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[Paz23]

Hi everyone I'm new here.
So about a year ago I started with odd symptoms and thought I was either seriously ill or going round the twist. I'm only 40 (I was 39 at the time) so it never occurred to me it could be hormone related until my mum told me she was 40 when she started, went on HRT and by the time she came off it at 47 was completely done and dusted and come out the other side.
Over the past year I've had the following on and off:
Hot flushes,
Night sweats,
Finger numbness,
Itchy skin (no dryness, more like the skin crawling itching),
Heart palpitations when I'm trying to get to sleep,
Painful armpits (no swollen glands),
Achy joints and tendons,
Headaches,
Horrendous health anxiety (I've suffered from anxiety for years but this is another level!)
Crappy broken sleep for no good reason.
Painful breasts.
I've had mereva coils fitted for about 7 years and had no periods for years, then in the past year I've had quite a few, although I didn't have one in December and the one in January was kind of blink and you?ll miss it thing. I've also had ovulation pain so bad it woke me up and I've never had that before. In fact my daughter was conceived by IVF because I wasn't ovulating at all!
I went to my gp who tested my hormones along with everything else she could think of. It all came back fine apart from a slight calcium deficiency. She says my hormones were normal but acknowledged that I could still be peri as hormones are so up and down the blood test is unreliable. Then she said but it's not at the stage where we need to look at HRT and wanted to put me on anti depressants, to which I said no (for lots of reasons I won't go into).
So now I feel stuck, started taking evening primrose oil but it doesn't seem to be doing much. And today I've convinced myself that I've got lymphoma (thanks to dr google) and I'm going to die!
So I'm either peri, dying or just going crazy! 

[Paz23]

Not sure what's going on with all the ?
And sorry my post was so long.

[jillydoll]

Hi Paz23
Sounds like your peri to me. Sorry about that.
Your not going mad, we all think that, I for one thought I'd end up in a mental hospital, scared the life out of me, I also thought I'd die in the night, I even wrote my sons letters because I was so convinced it was going to happen. I'm still here, 5 years on, I'm glad to say.
The anxiety for me was the worst, along with being a right witch most of the time.
My doctor offered me antidepressants, which I'd declined, bad experience with them years ago, but I knew I didn't need them, ( with the help of this forum) I needed HRT.
Take a look at What we've diagnosed, thread, and you?ll soon find out we've all diagnosed something horrendous for ourselves. It gets quite funny in the end.
Hang on in there, maybe HRT is right for you? But sometimes we have to insist on having it from our doctors because most of them are crap. If you think you need it, go for it.
Glad you found us.
Oh and   

Jd xx

[Paz23]

Thanks so much for your reply, it's such a relief when someone says ?yep me too?.
I forgot to mention no sex drive (my dh thinks I'm having an affair because I'm not interested at the moment)
And my wisdom teeth hurt/jaw ache!

[CLKD]

Join The Club - sounds normal from where I'm sitting 

Some find keeping a mood/food/symptom diary useful.
A good diet and hydration is important
Exercise as well as 'me' time 
Browse round.    make notes ;-)

[Paz23]

I try really hard to eat properly but I hate exercise with a passion! And I don't drink nearly enough water. I've given up alcohol and caffeine completely though.

[CLKD]

How much is 'enough'?  The body takes its fluid requirements from food as well as what we drink.  The 1st pee of the day should be dark and maybe smelly, then as the day goes through should be straw coloured.  Any lighter and the person is drinking too much.

I HATE exercise too ......... unless it's walking or watching wild-life 

[Paz23]

Made an appointment with dr to discuss HRT and I've got to wait a month for an appointment 😠😩
Being doing lots of research so can go armed with the facts. This was a good website
https://www.menopausedoctor.co.uk/
Perhaps I might find more of the funny side when I'm having a better day - only just managing to control the health anxiety today!

[CLKD]

Take a list with you.  Keeping a diary until your appt. might be wise so that you don't forget anything!

[CLKD]

As oestrogen levels drop muscles may become lax = aches and pains.  Take over the counter pain relief? 

[Paz23]

The worst thing about it is the shock - I'm only 40 and was not expecting this - a heads up from my mum would have been nice!
I've only just got my mental health sorted out from my daughter being born then wham... all this starts. I feel like a fraud, all the ladies I know who are having these symptoms are well into their 50s.
And no one talks about it - at puberty hormones are all anyone talks about but I knew nothing about what I might experience at this end.
Health anxiety much better today but now I just feel pissed off about it all. Bollocks arse!!!!

[CLKD]

My Mum didn't consider it was anything to do with me  that I would get there soon enough.

Have a look-see at the Daisy web-site too, for 'early' menopause. 

[Paz23]

Thanks everyone for your advice/ideas/recommendations. I'm nit sure about menopause specialist but the gp I'm seeing is the one who runs the well woman clinic and the one who sorts out contraception and stuff so she seemed the best one to see.
I?ll go armed with all the info and a list, I'm not very assertive though when ur comes to stuff like this - I always leave feeling like I've let myself down a bit and that they've fobbed me off. There is a menopause clinic at a hospital not far from me but you have to be referred by your dr. Unless I want to pay at another one nearby but I've no idea how much that's likely to be. Anyway I?ll see how I get on. X

[CLKD]

Some clinics in Hospitals aren't run by Meno specialists though ;-)

[Kathleen]

Hello Paz 23 and welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry that you are going through this so young (I'd give my eye teeth to be 40 again BTW lol).  The good news is that your mum seems to have been okay at 47 so there's hope for you.

I had absolutely no idea about the menopause and when at 49  my GP asked if I was having hot flushes I looked at him as if he had grown a second head. Boy, do I know better now.

Back in the day our mums never mentioned it but I didn't see other women suffering either. I worked in a large organisation with lots of  women of menopausal age but I never saw a hot flush or witnessed any tearfulness. The office wasn't full of desk fans and the windows weren't forever being opened and closed.  I wonder if they were all the lucky ones who had few symptoms or was there something else going on that meant they didn't suffer very much? Lower stress levels than we have today possibly? Different diet? More physically active ?  Who knows, but if they knew the secret I certainly wish they had passed it on.

Wishing you well and take care.

K.