Wow - such a lot if interesting discussion and points being made!
Also great post Dancinggirl by the way (the long one a few posts down)
Yes BrightLight, as already said I think you have been scared into your current thought process by the GP and your blood test.
The only major change at menopause is the cessation of the menstrual cycle and the extreme reduction in oestrogen which is why attention is focussed on this - because its loss has such a profound effect on women's health and well-being.
Another ramble which I hope isn't too disjointed - there is a lot in your post I wanted to pick up on and sorry if I've repeated myself!
Hurdity x
ha ha - yes I have been scared into a panic - but it's subsiding
![Smiley :)](https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/Smileys/extended/smiley.gif)
I won't know until after the blood test and even then it all might change but it has been suggested that yes, this is a situation where my ovaries have stopped (for whatever reason). Saying that the rise in fsh is indicative of long term rising and not a surge, so although I guess it doesn't matter that much where I am on the continuum, it sort of does for me. Maybe because I am unsure as to whether this means I am not producing ANY hormones from my ovaries at all - this I guess is why I am waffling on about testing levels.
![Wink ;)](https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/Smileys/extended/wink.gif)
I didn't go to the doctor for a missed period - I went for bad pain and burning in my lower back, hip and cocyx that accompanied the weirdest period with awful migraine, nausea, cramps and spotting afterwards for 10 days. They tested my thyroid and FSH to rule this out as the first step in diagnosing the cause of abnormal bleeding - the levels for FSH were 85 and the diagnosis is suspected menopause and the second blood test is to confirm this. I missed my first period after the blood test and my last cycle started 8 weeks ago.
Ovarian Failure is different from natural menopause, the ovaries aren't functioning properly, there are either no eggs or dysfunctional ones - ovulation can occur again spontaneously but unlikely at my age. This is why the second GP suggested progesterone only to see if they started again, she was referring to the strong possibility after a very stressfull few years that my adrenal function was indeed interfering with the metablosim of sex hormones. By that she meant very low progesterone, either due to adrenals using it for cortisol or low because of dysfunction and both having a part in ovulation. I am trying to say that if my ovaries have failed the hormones are not fluctuating in the same way as described in natural menopause. It makes sense of my symptoms over the past year and why since having no periods I feel very different indeed.
Thank you for the explanation about the hormone levels and testing - it is as much for my own interest as anything else that I think about what has been going on, for instance if my periods returned with some prompting from HRT I would continue perhaps in a natural declining menopause for another year, which is good for my overall health. Can you appreciate why it seems to me that I must do my best to ascertain if there are any avenues to restore my own balance naturally and that I might not be dealing with a 'natural menopause'.
Either way I have definately learnt so much about HRT and the risks/benefits etc from all the comments, advise and help on here and I feel clear about all that now. I just need to decide whether to let nature take it's course or use the HRT to attempt to restore cycles or to use it anyway.
I know it might seem overthinking but really I see it as learning about the possibilities of treatment while I wait for the full diagnosis - at the end of the day in conventional terms my ovaries have failed which is menopause and I either take HRT or not. I really don't have symptoms of major discomfort anymore, but if my system is not going to re-blance and operate on the low levels expected in natural menopause because of a different kind of 'failure' then it might tip the balance for me to take HRT for definate. Am I making sense?
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