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[Tinkerbellj]

Can u be perimenopausal if your periods r still completely regular? ?

[20032003]

Can u be perimenopausal if your periods r still completely regular? ?

Are your periods 100% the same? I answered "yes" when asked by a doctor, because I didn't know that being irregular also meant lighter than normal periods. Mine were (are) stll regular as far as come roughly once/month but the amount has changed over the last couple of years. I now have two normal bleeding days, usually, and then it sometimes stops completely (without fading out). Before I used to bleed altogether for about a week - fading in and fading out.

[Babsm67]

I am still having periods every month & they are extremely heavy for two days then go back to normal for the next four.  However, most months (and this has been going on for a coup!e of years), my cycle is now around 23 days instead of 28.  Bizarrely, it reverted back to exactly 28 days during November and December!  I am also, like Sparkle, getting many of the symptoms on the list and, looking back, many of these started up around autumn 2013 (aged 46), although my bladder problems started much earlier.  I also had spotting during the second half of my cycle during the summers of 2014 & 2015.  Have you had any of these symptoms with your periods?  I was told at my last gynae consultant appointment in September that I was perimenopausal.  Hope this helps 

[Tinkerbellj]

Wow thanks its a minefield isnt it!! Was every 28 days now could be 28-30 and much more painful but basically the same! Been off hrt and to be honest I feel calmer off it I think on balance. Joint pains r wick thou but the flushing isnt so bad. Weird!!

[Hurdity]

Tinkerbellj - It's all a question of definition really.

The STRAW definition of peri-menopause  http://www.imsociety.org/downloads/email_downloads/2012_02_16_1773491/straw10.pdf which is also used by NICE does not define peri-menopause as happening until your cycle starts to vary by 7 or more days. The stage before this is referred to as the late reproductvie stage - which makes sense because you are still ovulating and could theoretically still conceive and get pregnant. Some change to hormones occur at this point as well as changes in flow and period length and in particular periods get shorter together.

Many women ( myself included) get/got more extreme pms symptoms at this stage - due to surges of and dips in oestrogen and progesterone some of which produce similar symptoms to peri-menopause. The difficulty is how to treat it and how it transitions into "official" peri-menopause - according to the medical definition. Regarding treatment - the definition helps to some extent in that once your periods start to go haywire oestrogen levels are definitely dropping and HRT helps to restore this and regulate the cycle as well as get rid of the most obvious troublesome symptoms.

Some women find that adding HRT during this time (periods still regular but very bad pms/hormone swings = mood swings) is not the complete answer because oestrogen sometimes is very high and when it drops it is very low and it's all so unpredictable - and this is acknowledged by gynaes. Someone recently reported Dr Currie's response to a question about this but I can't remember who and when!! The flushing is a problem though as some women start to get these very early - some of us are luckier and only get them when periods stop for a while ( in my case) and then adding HRT stops them.

If you're under 50 I would be tempted to try Qlaira but those of us who have an average age menopause or later can't take this past 50 - well not officially anyway.

A bit of a ramble .... but my take on it from what I've read.

Hurdity x

[GypsyRoseLee]

My periods suddenly became much lighter, only lasting 3 days. Often I would think my period had started, then it would stop for 24 hours before starting again. And I'd only get fresh blood for the first day, then it would just be brown spotting for a couple of days.

Also, my boobs suddenly stopped getting swollen.and tender prior to my period. This was very welcome.

Even since being on HRT my withdrawal bleeds have been quite light and brief.

I 'think' this indicates that my oestrogen levels were falling? I have just tried to read Hurdity's STRAW paper, but couldn't really understand where I came on the graph?

[Hurdity]

Once you start HRT you don't know where you are unless you stop for a while but you can work out where you were when you started. From memory during the Late Repro Stage there are also "subtle changes in length and flow" - and I presume this is due to decreasing oestrogen - or perhaps the shorter cycle ( less time to build up the lining?) even though ovulation is still occuring regularly. There is a lot still to understand isn't there!

Hurdity x