Hi Tracey
I started my perimenopause around the age of 43 too.
I'm now 47, but only been on HRT for six months, as I never realised the symptoms I were having were perimenopause.
I was weaning off tranquilisers at the time, and I assumed the flushes and sweats were due to the withdrwals, so I slowed down the rate I was weaning off.
It seemed to ramp up a notch last summer also, and my IBS got more aggressive.
I started on Femoston 1/10 last October-January, and it didn't work, so I increased it to 2/10, with little success.
The symptoms still impeded my life, and I was near to giving up on Femoston, after a failed three month trial on 2/10, but then I read that gluten can cause perimenopausal symptom, I posted in another thread how my HRT suddenly started working very soon after.
I knew precious little about perimenopause and menopause, and had no clue how utterly miserable it can make some women.
I wasn't expecting mine until the age of 50, and was looking forward to it, because my periods would stop. Little did I know I was already in the swing of perimenopause.