perimenopause and Bipolar

I'm 42 now. I need all the information as I can. So this is the thread to talk about perimenopause.

Im 73, so i am 20 years out. I would volunteer to do the drumming for the dancing around the fire, but at peri i became even MORE intolerant of loud noises - one evening i was in a dbt course where everybody started drumming on the table (per instructions!) and i about lost my mind! This was me:

That sucks I'm already sensitive to sound.

My periods got really erratic now I haven’t had one since February. If anxiety is a symptom I’m doing pretty well on that front. No hot flushes but not everyone gets them. I’m 47.

I'm going through menopause the weird way. I had a hysterectomy 13 years ago and so without periods menopause is just a lot of guessing, symptom monitoring and hormone testing. I have had a big uptick in hot flashes lately so I think things are moving. (I'm having one now. Yuck. Why do I shower at night?). It's really important I get through it as fast as possible because I need to be on a med to reduce my breast cancer risk but it's for post-menopausal women.

I had the extremely heavy bleeding before my hysterectomy. I remember being at work and changing overnight thickness pads every couple of hours. I'm sure if I'd used regular pads I'd have been bleeding through in an hour but I didn't have the way to risk that at work.

I do not miss periods. I do wish I had something I could see as a way to track my hormones but I'd never go through the 2 years before my hysterectomy (done for heavy bleeding) again.

I too am finished with perimenopause. I’m happily into menopause and loving it. The hot flashes were the worse part of it for me. My hair on the legs and pits stopped growing but then the ever so helpful substitute doctor gave me a prescription for hormones. Nope! Only took them maybe 2-3 weeks but my hair started growing again and my moods really went wild. Don’t recommend hormones. So now the hair on the front of my calf’s grows but only there so it’s no too bad to shave. My pits remained hair free.

@Nammu I'm glad to see someone say that leg and pit hair stopped growing. I can't believe how rarely I have to shave. I thought that was some oddity so I'm glad to know it happens to other people.

Unfortunately doctors don’t get much training for perimenopause or menopause. I think the best source of information out there is Our Bodies Ourselves, Menopause. Book. I think doctors get an hour of info. Not nearly enough.

I'm afraid that I may find out that hormones are causing my nausea and if so there's just not much that will help me.

I’m looking forward to my leg hairs not growing because they are dark and thick and I have to shave frequently

I had to run a fan under my desk all day just to be comfortable, but that was also back when we had a computer tower under the desk as well a big blocky monitor on top, so basically sitting there with a couple of mini-fridges running.

But oh the sweet relief of no more periods. Its like being let out of jail. Took a few years for the PMS to let up, IMO - drs disagreed.

My periods were every 4-6 weeks last year and now they’re 4 or 5 months apart. Just started yesterday which surprised me because I only had the Mirena iud for 2 weeks, got it out and bam! Period! And because I’m on blood thinners- and a higher dose at that- it’s pretty heavy. I just don’t want to go back to the ER! I’m supposed to be cleaning my apartment for moving my new bed in this Saturday and I’ve just been on the couch listening to my ex in Disney podcasts! That said. I’m happy the menopause clock has been reset! I was 5 months into it out of 12 and now I’m on day 2 again! No hot flashes on my period but I was getting them a lot lately before my period started yesterday.

I am 54 and have not hit menopause. For more than 20 years I have been on Mirena (not the same IUD, obviously, but on a series of Mirena IUDs) and as a positive side effect, my periods changed into occasional spotting and no more. I still get that

Since age 51, I have been on the lowest dose estradiol patch and Mirena supplies progesterone, so together, these two constitute my HRT, taking preventatively. I have never had any symptom commonly associated with pet menopause or menopause except for the overactive bladder, but OAB got helped by percutaneous nerve stimulation, a non-invasive procedure. I also do Kegels. All in all, perimenopause has not been a problem. Note that I had a late menarche and my mother had a late menopause, which might be why I am late (sort of a late bloomer and a late finisher).

I listened to a podcast about women's health and hormones and learned that HRT is best started within 10 years of menopause but even better, preventatively. I then requested it from my gynecologist who went through calculating my specific risks and benefits. This way we concluded that it would be a good choice for me. I will be honest and say that I had appearance concerns and not only health concerns in mind - I knew that women on my maternal side developed dark facial hair in older age and I wanted to avoid that. That is one reason among many why I use the estradiol patch.

