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[Mollie123]

Hi Ladies, I am 45 and would say that I have been feeling pretty awful since before Christmas when I was experiencing sweats doing the slightest bit of housework.  I hadn't experienced many nights sweats, the first one I had about 3 years ago when my mum died but just put it down to a nightmare or stress and didn't connect the two. I had a few since through the night waking up drenched and hair soaking wet.  On one occasion I thought I had wet myself.   I also have been experiencing terrible excrutiating joint pains in my elbows, fingers, the odd clunk and twinge in my hips and generally feeling yuck.  I wake up every morning feeling like I have been ran over by a bus and don't really come to until about lunch time. I have problems concentrating and keeping information in my head.   I had been feeling depressed after my mum died and was prescribed Sertraline 50mg and have been on this since.  Now after reading through some of your stories I have finally come to the conclusion I am probably perimenopausal.  I have had periods although getting lighter and my last one only lasted 2 days whereas they were normally 5 days long and the gap between them is variable and getting longer.  I swim regularly (3 times a week) and walk the dog regularly and would say I am fairly fit.  But recently I find everything is an effort.  I would say I didn't have a very high libido before but gradually I have become totally disinterested in sex.  Would rather go to sleep, but even sleep is broken through the night waking up, lying awake, needing the loo, its endless.  I have had dry eyes since I was 38 and was told by the optician it was due to the laser eye surgery I had but I think it was the start of the perimenopause.  My main problem at the moment is the aching joints, I have tried everything and the doctor prescribed me Naproxen but I had to stop as I am waiting to have a scope to check for hiatus hernia as I have suffered from terrible acid reflux for years.  I was told to take paracetamol!!  Can anyone suggest anything for the joint aches, I have tried a spray from the herbal shop, but the pain is constant.  I could cry.  I this a symptom of perimenopause?  I had a GP appointment last week to discuss HRT and he prescribed me patches, when I mentioned my aches I was told to make another appointment for this.  Feeling so frustrated!  Help!

[Taz2]

Hi Mollie123 - just want to welcome you and say that I feel your frustration. You will get loads of help, advice and support on here!

One thing I want to ask - have you had your vitamin D level checked? It is becoming more and more common for people to develop vitamin deficiency and aches and pains are one of the symptoms and it is often missed by doctors https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/am-i-deficient-in-vitamin-d/

Taz x 

[Mardy]

Hi Mollie23 Welcome,

I get dry eyes. This is recent for me & is painful. My optician told me to ask doc to prescribe Oxyal drops or you can buy it from the chemists - It costs about £7 & will do a couple of months.

I did used to get really sore joints, but that seems to have eased off a lot, but have used Green Lipped Muscle Extract & did feel it helped a little. My knees were very painful & I used to (must start again) lie on the bed on my back one leg bent at the knee & lift the other leg as high as you can & straight back down. Do that ten times & then do the other one for ten times. It got easier & easier & I did feel a difference - but that was just for knees!

take care X

[Binbon2]

Hi Mollie

I know how you feel! I am 45 and started into perimenopause a couple of years ago. I managed to control the nightsweats with Menopace until February this year when the hot sweats and insomnia returned with a vengeance. I now take Elleste duet which has helped with the hot sweats. However, after 2 months of HRT I still felt awful - as you say, I wake up feeling like I have been hit by a bus, take ages to get going, and my lower aches are really achy/heavy. I still don't sleep very well and wake frequently in the night to go to the loo. I went back to my GP who did a whole load of blood tests. It turned out that I have low ferritin (iron deficiency). My ferritin came out at 20 ng/l which is on the low side of the normal range (12-200 I think). Luckily, the GP I saw to get my results had been on a course and found out that 50 ng/l ferritin is optimum. The low ferritin can give rise to symptoms such as fatigue, aching limbs, disturbed sleep. I have been taking 2 x 300 mg ferrous gluconate for a month now, and my ferritin levels are up at 38 ng/l. I am hoping I will start feeling better once they get near the optimum level.

Maybe at your next GP appointment ask them to do some blood tests to see if they can find a cause of your symptoms.

[Mollie123]

Thanks for your responses, since my last post I returned to the GP with problems with pains in my elbows and have been diagnosed with tennis elbow! Just another one to add to the endless list of complaints, so have stopped swimming and went walking instead and now have a sore back. I am waiting to go to physio for steroid injections into my elbows. I might add I had to practically beg for the jabs. It's so frustrating you are made to feel as though you are wasting their time! I have started on my evorel patches, which I asked for as I have a history of migraines. I had to tell the gp what I wanted after reading some great advice on this website, the gp was actually clueless! Definitely if had not heard of this website I would still be in the dark! So grateful to hear other people's experiences with perimenopause.