Hi All, haven't posted in a while, been busy with post hurricane Irma stuff, so much fun, and getting settled back home after being away for the summer. For you newbies, I've had an extremely bad year starting last August. I'll be 53 in January. Any and every symptom on that 66 symptoms of perimenopause list and about 10 more on top of that. It's been hellacious. For the past couple of weeks my symptoms are getting lesser. Now not sure if they will cycle around again, but here is what I'm doing differently. I started taking Vitamin B12 and Vitamin B6. The specialist in NYC said that I have a genetic factor with MTHFR where I can't absorb Vitamin B. But also, my period was due last Tuesday. And it's now Monday, almost a week later, and it's still not here???? When I was due I got bloated for a few days, but then nothing. Had a headache yesterday, but still nothing. Every now and then I get the burning legs and achy body and sick feelings, but much lesser degree. This will be the first period I've ever missed in my life (except in pregnancy of course). So am I finally entering meno realm and leaving awful perimeno behind me? I've even had three almost completely normal days this month!!! This hasn't happened in a whole year! Any of you on this forum gotten better after meno finally sets in?????
I just want to thank you for sharing your story because I just started reading this forum last night and already getting a little relief. I'm 51 and I seem to be hitting the hardest of peri just recently. Wish I could help you out but I'm not where you are yet. I just wanted to at least say hello. 😊
Hi Laura,
I thought I was dying from some awful cancer, when I entered all my symptoms this forum came up and I started reading of women who seemed to be having the same problems as me. But in the back of my mind I kept denying that hormones could be causing all the crazy things that were happening to me. So round and round I went, visiting doctors, having oodles of tests, spending lots of money, and all the while getting sicker and sicker. And here I am, one year later, one gall bladder gone, no less than 10 doctors seen, countless spent on tests, supplements, hormones, and now I'm back to square one, realizing that it was all indeed perimeno. Try not to go down the road that I did.
Nice you are here, but also sorry you have to be here.
XO,
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne. Please keep us updated on how you do. I would love to hear from someone that a lot of these symptoms will ease
Hi Suzanne, I cant wait to hear what has helped you. I'm hungry for it all..... As you read on my post i also have MTHFR homo 12??? and i am an undermethylator. i started to feel better with a little zinc some mag, vit c and small amounts of b's but then the pregnancy , which the Drs were like, 'see you CAN'T be peri if you fell pregnant" i wanted to slap them so hard....everything spiraled for me. i was starting to think i had an internal saboteur that wanted me to fail. i've had so many tests but mainly functional medicine ones. im guessing you know all about walsh protocol?
I've had so many tests, everything MRI'd, CT scanned, and xrayed up the wazoo. Lots of bloodwork. I was admitted in the hospital last November because I hit total rock bottom, I couldn't even walk across the room. Was like a shaking little sick 99 year old. The only thing they found in the hospital was that my gall bladder looked bad, so they removed it. It did zero. I saw every doctor you can imagine, also a naturopath and acupuncturist. Tried all kinds of natural supplements, bioidentical hormones, acupuncture, anxiety meds. Finally this past May I requested viral testing (after the psychiatrist suggested it, none of the other many doctors I saw ever mentioned it). That's when I found out about EBV being reactivated. And it totally makes sense why I was so sick. When you aren't getting proper sleep, very stressed, or hormones dropping, this can all cause EBV to resurface. So I went to a specialist in NYC. She did the testing for MHTFR and said I have that gene. When you have this you are more susceptible to getting chronic fatigue (aka EBV). When I mentioned to her about the relation to peri, she kind of shrugged that off and said my hormones looked OK. (oh, not you too????) Ugh! Anyway, she told me to take B12 (suggested that injections would be better but I haven't done that, just doing pills) and she prescribed L-Methylfolate tablets 7.5mg (B6) which were incredibly expensive! These are the only things I'm taking currently, along with Maine wild blueberry smoothies.
Still dealing with frozen shoulder, burning feet, and occasional flu like feelings. Whenever I start feeling bad I notice my feet are also burning, so now I'm thinking that's my version of a hot flash. But overall I'm finally starting to feel better. So the B vitamins and finally, finally, finally, I skipped my very first period. Things I don't have anymore: anxiety, depression, no sex drive, bad fibrocysts, ovarian cyst pain, eye flashes, shaking, palpitations, gosh, can't even remember all the crazy symptoms, I know there is more.
I don't know about the Walsh protocol. Amazing I don't because I've googled so much that I could probably pass the medical exam! lol!!
