Hi Bandango,
I am so, so pleased you made contact. I feel so very alone in all of this due to my age. There is a certain comradeship amongst older ladies I think, but all my friends / work colleagues are about my age and frankly have no idea about the challenges I have been facing in terms of brain fog, etc.
![Cry :'(](https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/Smileys/extended/cry.gif)
My mum is in her 80's (she was 42 when she had me!) and her generation seem not to talk about it. When i ask what it was like for her she says she doesn't remember - I think she just doesn't want to talk about it.
Someone in another thread mentioned the Daisy website for people with early meno, so going to check that out next.
I had a quick look at your earlier posts and note your period problems and that you are on a patch. My knowledge is very limited, hence here asking questions, but from my experience, I was on the combined contraceptive pill for many years becuase my periods became very close together (like yours). The one doc I spoke to recently said that sometimes the combined pill is used to treat mild meno symptoms. It has the advantage that you can control very easily when your periods are (you can run strips together so that you don't have a period at all if you want). I don't know how 'low' your hormones have to get before this is not an option. I went straight from the combined pill to patches and then didn't have a period for 6 months - I interpretted that (maybe wrongly) that my natural periods had in fact stopped (you can have a withdrawal bleed if you don't run strips together). It just makes me wonder if, if your're still having a natural period, maybe your hormones are not too depleted that the combined pill might be enough to get them back up? I do remember, however, when i first started them i bled for about a month non-stop...
![Undecided :-\](https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/Smileys/extended/undecided.gif)
Also, i thought they were phasing out patches in favour of gel...?