Symptoms

[danmia]

Hello, I just thought I'd list my symptoms to see if anyone is the same. I'm pretty fed up with this whole thing now, and it just seems to be getting worse, I wonder does it have a peak and then fade away gradually? Anyway, my worst symptoms are, first thing in the morning I have a horrible empty feeling, almost the same as morning sickness. I get it sometimes in the night too. I have IBS and of course that has gotten worse with this peri stuff. So digestive problems are a big one for me. Mostly the nausea, emptiness and IBS attacks. I have started hot flashes recently before I only had one or two a month if that. But now it's like every couple of hours there it is, now these don't bother me too much, they almost relieve my mind because I have given myself so many diseases lately with health anxiety. Night sweats I have had for ages, I wake up mostly every morning soaking wet. I also get cold shivers and trembling with those. I sometimes get that lack of sugar feeling too, where your hands and legs feel shaky and just on the verge of passing out. I have incredible anxiety attacks which often go into full blown panic attacks, which again makes my stomach feel really bad. I have thoughts of doom and gloom most days, worrying constantly about health, work, you name it. I have to travel to England in September but I'm already stressing greatly over that, re the money, who will look after our dogs, the flight, the traveling itself, everything, it just freaks me out every day. Oh did I mention the dizzy kind of flu feeling that sometimes happens too, for a day I often feel exactly like I have the flu then it's gone the next day. I had a bad bout of tension headache in August that lasted until October, every single day!! So I took lots of Excedrin and my stomach hasn't been the same since. You cannot win!! Crashing fatigue and general tiredness. Itching oh my God the itching can drive me crazy. That comes and goes too, along with my allergies that have gotten so much worse. Depression not so bad considering, I think my anxiety is the worst one of all, I so hate feeling like this. I think that's it for now, I just wanted to vent somewhere and get some comfort from my favorite people, allies in menopause world
thanks for listening

[gorgeousfluffpot]

Danmia, my utmost sympathies. I think I went through something like that in the middle of last year ... particularly the anxieties and the doom and gloom and also the utter confusion about doing things, where to get started. I really empathise with you feeling overwhelmed by the travel arrangements and all that.
This sounds like the real perimenopausal yoyo that we're on at the moment. The itching ... oh yes, I had that. I thought I had fleas!!! The weird out-of-head moments and almost feeling like you want to faint - I think that is to do with blood sugars which probably fluctuate when your hormones are going bonkers. You'd have to ask Dr. Judy about that, but I usually carried a banana and snacked on that when I felt lightheaded.
The IBS, well I don't know about that but I went through a period when I had dreadful wind and was farting like a donkey all over the place!!! I hadn't changed my diet, but it was like my digestion had changed and, believe me, even I had to get out of the room when I'd been in it!!
I can offer no advice other than the following:
eat properly and regularly. Carry a notebook around with you to write down your 'to-do' list in and remind yourself of things (absent-mindedness is another symptom). Re. your anxieties, write them down and find practical solutions to them - it really helped me to keep a list going. Buy a really good body moisturising lotion which may aid the itchiness. Keep a supply of chocolate in the fridge (After-Eights for me!) to snack on when you really have had a poo day or need the sugar buzz. Forewarn your other half when you know you are having a hormonal 'moment' so that the poor love knows to keep out of your way (mine retreats to the garage where he knows he is safe amongst the power tools!).
Last and not least, keep in touch on this site. Kept me sane through the worst of it. I thought I'd gone through it and got out the other side but had a weepy moment the other day when my hormones got the better of me!
Good luck Danmia, just wanted to say that you're not alone and you're amongst friends here!!

[danmia]

Bless you for the encouragement and sympathy. I see you are in London, my home town. I'm in Maine now and sometimes it seems so far away, but I have to say I love it here. I think we all go through far more than any of the menopause sites and articles talk about. I wish there were more places to read up on these symptoms that doctors just don't seem to recognize. The digestive problems especially are never listed in detail and honestly I have found on this forum and others that stomach issues are in fact a real big problem with menopause. I laughed when I read your fart comments, I have three dogs so at least I have someone to blame it on when it gets really bad!!!!
Thanks again for your support

[gorgeousfluffpot]

My pleasure, Danmia, we're here to support each other. I think people are very coy when it comes to the symptoms that aren't polite to talk about, like breaking wind. I found very little in the standard menopausal leaflets that the doctor gives you to talk about this but a chat with some older friends reveals that, yes, their bowels had a life of their own for a while!!
I'm always reminded of the joke where an aristocratic lady has some titled friends round for dinner, but she has a bad attack of the wind and cannot contain a particularly loud and lengthy fart, which makes the other guests look up from their plates in surprise.
Thinking quickly, she turns to her butler and says "Jeeves, stop that at once"
To which Jeeves replies "certainly, madam, which way did it go?"

[danmia]

Hahaha that's funny thank you. I am amazed that when I research menopause so many of the sites just don't seem to count stomach issues at all in the mix. And honestly I have found speaking to others that this is actually one of the worst symptoms that we are dealing with. I'm so tired of waking up with nausea, going to bed with bloating and indigestion and gas. I get a few hours in the afternoon where I actually feel normal for a while, but then it all goes downhill from there. Today to be honest after spending a night of not being able to sleep because of first of all my stomach then that went and I had a bout of restless leg syndrome coupled with restless arm??? I mean come on I am so depressed right now with all this. I just want it to end.
Sorry having a bad day and it's only 10.00am.

[honey]

wow, I was beginning to wonder if my change in bowel habits wa due to hormones. To put it bluntly I have been as regular as clockwork for years, same time, once a day every day. Now suddenly over the last couple of months I am all over the place and the gurgling and whining noises in my stomach are really loud, especially at night I've noticed. ah well another annoying symptom!!

[danmia]

I honestly think there should be a survey about this, because it is a really distressing symptom. All kinds of gas, indigestion, IBS, consitipation, diarrhea, reflux, nausea it all seems to go very wrong with menopause. I know doctors say oh menopause doesn't affect the stomach but really I think maybe they should look into it a bit more, because more and more I am seeing that people are suffering with these things. I did read somewhere that estrogen was a culprit here, or estrogen dominance, but I personally get very confused as to what lack of what hormone gives you what symptoms. If anyone else has any ideas on this subject I would love to hear about it, I'm really looking for an answer for relief here.

[Brighid Moon]

Paid spam-bot attack. Soon as an admin gets on they'll make it disappear.