Perimenapause / Menapause

I am 47 and a bit hacked off at my body lately. As of about July last year I have been in the throws of "serious" peri symptoms.

Last September I had horrific pain in my belly for days. Cramps. So long in fact I went to my doctor who diagnosed me with a UTI. Totally wasn't. It was a phantom period. Then in the winter I had a "lite" period in the middle of my other two. Now I am having various and sundry symptoms that are, for me, pretty severe. Heart palpitations. Wet stool and diarrhea. Weird cramping of just about everything... leg muscles.. etc.. abdominal cramps so much that it is kind of more frequent not to have them... than have them.

Because of these symptoms I am subjected to various and sundry tests -- UTI, vaginal ultrasound, ekg.

I suppose my real irk is ... how on gods green earth should I possibly know if I have an actual physical problem when there are so many symptoms coming at me?

And frankly... how on gods green earth am I supposed to work like this. I mean geeze.

Oh wow, Emily, that all sounds *awful*.

I don't have any answers. I'm only a couple years younger than you (43) - and I think I'm starting, a little (I've had some wackiness with my normally on-time period, and I'm hot a lot more often, and sweating more at night). I hate the thought that it's going to get worse.

I guess the doctors didn't find anything when they did the test? Have you talked to anyone who can maybe look at your hormones (I don't know if hormone disruptions can cause those symptoms, but it's worth asking about, maybe?)

I'm so sorry. I hope things get better soon for you.

No. One real frustrating issue is that hormone tests kind of vary by when you do them in your cycle so it is kind of pointless. It is hard to tell unless you know where you are in your cycle and if things are all over the place... you don't know. There are somethings that can be done but to me... it seems like the cure might not be that great.

Hormones are kind of not to be messed with so I feel like I should just let it run its course.

One thing that really got my attention is how (right word?) powerful this is. I mean whatever it is it has smacked my body and made it cry. It is a little scary. I guess we are all different and I could be at the very end and not know it but wow.

I am frustrated. Last night I had a palpitation attack. I mean this went on for two hours. It seems to stop by my doing some deep breathing exercises. It is like if I fill my chest it stops it. (not 100%) But also I noticed that my heart rate (I have a little finger thing to test it) has dropped. It was around RHR at 63 or so, but now it is 55 or lower.

I looked it up and it can be a symptom of menopause.

I considered going to the ER but I have been there before with paps (when I was younger) and typically there is nothing to be done. They do an EKG, the paps don't show up and the doctor asks you if you have other symptoms... such as dizziness, fainting, chest pain etc.. and when you don't.. they just send you home. At that time I did a halter monitor and they found them but said they were benign because I had none of the other symptoms.

The palps for sure do seem to come on at night. I am not sure why. It does seem I have them when I am lying down. My leading theory at this point is that I do have coffee late in the afternoon sometimes and last night I did have a full cup at 4 PM. So today I will cut that and see what happens.

I am one day post TOM so, it seems like I am probably at a low estrogen point. I have a physical scheduled with my doctor in 2 weeks so I am trying to make that.

So I went to the "urgent" care yesterday just in case I was missing something. My BP was slightly elevated but nothing bad. Then they did an EKG which showed nothing up. The doctor wanted to put me on a halter monitor but I refused. She also took some blood tests. But I didn't have an afternoon cup of coffee and I didn't have any spells. So I am wondering if that is it.

I don't know why I would ever develop this problem with coffee when I have never had such a problem before but... as long as I can get it under control.

I am sympathising - and nodding my head in understanding some of your symptoms. I am 50 and have been wondering, as the symptoms are ridiculously overlapping one another to the most extreme yet, if I am near the end. I just can't imagine it getting worse. Things first began to change at about 46, reaching bothersome proportions by about 48.

I am sorry you have to experience this. Has anyone had experience with natural remedies?

I know what I wasn't prepared for was that my entire body would seem to go kaput.

I am hopeful that my symptoms are caused by coffee. I discovered today that you can become sensitive to coffee and so far, avoiding it, has kept the palpitations away. Now that in itself can be caused by hormonal shifts (a common first symptom of pregnancy is coffee sensitivity)

I also have had a symptom that I thought was due to a drug. Wet stools and that could have been caused by caffeine sensitivity.

I got a hint of this today because around 12 PM I started realizing I was feeling jittery. I had only had one cup of coffee but I had been slowly drinking a caffeinated soda.

All my blood tests came back normal today... of course.

Im 45 and ive been sweating a lot. Im not sure if its meds or hormones. My period is still normal but I know its starting. Btw I get lots if heart palps. Have for a long time. They dont show on my ekg either but my dr felt it taking my pulse.

Usually I would get the random palp. Maybe 1 or 2 per day. And in 2002 I had them frequently and they said it was due to anxiety. But now they are "all the time" And also, for some reason much worse at night and when I am lying down.

My guess on that is that means it has to be related to "caffeine" and or anxiety. Today I am going to try cutting out 1/2 my caffeine and see if it works. Yesterday I had more caffeine than I wanted, I went out to eat and had a large soda in addition to a normal one that I have plus come candy... Typically I might have about 200 mgs of caffeine, but yesterday I think I had about 350.

Right now I am post TOM and in theory, my estrogen level should be coming up.

I am hoping I have solved the problem. I still don't understand why but I decided after another palpitation "attack" to increase my water. I had increased it but not a lot. I went from like 2 cups of water to like 8. And my paps pretty much ended. Perhaps I had one. Also interestingly, my heart rate increased. I had been worried about the fact that my heart rate seemed too low. At rest it was like 56 to 60 when usually it was 60 to 70. To me it seems like my heart wasn't working correctly without water.

I have no idea how this happened. I have never been so dehydrated before that it effected my heart and also... all my blood tests were normal. So I could haven't been "that dehydrated".

But for a while now I knew I wasn't consuming enough water. Perhaps sort of a long term low level of dehydration just reached a turning point.

Also, since this has never happened to me before, I am also wondering if the menopause hasn't changed me in someway that I do need more water.

Since all my palpitation attacks seemed to happen at night my theory is that the caffeine was causing me to be more dehydrated at the end of the day.