Throughout the menopausal transition, some subtle — and some not-so-subtle — changes in your body may take place.
You might experience: •
- Irregular periods. As ovulation becomes more unpredictable, the length of time between periods may be longer or shorter, your flow may be light to heavy, and you may skip some periods. If you have a persistent change of seven days or more in the length of your menstrual cycle, you may be in early perimenopause. If you have a space of 60 days or more between periods, you're likely in late perimenopause.
- Hot flashes and sleep problems. Hot flashes are common during perimenopause. The intensity, length and frequency vary. Sleep problems are often due to hot flashes or night sweats, but sometimes sleep becomes unpredictable even without them.
- Mood changes. Mood swings, irritability or increased risk of depression may happen during perimenopause. The cause of these symptoms may be sleep disruption associated with hot flashes. Mood changes may also be caused by factors not related to the hormonal changes of perimenopause.
- Vaginal and bladder problems. When estrogen levels diminish, your vaginal tissues may lose lubrication and elasticity, making intercourse painful. Low estrogen may also leave you more vulnerable to urinary or vaginal infections. Loss of tissue tone may contribute to urinary incontinence.
- Decreasing fertility. As ovulation becomes irregular, your ability to conceive decreases. However, as long as you're having periods, pregnancy is still possible. If you wish to avoid pregnancy, use birth control until you've had no periods for 12 months.
- Changes in sexual function. During perimenopause, sexual arousal and desire may change. But if you had satisfactory sexual intimacy before menopause, this will likely continue through perimenopause and beyond.
- Loss of bone. With declining estrogen levels, you start to lose bone more quickly than you replace it, increasing your risk of osteoporosis — a disease that causes fragile bones.
- Changing cholesterol levels. Declining oestrogen levels may lead to unfavourable changes in your blood cholesterol levels, including an increase in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — the "bad" cholesterol — which contributes to an increased risk of heart disease. At the same time, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol — the "good" cholesterol — decreases in many women as they age, which also increases the risk of heart disease.
In short perimenopause can make us feel awful. In fact it can make us feel as if we are going mad! All of these changes in your body can seem overwhelming, so stress and tiredness are a natural reaction to the strain of perimenopause.
Lack of sleep and the other symptoms of perimenopause can also trigger anxiety. Anxiety can trigger different feelings in everyone, but some people talk about feeling very lonely, frightened or just totally overwhelmed. The anxiety itself may leave you easily panicked, especially if you weren’t familiar with this feeling of anxiousness prior to perimenopause.
With a big shift in hormone levels, it does make complete sense that it would have a counter-effect on our emotional life. Stress is a common symptom among perimenopausal women, which can cause a huge number of sensations and side effects. These include memory loss, headaches, confused thought patterns, short temperament, patterns, clumsiness, slower reflexes, lack of ability to judge your decisions, and a sense of feeling ‘out of body.’
In more serious cases, we can experience heart palpitations, digestive issues and chronic panic attacks.
It is important to talk to someone if you are feeling like this. Your counsellor here at PCS can help you with the symptoms of perimenopause and support you to understand those feelings that you might be having. You can contact her on 07399 809671, the service is completely confidential. There is also a confidential drop in which runs on a Tuesday evening 5pm-8pm and no appointment is necessary.
