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[lizjane]

Can anyone give any suggestions what is going on with me now?
I'm 55, had some issues with heavy periods and thickened endometrium throughout 2015, which ended with a hysteroscopy and biopsy showing all was well.
I had one period in Feb 2016 that was light and short, and then that seemed to be the end of it all, no bleeds or pain or signs of ovulation. I thought I had finally made it to the end.
But 4 weeks ago I started with intermittent bleeding again, more than spotting but not really getting started, for a few hours every other day. It goes from bright red to brown then stops, then nothing, then comes again.
I have no other symptoms or problems. Waiting for an appointment with a GP, but wondering if anyone can suggest what might be happening. Is this PM bleeding or not, given that I haven't quite made the 12 month mark. And if it's not PM bleeding, what on earth is it? Never had anything like it in my life!

[Hurdity]

Hi lizjane - strictly speaking you should not need to get this investigated if you are not 12 months without a period - and at 55 you are not that old yet to reach menopause (!).

However if you have had issues with thickened endometrium then perhaps it is wise to get it checked out? Bleeding can be due to lots of things - normal ovulation ( perhaps your ovaries' last fling?), or your lining thickened from responding to oestrogen over the last few months - but insufficient to allow ovulation (a few old follicles may "try" to ripen but they're past it!). If the endometrium gets too thick, sometimes it bleeds spontaneously and randomly as the lining comes away.

Did you have any signs of ovulation a couple of weeks ago or pms symptoms just before the bleeding started?

At the end of our reproductive life normal periods often do not occur and all sorts of different bleeding patterns can happen!Try not to worry - make a visit to your doc and hopefully all is well

Hurdity x

[Machair]

Hi Lizjane,

 What a pity it started again- I am sure all will be well at the GP. There are a few of us in a similar age group on here- Sparkle and Elizabeth Rose might be along in a minute with their thoughts. Don't worry about your age you are normal!
Hurdity is brilliant and has some words of wisdom here so don't worry.xx

[lizjane]

It's the length of time it's been going on - four weeks and counting - is this still within the normal range? Is it likely to be a very strange period?
I don't think 55 is excessively old to still be perimenopausal, but the gynaecologist went on as if I were only fit for a freak show, still having periods at 54. She has made me worry about things without reason.

[Machair]

Just had some thoughts Lizjane that might help. You didn't say when your cycle started to change. Were you completely regular until 54? It probably has little relevance to why you are bleeding for 4 weeks, but it might explain why you are still having bleeding at all. I was regular until 53 and am still having oestrogen surges at 56, but many of my friends stopped being regular at 48/49 and they had already had their last periods by the time mine went haywire.
In other words some of us are 5 years or so behind others when we start to see changes. At 52 my periods were like clockwork- the average age of menopause, or so we are led to believe.

Your 4 week period may be due to the build up of a lining of the last 11 months not through ovulation, but through unopposed oestrogen - I have read this on here many times where ladies say they have this, but I would get it checked out and then you can rest easy. 

[Elizabethrose]

Hi lizjane,

Oh bad luck, just when you saw the finishing line!

The ladies have given you sound advice but I just wanted to add to it. Have you noticed any changes in your vaginal mucus? Normally for a couple of years after the final period the ovaries continue surging sporadically and can in some women produce a build in the endometrial lining. Some women experience obvious physical signs of this hormonal activity and the cervical mucus can be a good way to measure this. If you have noticed the stretchy egg white type slippery mucus in recent months it's a sign that the oestrogen has surged which can build the endometrium. The surges can find a viable egg in some women but are mostly anovulatory.

I'm 57 and still not had a year without a bleed so am not officially through meno. However I haven't ovulated since October 2015, I've just had anovulatory bleeds following massive oestrogen surges, I think 5 bleeds in total, last one being the beginning of Sept 2016. All been checked out by docs so all is well. I've had absolutely no sign of hormonal activity since Sept so I feel sure that all is done and dusted now. My body seems able to clear the endometrium when it needs to which it's had to do because I had oestrogen levels off the Richter scale!

The longest 'cycle' I had was 6 months but given you got to 11, if I were you I would get it checked out. Far better to be sure that all is well.

