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[matesse8]

Hello , I am 50 and suspect ive have entered the perimenopause due to the various problems I am experiencing. To be honest, I am quite fed up with it all at the minute and dont feel like I have many options. Last year I went to my doctor with symptoms, hot flashes, mood swings, terrible irratibility, aches and pains, trouble sleeping etc. She insisted I have a blood test. I had one done.
As I was due for an appointment with the nurse at the surgery as I suffer with mild asthma , I decided to ask her what the blood test results showed.
 I was told everything was showing normal. No increased levels of any inducation of menpause
With that, I figured maybe I was wrong about suspecting the menpause so decided to leave it there . A year later still feeling fed up and irritable I decided to return to the doctors for help.
I was then told by the doctor that the last years blood test showed decreasing levels if eostregen! But, although she discussed the possible treatments, hrt, antidepressants, alternative to hrt she insisted on yet another blood test !  I get the impression that some of these doctors are reluctant to give you anything . Personally, I would love to try alternative treatments to prescription medications but not sure where to start. I am taking kalms at the minute as I find the mood swings hard to live with but not sure they are really helping that much.
Anyone got any tips? 
Thanks everyone and hope your all getting good suport.

[caz24]

Hi matesse8

Welcome to the forum, I think that you'll find it to be really helpful, I certainly have.
The same thing happened to me in that I was initially told my blood test results were normal and then at a later date told that FSH showed that I was perimenopausal. I was glad that I had an explanation as to why I wasn't feeling like myself.
I have had mood swings (agree these are the worst to deal with if it's out of character for you), anxiety, irritability and my periods all over the place and sometimes just constant and heavy but luckily no hot flushes as yet. I looked around the site and now take these supplements, vitamin B6, Starflower Oil (1000mg), Omega 3 fish oils and calcium and magnesium. I've been taking them for some time now and definitely feel better than I did. It seems lots of women will try the alternative approach first and for some it helps and others not at all.
Out of interest I saw Linda Barker on tv talking about her experience the other day and she said that she found changes to her diet to be the most helpful as she didn't want to take HRT. She said that she eats a lot of foods that are 'plant based oestrogen'. I'm going to look into this further!
I'm sure that there will be lots of ladies getting in touch with good advice for you. Good luck x

[matesse8]

  hi carol24, thank you for your reply and advice regarding similar experience and advice on suplements I can try. Its such a relief to know i am not alone. 
I shall certainly takeva good look around the website .
Have a good evening and a peacefull day ahead  xx

[Hurdity]

Hi matesse8

 

It can be difficult and bewildering at the beginning to know quite what to do.

I was in peri-menopause for a long time before I took HRT, but I didn't get hot flushes until my periods stopped for several months at a time and eventually these, night sweats and other symptoms were too much to cope with as my oestrogen levels really dropped and nothing worked except HRT. it is difficult to know what to do for the best if you are starting to get flushes when your oestrogen levels haven't dropped by very much.

I did try various natural remedies and I thought they worked, but to be honest during peri-menopause your hormones are going up and down so much it's difficult to know whether any effect (of an alternative treatment) is down to your own hormones!

There is an excellent article here on peri-menopause:
http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/article-perils-of-the-perimenopause.php

A recent article about the benefits of HRT here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2800760/should-women-hrt-menopause-experts-say-s-best-way-ease-symptoms-avoid-long-term-health-problems.html

Also the best thing you can do for yourself at this time is to concentrate on your general health and well-being as you enter this next phase of your life ie give up smoking (if you smoke), cut down alcohol to within recommended limits, lose weight if you are overweight, take regular exercise to keep yourself fit and active, and eat a healthy low fat diet with plenty of fresh foods and fruit and veg - cooked from fresh rather than processed.

I do take an iron supplement now and again as I still have a cycle - Floradix herbal iron tonic, and also Seven Seas pure cod liver oil now and again (from the bottle - not the capsules as these have added vitamins and I don't want these!). Also I eat quite a lot of fish, and sometimes chew a calcium and Vit D tablet - but mainly I get all the vits and minerals from my diet and only have these now and again as a top up just in case.

There is also an article about health and menopause here:
http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/diet.php

By the way HRT is not like medication if you use the "bio-identical" kind ie the same compounds as made in our own bodies ie estradiol ( for the oestrogen ) and progesterone (rather than the synthetic ones). In this case you are just replacing what has become deficient rather than taking drugs to  elminate the symptoms if you see what I mean 

I got carried away here but hope some of it is useful!!!

Hurdity x