Anxiety and Perimenopause

[EmmaL21]

I have had chronic anxiety since 2016, but I have always managed to keep it at bay with medication/exercise.

in August 2023 things started changing. Anxiety was consistent. I do have a lot of life stressors inc family, work, moving. 
Periods slightly started changing but nothing too serious. I had been to the dr and he told me it could be perimenopause. I dismissed it thinking I was too young. I did eventually start medication for 4 weeks and it made everything worse. So I stopped and went to another Dr. August I changed my medication as it wasn’t getting any better. Slowly started feeling better. However September came and things started going south again. Periods have started changing shorter, sharper, pain in my right hip, and every 2/3 weeks chronic anxiety attack that can last up to 1 week. Waking up in panic almost each morning. I have to take medication when needed to stop the panic. Does anyone have anything similar? It’s getting really tough and not feeling like living anymore. My 3 kids are the only think keeping me going. 

[Eagle Ray]

Hi EmmaL21,

It’s so hard to know for sure isn’t it. According to people like Dr Louise Newson and my hormone specialist doctor, hormone testing is not considered an accurate marker as it changes so much in perimenopause and often will be normal at the time of testing. So they tend to go by symptoms alone and then see if HRT actually works. 

For me I could tell the anxiety and depression was outside the box of anything I’d experienced before coupled with sudden, severe insomnia and intrusive thoughts. So it actually felt pretty weird. The testing a GP ordered was at the end of a particularly bad episode and oestrogen was pretty low so it was easy to establish a link.

I guess just see how you go and hopefully things settle and it’s really good the waves of panic are over.

Take good care,

ER

[Eagle Ray]

Hi seashells,

I totally agree. The lack of awareness is shocking. Hence people like ourselves get to perimenopause and don’t know what’s hit us. I honestly thought I was going mad until it dawned on me it was hormones. I then started reading about women with identical symptoms after doing some searching for info. But it’s weirdly still kind of taboo. You don’t see that with other topics like heart disease or diabetes etc. They’re regularly discussed all the time. While all these women are struggling on alone, many of them totally lost and confused.

With regard to the HRT I had a GP who told me just start whenever. I have heard conflicting views on this. I just started it because he said it was ok but it was when one of the hormones was already in its high phase. So I actually got an extra boost of that hormone by starting when I did so the results were quite dramatic. I went from a barely functioning mess who hadn’t slept for many weeks to feeling incredibly alive almost immediately - like I suddenly had superpowers. I immediately slept well, like after the first dose, and woke up feeling like a normal person without the debilitating despair that had been plaguing me every time I woke before. I honestly had never felt so strong and well. Not everyone has such a dramatic response and for others it’s much more gradual. After two weeks though I had a bit of a crash as he also advised to start both hormones together as I was doing one of them cyclically to begin with (2 weeks on then off). Looking back, based on my cycle, I should have started one and then introduced the other two weeks later. But, honestly, getting clear advice on this seems difficult. Overall my understanding is though that your cycle falls into sync with the HRT which is what happened to me. It became very regulated. I soon went to taking the hormone that was cyclical continuously instead which is often more recommended in the late perimenopause/menopause phase and that was better and more stabilising for me.

I’m limited in what I can say specifically as we aren’t allowed to name specific meds here. But if you join the balance-menopause app you can ask questions as much as you like about meds and you will get answers from others. Even there you might get some contradictory advice but you can at least talk about meds freely. 

I really hope you experience some benefit. It’s probably good to know it takes longer for some than others to start to feel the benefits so don’t be discouraged if it isn’t immediate. The dosages can require tweaking over time too. I have just restarted one of the hormones (the one that doesn’t trigger histamine intolerance for me) and it already feels it’s helping with mood and sleep. 

Take care and all the best,

ER