Speaking of HRT, I can’t even have the Mirena any more never mind estrogen because I develop blood clots in my lungs! Just like 2 weeks ago! I also had had a liver biopsy and had to be off blood thinners for four days. Bam! Double blood clots ! The blood clots happened within a few days after the biopsy but I also got the Mirena iud at almost the same time.

I'm 58 and have been in menopause for four years. I thought i was getting off scot-free. I have been enjoying the absence of periods, which are so messy and smelly. I lived in fear of having an accident.

But this recent very intense episode of high mood, like nothing i've ever experienced before, has got me concerned that menopause is the culprit. It's my first episode of high mood in menopause.

My doctor said that hormone replacement therapy for bipolar is not effective. The question of whether it would help with my weight and muscle-wasting is still up in the air, tho.

My pit and leg hair grows very slowly. Unfortunately, the hair on my head also grows very slowly. Since i shaved my head early last Winter, it's been a real sorrow. I now have just enough to style and look decent, but it's by no means pretty. I do a spiky hairdo, and can get away with it, but i still feel it's unflattering. My many shades of gray/white color are nice, but with my pale skin, i look a bit washed-out. I am considering dying it purple. I love purple! It's so pretty!

I'm 42. I'm currently seeing an ob/gyn. All I know is that my periods used to be three days long and light and now they're six to seven days long with heavy bleeding, cramping and intense nausea before, during and a couple days after! It's awful. The nausea has started interfering with my life! I've had to cancel appointments. One month we went to a concert two days after my period and I spent the entire concert trying NOT to puke in the bathroom, so it ruined the whole thing for me.

I'm definitely still growing leg hair (ugh!), my periods are erratic but I always get them once a month, I haven't had any hot flashes, I'm so frickin horny, like I'm going through puberty again or something (sorry for THAT tidbit of tmi, but I'm just saying), I get bad PMS before my period, my head hair is thinning, I've lost a measly TEN pounds since January (though day before last my husband told me it looked like I'd lost a few pounds).

Ugh. I'm losing my damn mind! I don't know wtf is going on with me! My GP told me that in your forties your period can get weird? At the ob/gyn appointment they asked me a TON of questions. I'm getting a pelvic ultrasound on Monday. And she said if everything looked fine we'd figure something out.

So I don't know if I'm peri. I don't know what's going on with me. I feel like I'm going through adult puberty or something. It sucks.

I'm going to go pounce on my husband now. Lol.

@JaneOnceMore

Definitely dye your hair purple! That would be really cool! 😊

This is the same with me. These days I get super nauseous both when my period starts and during ovulation and last month a ton when my period was 2 weeks late. Thankfully my gyn prescribed Zofran for the nausea, and that really helps. I see him again next month. His prediction last year was that I'd be in perimenopause by this year; I don't realy know as I haven't had my hormones checked or anything. I'm not on any sort of hormonal birth control; I have a copper IUD. My leg and arm hair barely grows at all. I shave maybe once a month, if that. 'm also 47.

My friend said something quite astute! She said having the Mirena in for two weeks then removed is just like a leuteal phase.

Got up at 4:30 am. I’m exhausted. Took Motrin 600 for period pain and am going to take a nap!

When does the luteal phase occur? You'll have to refresh me on that. I remember I knew what it was back from timing cycles after I got off the pill to prevent pregnancy. Luckily, I did not have an oops! baby, but I also knew I wanted to try to conceive within the next 6 months to a year so an oops! baby wouldn't be the end of the world; I just wanted to get the psych meds good and out of my system before trying for a baby.

The luteal phase is the time between ovulation and your period- normal is 10-14 days- when your body produces progesterone to support a possible embryo and if it goes to 17 days without a period you’re probably pregnant! The progesterone raises your waking body temperature so if you keep track of your temps they will increase after ovulation and maybe go up a bit higher if you get pregnant.

I get nausea as a migraine symptom. It is a common accompaniment to migraines. I use Zofran, which is a pleasant-tasting ODT, to suppress nausea, and I find it works pretty well. Just today it helped alot.

My periods pre menopause were a pain in the butt to deal with. Extremely heavy. Like changing a tampon and a pad every hour heavy and having to practically wear maternity pads. Now that I’m perimenopausal they’re a few days and they’ve gotten extremely light I can just get away with changing a regular pad every few hours. It’s bliss because my periods were a nightmare.

Ugh. Why have mine gotten worse!!!!

(Not to be whiny. Lol)