I too have been made to feel like a freak still menstruating at 57, the percentages are very very low at this age, however, here we are, we exist!! Last year one gynae tutted that I couldn't still be menstruating at my age - I dealt with her rather succinctly!! Other specialists I see are not in the least perturbed.

I'm sure all is well but always sensible to get it checked out! x

[Machair]

Such brilliant advice ER. I meant to add too that I have these oestrogen surges as ER did, and that my bleeds follow these. Have you had any signs like this to give you any clues?

[Elizabethrose]

Lizjane, I'm attaching a link to a thread that Machair posted, discussing this very subject: thought it may be of interest to you. x

http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,31902.0.html

[lizjane]

Thanks ladies, nice to know that I'm not actually a total freak, and that it's not necessarily anything to worry about. I did have some ovary pain, what used to be ovulation pain, just before the bleeding started, but no stretchy mucus, so perhaps this is my body's last attempt at a cycle.
Too much Googling is bad for the mental well-being!

[coldethyl]

I always feel like I go round spreading doom and gloom on here but I was recently diagnosed with uterine cancer on top of the ovarian cancer I was being investigated for. The only indictation that all wasn't well was that I had a lot of light spotting at the end of my periods that would come and go for days or weeks and a show at ovulation time.  Sometimes I worry that the advice to see a GP about any abnormal bleeding gets buried in the " oh I had that during peri " reassurances - it is reassuring that others get things so it's  sometimes easy to ignore things that do need checking out when we are scared about what tested might reveal.
My mum had terrible erratic bleeding and spotting throughout her peri so I assumed I was the same until I decided enough was enough after a few months of it and saw my GP who was unhappy about the feel of my uterus on pelvic exam.
It is probably nothing and just your ovaries trying to have a final fling but you are doing right thing seeing GP. If it is anything then being caught early means that a hysterectomy will solve your problem without further treatment - I was told mine was very early and that my op had sorted it - in a way I was lucky to be symptomatic as it took me to GP and the fast track cancer system which found asymptomatic ovarian mass.
Try not to worry , which I know is far easier said than done. Your GP will be in a good position to advise you what might be going on and what investigations are necessary. Is your appointment soon? X

[Elizabethrose]

Not the spreader of gloom and doom at all coldethyl, just sound sensible advice. It's always worth getting anything unusual checked out. Obviously bleeding patterns are all over the place in peri with almost anything possible; it makes being aware of what is going on ever more important. Whilst nobody likes being prodded and poked in examinations, it's always better to see a doc in order to catch things early. x

[Machair]

So very sorry you had this to cope with coldethyl. No one here ever tells anyone to ignore symptoms or that they are "only" perimenopause. I think we encourage each other by sharing experiences, but we don't ever try to encourage complacency, more to encourage calm, seeking medical advice when concerned, and certainly not to google. Peri can bring on medical panic, and calm and sensible actions should be taken when things don't fit a pattern with support and reassurance - that's how I see it anyway.

[coldethyl]

So very sorry you had this to cope with coldethyl. No one here ever tells anyone to ignore symptoms or that they are "only" perimenopause. I think we encourage each other by sharing experiences, but we don't ever try to encourage complacency, more to encourage calm, seeking medical advice when concerned, and certainly not to google. Peri can bring on medical panic, and calm and sensible actions should be taken when things don't fit a pattern with support and reassurance - that's how I see it anyway.

I agree that this place offers amazing advice and encouragement on all aspects of the hell that can be peri and meno. I just don't want anyone to leave things that might turn out to be something. My link gynae nurse said that so many symptoms can be nothing more than peri but they can be sonething else too and only a HCP can check us out. I know that from my own experience that anxiety , particularly health anxiety can take over when we are faced with strange symptoms and that often , health anxiety can have the effect of making us not contact a GP and that behaviour can be sustained by outside reassurance as we ignore the " I'm sure it's nothing BUT GO AND SEE YOUR GP" bit. Oh and I agree, stay away from Google as it is always cancer or MS( or worse still, you don't have the symptoms of ovarian cancer as described so are relieved  but you do have it!!! ) xxx