Hi,
I was pointed in this direction by a GP after I had a telephone appointment with them at the end of August. Doctor is a trainee and dismissed it on the telephone call until he spoke to a more senior doctor (I then got a call back).
I came off the pill over 9 months ago. Since coming off the pill, my periods haven't been right. For the first 5 months, I put it down to coming off the pill (really light and pain free). However, in previous pill free periods, my normal periods go back to "normal" within 3 months and I'm begging to go back on the pill to manage the pain and the heaviness. To put in context, I need more pain relief to be able to function with a period than a broken bone.
About 3 months ago, I started having hot flushes and I noticed the mood swings (looking back, the mood swings started before then) and they've been getting worse. And I've put on weight around my waist and I just can't seem to shift it (based on my "normal", I shouldn't be putting on weight). The weakness, night sweats and insominia are something new. Symptoms get worse until my period starts and then they disappear and there's this relief. It was my mum who said I needed to talk to a GP as I describe this hot feeling that causes me to turn tomato coloured even thought I am sitting still... My friends are worried about me as I'm an emotional wreck.
I had a blood test on Friday and my results came back as "normal" for hormones and the doctor has said that I do not have menopause. Overall, my blood results came back as "abnormal", but those results are being ignored becuase it wasn't what I went to ask about. The doctor asked me to do my own research prior to the blood test and the things that have come back abnormal can be linked to the perimenopause.
In terms of age, I'm 33... My mum started her "change" (as it was called then) when she was 34 and my nan was also in her early thirties. On my Dad's side of the family, early signs of ageing is also a thing (I've bucked the trend by not starting to go grey in my 20s).
Just hitting my head against the wall. I can deal with the hot flushes, but the "rage" and mood swings I can't cope with. I have a public facing job that I can't walk away for 5 minutes if something happens. I can't burst into tears because a member of the public has decided to swear at me for something that I have no control over. The energy required to manage the mood and emotions is too much and it's running me down and causing stress.
Something feels wrong and I just don't want to be fobbed off on a single blood test (when the NHS advice says that blood tests aren't reliable and the acceptable ranges are so large and overlap) just becuase I'm under the age of 45.
Have a face to face appointment tomorrow (I had a call back on Monday due to the blood test results but had issues with signal so got bored of playing answer machine ping-pong).