Perimenopause And Symptoms?

[mkoven]

I know many have posted that there symptoms are worse around their periods. I'm beginning to wonder whether for it's not just pms, but whether my symptoms were triggered by perimenopause. I'm 40 and first thought I might faint at 35. Last summer, 39, the heart racing and near-faints happen regularly. My periods are still regular, but the lead-up is increasingly miserable.

Aren't weird autonomic symptoms even common in some "normal" perimenopausal women?

Does anyone know if there is research about these "later life" hormonal shifts and pots/ncs?

right now, it feels like I'm particularly symptomatic half the month--the second half through the first day of two of my period. After that, I can feel almost normal, till midcycle. Yes this is pms, but I never had pms like this when I was younger-- at most a couple hours of feeling unwell till my mid30s.

For these two weeks of the the month: heart racing, hot flashes, weird bp fluctuations, headaches, nausea, itchy and superallergic, urinary frequency, on-edge/irritable, lethargic, greater joint pain and instability.

Anyone know if this is supposed to settle down eventually?

I never tolerated the pill when I was younger and have a family history of breast cancer, so not sure that is a good option for me...

[MomtoGiuliana]

I guess you've had yout thyroid levels tested and other hormone levels...

I have also wondered if autonomic dysfunction might be fairly common among women along with PMS and perhaps preimenopause. It's just that most doctors still don't know how to recognize this and just chalk it up to PMS.

I have also had worsening PMS (I'm nearly 39). Strange, I don't get cramping really anymore, but I have more noticable mood changes. Irritable and on-edge in the week before my period would describe me as well! Not noticing other changes yet.

I've also never tolerated the pill.

I've asked my POTS specialist if I can expect relief from POTS with age (post-menopause). He said all of this is unknown--there are not any long-term studies of POTS patients to answer this question.

Definitely POTS seems to be affected by hormonal shifts for many of us!

Are you still taking an SSRI? Along with relieving POTS, the SSRI helps me with mood changes--takes the edge off any way.

[doctorguest]

You can ask your GYN to check your FSH and LH hormones which can reveal whether you are in a perimenopausal state.

[gwen]

this post has been on mind for sometime. ihave many of the symptoms of perimenapause, but so many of them are also pots. The blood tests are great idea and i've made an appt for next week to test. there is a website that has a lot of good info on womens health issues (i don't know if i can say it) and they offer a progesterone cream, vitamins, and something else(brain fog) for a fee which also includes phone checkups with nurses. The self test showed i was in severe catagory. Well which is the chicken and which is egg?

my husband is getting very discouraged at my not getting any better. i keep telling him this is not going to permantly get better, just some days will be better than others. I do not want to go out because of, energyloss, now summerheat, audio and visual overload, etc. Today is not a good day. i've learned to deal with it. not a bit happy but it is what it is.

i have always had depression, inherited and extreme childhood loss. i've always coped well. Now I can't shake a severe manic episode. My Psyche said it was the first one she had seen with me full blown. i just want to sleep. She is a truly fabulous dr. who has many awards. she csalls and checks on me while on vacation in Isreal!!

I am blessed. but after trying just about all drugs out there she thinks i should have ECT. She said if it was her family member she would order it. Well I don't want anymore loss of memory, and the chance of permant.

My question is that in a "normal" person it might be indicated but how would this affect my pots??!! I had to educate her on pots itand her husband is one of the top cardioligist around. one day she took my blood pressure sitting. than standing. i showed no blood pressure which i kind of laughed about it, but i could tell it really seemed. unbelievable what she was seeing.

so sorry for the long rant but what is peri, what is pots, what is depression cause and is ect safe when there is so many unknown variables?I see her tomorrow and i know she is going to bring it up but i;m very wary with pots component. thanks to all who read this novel :-)

[MightyMouse]

For those who don't know, ECT stands for electro convulsive therapy--a procedure that induces a seizure.

