track my hormones but I'd never go through the 2 years before my hysterectomy (done for heavy bleeding) again.

[Nammu]

I too am finished with perimenopause. I’m happily into menopause and loving it. The hot flashes were the worse part of it for me. My hair on the legs and pits stopped growing but then the ever so helpful substitute doctor gave me a prescription for hormones. Nope! Only took them maybe 2-3 weeks but my hair started growing again and my moods really went wild. Don’t recommend hormones. So now the hair on the front of my calf’s grows but only there so it’s no too bad to shave. My pits remained hair free.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

@Nammu I'm glad to see someone say that leg and pit hair stopped growing. I can't believe how rarely I have to shave. I thought that was some oddity so I'm glad to know it happens to other people.

[Nammu]

Unfortunately doctors don’t get much training for perimenopause or menopause. I think the best source of information out there is Our Bodies Ourselves, Menopause. Book. I think doctors get an hour of info. Not nearly enough.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I'm afraid that I may find out that hormones are causing my nausea and if so there's just not much that will help me.

[Crazy Hitch]

I’m looking forward to my leg hairs not growing because they are dark and thick and I have to shave frequently