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[pants46]

Sorry, Ladies. Me again. I just need someone to tell me what's going on.
I saw my Dr on Thursday. She's lovely, by the way, but I am struggling to get a definitive answer. And she said it will take many more months to work out if I am peri or not. I don't think I can wait much longer. I've just started fluoxetine and have started the bad phase very quickly. I've also got another period. So here are the facts -
On the minipill for 10 + years, no issues.
One ovary removed in January, got cold flushes within 36 hours, then heat in my back and thighs, plus anxiety.
Tried ADs for the anxiety, but they didn't work very well.
Got really bad aching joints and was quite tearful. Was given hrt (patches).
Tried the patches, but was still on the minipill. After a month stopped the minipill (wish I hadn't).
Carried on with patches for another 2 months, then got an unscheduled bleed, so stopped.
The hrt didnt help my anxiety, and I was getting hot flushes at night.
Have been off everything for 3 months now. Have had my own natural cycles - 24 days, 24 days, 16 days and now 25 days. I seem to have terrible pmt, something I have never had before. Can't stop crying.
For the 3 months my anxiety has been rumbling away in the background and I've been getting really really hot in my back and upper arms every evening, for hours. Really unbearable at times.
So my Dr gave me fluoxetine on Thursday. I think this will be my last attempt at ADs.
But she said it could take more than another 3 months off hormones to work out if I'm peri. I don't think I can keep going.
It's not that I don't want to take hrt, but I would like to know if I really need it. Or if I'm better off going back on the minipill.
Can someone please help me figure out what to do. I am so lost. I've lost 6 months of my life to this and I think I'm reaching desperation.
Thanks ladies, and wishing you all well. xx

[Dotty]

Pants46....sorry if I've missed this or you've already said, but how old are you? X

[pants46]

Hey Dotty,
I'm 47 and had no issues until one of my ovaries was removed. 

[Dotty]

Hi well I think you are definitely in peri menopause! I can't understand your doctors logic. X

[CLKD]

I can't understand why GPs prescribe anti-depressant medication for people with anxiety 

Peri - is the years leading up to the final period when one goes into menopause.  Symptoms can fluctuate.  As oestrogen levels drop various symptoms may/not occur.  Many GPs still believe that unless a woman complains of hot flushes that they can't be in peri  which is totally incorrect.   There isn't a 'way' of confirming other than hindsight.  Blood tests might give an idea but are reliably un-reliable 

How were you during your menstruating years?  I would cry the night B4 a bleed began even if a period wasn't due.  Always a sign that a bleed would start the next morning. 

In the mid-1990s when I had PMT I would feel suddenly sick and light headed; this would be in the 10-14 days prior to a bleed.  Eating every 3 hours helped and I continue with this now.  The idea is to spread the daily menu through the 24 hours not to add foodstuffs.  Bananas really help me.  As do mixed nuts and fruit, sleep when I need to, gentle exercise.  I try to eat B4 my body needs energy to stop that awful sick surge = anxiety.

Do you keep a mood/food/symptom diary, sorry you may have said already  .  It shows that we do have some 'good' days  .  Don't ever apologise for asking advice and for shared experiences.  A problem shared etc..

[pants46]

CLKD, Ive been on the minipill for 10+ years, so no periods.
I've kept a mood / symptom diary for last 6 months, but don't need to refer to it to know that I have not had a good day.
My point really is, I was fine until the ovary was removed and have got worse since stopping the minipill and getting my periods back.
Is all this just me getting my periods back (because nothing I have read would indicate it should be this bad) ?
If I wait longer to know, I'll be bloody post meno !!
Want to know, so that I can make informed choice between minipill and hrt.

[CLKD]

Could you go for an appt. with the Consultant who removed your ovary?  That would be my choice, speak to the person who decided to remove the ovary and let him/her know the effects.  Without communication the medical profession won't find out how women suffer after surgery. 

I had periods whilst on the Pill  .  I began it at age 16 for period pains, took it for 22 years.  It sounds like your body has gone into shock!

