I'm in my late 40s and am optimistic every month that this could be the last one. 🤞

I’m mid-forties. About a year ago I was getting these extreme night sweats where I would literally have to go to bed sleeping on a bath towel, and wake up in the wee hours to change out of my drenched PJs. I finally talked to my GP about it and she referred me to an Ob/Gyn.

I had a partial hysterectomy due to evidence of precancer about 10 years ago, so I didn’t have any menstrual symptoms to give me a heads up this might be gynecological.

Fortunately I was referred to a Ob/Gyn that was incredibly knowledgeable (and passionate!) about menopause. After talking through symptoms and possible treatments, I decided to start HRT.

Best.Decision.Ever.

Night sweats gone, my mood stabilized and things just feel more even-keeled.

Side note: the BBC show Riot Women is a fantastic series that depicts the lives of a group of women who are navigating through various stages of menopause. And they start a band that highlights that journey. Highly recommend.

I had an okay peri, I think the main thing was night sweats, waking in the early hours with drips of sweat between my boobs was not comfy, but didn't last long

I'm not sure if I'm post menopause now, but my skin is drier verging on slightly crêpe, I've had to occasionally use vaginal moisturisers which help. And I've been on hrt patches for about 3 years

I think the anti depressants and low dose sleeping pills have been doing some of the heavy lifting too

Touch wood things have been okay 👍

I'll be staying on HRT my whole life. Menopause and perimenopause are treatable conditions, and it's unfortunate how few women are able to get HRT for it. I see no reason to subject myself to the horrible effects of it. Every woman I've met on HRT for menopause has said it was one of the best decisions of their life.

Agreed. HRT has been amazing.

I started 4 years ago. Within about 2 months I had a whole bunch of symptoms crop up - hot flashes, night sweats, breast tenderness, brain fog and terrible forgetfulness (so bad my doctor had me screened for dementia), anxiety got worse, nausea, light headedness, and digestive upset after eating things with garlic or tomatoes in them. I didn’t notice it right away but my gums and teeth are definitely worse now too.

I’ve been mostly sucking it up and dealing with it on my own, because there aren’t a lot of options for doctors around me. My own doctor has acknowledged I’m in the right age range, but just keeps shrugging it off as though there isn’t anything to be done but endure it.

I'm still on the depo shot so no idea if I've started perimenopause yet. Mother's looked like hell so probably not.

I’m 42 and just started recognizing symptoms within the last year or two. It hasn’t been too bad yet, mostly some night sweats, major mood swings changes leading up to my period, and some slight vertigo that thankfully doesn’t last too long. I have been having more sleeping issues, but it’s mostly taken care of with melatonin.

I’ve started recognizing them because so many women are more open and willing to talk about their experiences. My hair stylist and her colleagues are always talking about symptoms and eating more protein or taking HRT. My colleagues are open about different HRT methods that have worked best for them. And my best friend is 10 years older than me and almost at menopause, she’s very open about her experiences to anyone. I love how women are openly speaking about perimenopause and menopause now because my mother and many of my friends mothers never talked about it and were made to feel shame for a natural process.

I mentioned that I’ve been noticing symptoms to the nurse and my doctor, both said I’m only 42 and too young. They are also younger women, at least younger than me. Thankfully, my symptoms are very easily manageable at this time, but I will be talking to my gyno about it at my next OBGYN appointment, which was a recommendation by my primary doctor too.

I've been seeing a few symptoms the least 6-8 months at 36/37. I plan on talking to my doctor about it. My PMDD has gotten unbearable and my cycles are getting slightly less regular and my ears are getting itchy. Ugh.

The change to talking about all this in the last 10 years have been great! I don't feel like I'm going in quite as blind as previous generations.

I didn't even link the digestion issues! I thought it was just stress but they're still here even when I'm not stressed!

I know in the Reddit Peri sub they've recommended telehealth if your doctor isn't doing anything.

I'm supposedly in chemical menopause for endometriosis. I hope I can skip Peri like this and just go straight into menopause.

I don't feel any menopause symptoms, my pain is just so much better on hormone blockers and I can be a person again.

Sending good thoughts your way!

I'm so glad you started a conversation about this, I've been meaning to ask everyone here how they're going, in this respect.

I asked my doctor for hrt, she said "not worth it for a little weight gain" but didn't ask me what else I had going on. I didn't have the strength to argue, although she would have been receptive to it. Apparently losing that self confidence is a peri / meno thing! I just went to family planning and said I couldn't take it any more. The little weight gain was 20kg in 2 years and steadily gaining, no matter what I did.

I'll share a resource from family planning they use to assess symptoms and do a regular check in to see if they improve (to tell if you're getting enough or need more hrt).

So many symptoms that I didn't realise were symptoms! I feel like I went into peri / meno blind. And it's so destructive. Absolutely decimates you.

The anxiety thing is so real. I've heard of hot flashes of course, it's the stereotypical peri/meno thing. But when I had my first one, I was surprised that it was a combination of feeling like I was on fire plus almost... panic attack type feelings? But without any emotional element, just purely physical. I was shook up for like 10 minutes after my body cooled down.

Yeah, those are awful! I haven't gotten them too severely of a day time, yet. Apart from waking up in a pool of sweat, because I've had one in the night and it's woken me up. Ugh. I'm on hrt, and I'm almost starting to feel like myself again, sort of.