Nina

[doctorguest]

I have not heard about ECT experience in patients with POTS, but I would be cautious and asking many questions, as you are doing. Discussing it with a cardiologist knowledgeable in POTS would be the first step. While I know that there is no research studies on this topic, I personally feel that the potential risks of ECT in patients with POTS may be higher than in healthy people. This is just my opinion, which is not based on any specific research, simply because there is none. I hope you can get answers from your physicians regarding the ECT. Keep us posted!

[mkoven]

I'm overdue for a gyne appointment and need a new gynecologist. I'll have to chat her up about all this. I'm still reeling from a killer 24 hour premenstrual migraine that's making me desperate to try almost anything!

[corina]

i've been sick (having all kinds of symptoms that my doctors couldn't explain) for a large part of my life. at age 26 i got (easily) pregnant. about one and a half year after this pregnancy (delivering by ceasarian) i tried to get pregnant again, without succes. after trying for a year my gyn did some tests and prescribed hormones which immediately resultated in a pregnancy. after giving birth (natural this time, very thankful for that) my health never came back to where i was and even declined (especially after having surgery under general aneasthesia in 2001).

at age 34 my pcp checked hormones (expecting nothing, just wanted to have done every possible thing) which resultated in such figures (can't remember exactly of course) that he told me that i was in menopause and he expected that my period would definitely stop withing half a year. he was very concerned about it, because of my age (healthwise i mean).

at that time we thought our family was complete with two healthy sons, so i didn't worry very much.

from time to time he asked me whether i was still having my period, which was the case, but VERY irregular and VERY much bloodloss. i think that it was at the age of about 39 that he wanted to check my hormone levels again and gues what: i wasn't in menopause anymore . still, my health wasn't a bit better.

i'm telling this because i'm almost sure that hormones (strongly) affect the dysautonomia (which, i think, i've always had). i don't know how and i don't know why, but i do think it. and maybe some (as far as i know,not existing) hormone therapie might help. i've been seen by an endocrinologist who was willing to do some tests (although he told me that it wouldn't help me when they might finds things that they are unable to treat). to do these tests i had to be off all my meds, and for me that wasn't an option at that time in my life (being a wife and mommy, i mean). i hope that, within a few years, i will be in a position that i can do more tests and science and the knowlegde about dysautonomia will be moved further.

corina

[mkoven]

I wonder if part of the problem in "connecting the dots" is that medicine has become so subspecialized. When my problems exceed my pcp's knowledge, he sends me to a specialist, who examines causes from his/her specialty. If I raise the possibility of connection across specialties, it's not that they dismiss it, but it may no longer be their area.

I am rather tired of shuttling between different types of doctors without a lot of synthesis. I've seen: genetics for eds, psych for pms, neurology for migraines and transient weakness, cardiology/ep for ncs, allergist for allergies, physiatry and sports medicine for my many musculoskeletal issues. All have had their role, but not much integration. I am overdue for gyne-- never an appointment I look forward to, but it's another "dot" to connect/not connect.

I know my pcp is supposed to help pull it altogether, and I like him fine (he's always rushed/hurried and hard to get an appt. with), but it ain't happenin'.

[mom4cem]

I've felt that connection with perimenopause for quite a while. Even before I really started to become symptomatic, I used to be on the patch, and when the day came to change the patch, within a period of time after putting the new one on, I would feel edgy, tons of adrenaline flowing through. Coincidence, I don't know, but it happend every time.

Now I'm 41, and have felt really bad for the past 4 years and my bloodwork came back one time as post menopausal(estrogen levels), low dhea. Recently I came back with normal levels, but low normal with estrogen and progesterone. Horrible week before I get it, headaches, tachy etc. Yikes, they say this can last for years!!!

There has to be a connection-but like you said, it is hard to find one to look at it all.

Feel well

[runningshoe]

Hi all,

It is a puzzle to figure this all out. I was dx with Pots in December 06. By Feb I was so sick and depressed my gyno suggested checking my hormones (I had a hyster 2 years ago). My estrogen level was less than 10. My ovaries were completely shut down. Maybe I had a tendency towards pots symptoms before but I think that menopause made things worse. Estrogen is a factor in so many body functions including building blood volume. Keep on keeping on!! That's all we can do!!