[pants46]

I dont think I could be trusted to see the (male) gynae who removed my ovary. I am so angry and resentful.
He said I wouldn't go into menopause. That was it. No warning that I would feel shit almost immediately. When I saw him after 6 weeks, he was like ... oh, well, maybe a little bit of hrt would be good. What the F !!
Anyway, I saw him privately and I'm not paying to get 5 minutes of his time. That would be adding insult to injury.
Grrr.

[Dotty]

Hi I would go for hrt x

[Jari]

Hi Pants. It sounds to me that you're still in peri. Fairly regular periods. Even if/when you start missing one or two periods, you're still in peri. X

[CLKD]

I would write him a letter then and ask why he was so certain that menopause wouldn't happen!!

 

[sheila99]

I would go for hrt too. You've missing an overy so oestrogen will be less than before. As you're still cycling I think you're in peri. Shorter than normal cycles are a symptom of it as well as longer cycles. My worst symptoms were anxiety and insomnia. It took 3 months on HRT to improve so it needs time to settle. When you say an unscheduled bleed - was this the first bleed in 2 months or one at the wrong time of the month? You should be on a sequi regime as you're in peri but as you are still cycling you body can put a spanner in the works, if it decides you're having a bleed you'll have one regardless of the hrt cycle. I have much experience of this trying to fit my natural 6 week cycle into a hrt 4 week cycle (now use a 6 week hrt cycle). Peri is always difficult because of you own fluctuating hormones but it does get easier as head towards meno.

[pants46]

Jari - still in peri ? I was never in peri to begin with. So the question is have I gone into peri ?

CLKD - I'm not sure what writing a letter would achieve ? I'm not interested in educating a medical professional !! I want to feel better.

Sheila - the theory is the other ovary takes over, so I shouldn't be lacking in estrogen. That's the theory. The short cycles are frustrating, but because I was on the minipill, I have no idea what my cycles would have been like. That is where my Dr is struggling too. The unscheduled bleed was at the wrong time on the patches. But having not had a natural bleed before starting hrt, I had no idea what was going to happen.

I do wonder if my body is unhappy with the extra estrogen that I am getting, now that I'm off the POP. Rather than my symptoms being caused by a drop in estrogen caused by peri. That's what's rattling around my head anyway.

xx

[pants46]

Sorry, getting frustrated and upset. Day 2 of my period, and I think I've ovulated again ... which means another period in 12-14 days time 

[Hurdity]

Hi pants46 - sorry to hear you're feeling rough. Because of the mini pill and the HRT, as the doc says your natural cycle maybe a bit up the creek and might take a while to fathom. According to NICE Guidelines peri-menopause is defined as "The time in which a woman has irregular cycles of ovulation and menstruation leading up to menopause and continuing until 12 months after her final period. The perimenopause is also known as the menopausal transition or climacteric. ". There was a study which pinned this down a bit more specifically to different stages so the early peri-menopause is given as: "Early menopausal transition is marked by increased variability in menstrual cycle length, defined as a persistent difference of 7 days or more in the length of consecutive cycles. Persistence is defined as recurrence within 10 cycles of the first variable length cycle". This is quite specific but before this cycles tend to get shorter and hormones start to awry and a bit haywire.

If you've been on the mini-pill it's hard to tell and that's why it's difficult to know what the best treatment is, especially as many women experience worsening pms symptoms in the last stage before peri-menopause - which some tend to call peri-menopause. Just adding HRT may work for some women but is not necessarily the standard treatmnent (before peri).

Also sometimes when you get bleeding between periods it is not due to ovulation/corpus luteum etc. Have you read this link about peri-menopause: https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/magazine/pdf/Article%20-%20Perils%20of%20the%20Perimenopause.pdf which might help explain something of what's going on?

Not sure if I've said this before when you first started posting but one treatment that gynaes recommend to women in your position is the COP. Mostly you are too old I think for the standard ones but the one that's similar to HRT - QLAIRA - can be taken up to 50 and maybe over at doc discretion. It will control your cycles so you won't get all those surges and crashes , so will stabilise your hormones, but will give you bio-identical oestrogen just as in HRT (ie estradiol). Might help with anxeity too?

OK if you started something like this soon you still wouldn't know what your natural cycle was doing - but so what if it makes you feel better and carries you over the menopausal transition - that's why gynaes can recommend it in younger women like yourself.

Just a thought....and hope you get sorted!!!

Hurdity x