I am 52 years old and am in perimenopause now. I started my period at about age 14 and had completely normal, problem free periods for over 15 years. At age 28 I suddenly got severe PMS two weeks before each period and periods became late every month. With the start of my period I would be relived of PMS symptoms. My PMS consisted of extreme frustration , irritation, unstable emotions, and binge eating. Physical problems would be water retention and sore nipples.
About a year into that I was put on Medroxyprogesterone 10 days before period was supposed to start. I would say it only helped to make my period come on time only sometimes.
About five years after that, my doctor tested my hormone levels and found that I had a high Estrogen level. They found some cysts on ovaries and one on right ovary that was a complex cyst. I had that removed and it turned out benign but ovary was destroyed. Estrogen level went down only a bit.
A few years after that, I started putting on natural Emerita Progesterone cream instead of Medroxyprogesterone. By this time I was in my early 40's having used the natural progesterone cream for several years and my period finally became normal coming on time and what seemed like to me, not taking so long that I would be suffering with PMS. So I had no PMS most of the time. If I did it was very mild and brief.
Fast forward to age 50 and horrific PMS started all over again. However, my periods were always right on time and even early since my 40's, so I did NOT want to mess with my hormones by using the cream which I had stopped using years prior since I was on time. The even stranger thing is that PMS got longer and would be three weeks out of a month long. My last period started and I never stopped feeling PMS and here I am today having been suffering all this time and now my period is late by 4 days and I have gained 10 pounds from feeling famished and frantically over eating/ binge eating, and my nipples have never felt so painful! I literally feel like I am pregnant at 52 years old.
Newer symptoms, from what I believe is perimenopause added to my PMS is severe anxiety, strange thinking, and increased paranoia.
So I have some questions that I desperately need answered. All these years I just assumed that I had Estrogen Dominance and either the progesterone cream helped and my Estrogen levels subsided with age also and that's why I balanced off, and now with perimenopause my hormones are out of balance again. Okay but question 1. why is it so extreme for me?. And 2. ( and most importantly,) Does menopause, ( and the way I will feel for the rest of my life,) mean that I will feel like this and pregnant forever??