I can't believe your doctor said you can't be peri if you got pregnant. WTH? I think these doctors confuse peri with meno, it's like they don't even know what peri even is! I had the biggest fight with my endocrinologist, who also happens to be a friend of mine, because he kept insisting I was NOT in peri. Can't wait to see him and tell him I now skipped a period. How will he explain that?
My anxiety is now focusing on the temazapam
Which I've been taking for 23 days and I'm slowly decreasing the rise from 20mg to 15 then keep going down until there is nothing .
What anti anxiety did you take and how did you get off that? Did you feel like you were never going to be well and consider ( seriously) ending it all before you became a drug addict ? I think somewhere inside me I think I'm allowed to be well?! I never felt this way before
This is the hardest part of my life EVER
W
Which gene and what kind of specialist ?
Oh and I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue in 2013.
My first and most dominant symptom is anxiety. That's why I have ended up on these pills, I HATE them
I've always been phobic of taking drugs, never even took pain meds ever. My mother has been taking anxiety meds/pain meds as long as I can remember, and I never wanted to be like her. However, this past year has been so hard. I was given valium, and started taking them to help me get to sleep. It helped, but I was so paranoid about getting addicted that I stopped after my first bottle was gone. Later I asked for more and was prescribed klonopin, and only took one here and there when I really felt like I needed it. I was prescribed antidepressants by my GP, but was too afraid to try it. And now I'm glad I didn't. That's why I went to psychiatrist, I felt like if she told me I should try these things I would. But of course she told me I didn't need them. And no, I never had serious thoughts about ending my life. There were times I honestly thought I was going to die just from being so sick. Which made me realize how people can actually commit suicide. But I never had thoughts of doing myself in. I know what that would do to my family, and I just couldn't do that to them. In the beginning, last year, I was feeling kind of worthless and hopeless, like my life didn't really matter, that was right before all the more serious health symptoms started.
The specialist I went to in NYC in August was for EBV (chronic fatigue). She tested me and said I have the MTFHR mutation. She also said that my immune system was low. She put me on Valtrex, but after three weeks I stopped. I'm just too paranoid about taking meds, and I never know what is a symptom from the med or what's just happening from perimeno. I'd rather know it's not a side effect from a med.
I don't think you should worry about becoming a drug addict, you haven't been taking these meds for that long. Just start weaning yourself off. If you are concerned about sleep, and have tried all the natural remedies to try and help, then really consider taking some oral compounded progesterone before bed. It really does work to help you sleep, and it also takes the edge off the anxiety. I only stopped my bioidenticals because I've read that hormones can feed viruses.
I just sent a long message, but waiting to be moderated.
You do know that chronic fatigue is really EBV?
I didn't know that. I have too many things already
I feel broken, don't know what to do anymore
Everything I try seems to make it worse and the anxiety is already at an all time high, clearly as I checked into s psych ward
I’m so sorry. I get it. I can’t believe what my life had become as well. I just want to be normal again.
Have you thought about trying bioidenticals? Do you have a doctor there who can do this?
Is there a way to private message each other on here?
seriously we are so similar....
i too never take anything, not even pain relief unless its a tooth being extracted etc. my mom us the same as yours and gleefully told me to go ahead and the meds, to embrace them....they dont even really work anyway!!!what mutation do you have? i have homogeious 12 whatever the rest of it is.
i did seriously consider it in the hospital last week, but i want to live and dance and sing and enjoy life again...i focus on something and then catastrophise it. i had a miscarriage 7 weeks ago and then surgery on my cervix 5 weeks ago, before that i was recovering. i was focused on food and regaining my weight and slowly increasing vitamins as even those freak me out at times...they test for the MTHFR gene as part of the bio balance or walsh protocol that is why i thought you might know of it... I really am grateful to you for your support. im happy to take the progesterone, where do i get it from? did you take much, every day or did you cycle it through the month?
Yes, you can private message me. Go to the main screen I believe, or click on my name.
You’ve been thru so much in the past 8 weeks, be kind to yourself!
The doctor in NY just said I have the MTHFR mutation. She didn’t elaborate, just that it’s one of the mutations they find in people with CFS. I didn’t have the second one, whatever it was. Maybe the one you are talking about.
I saw a hormone doc in Tampa who gave me the compounded oral progesterone. I was taking 200mg at night. And I agree, it’s better than taking estrogen. However, he explained that even though I was estrogen dominant it didn’t mean I had enough estrogen.
I felt safer trying the bios, but my gyn wanted me on the bcp. I didn’t want to do that because of my pill anxiety. Even the bios were freaking me out and I was convinced I’d have a stroke.
Man, so frustrating. All my friends are on all sorts of pills and they could care less about side effects and they are great! Grrr
hello again. yes, i have been through alot it is true. im going to switch from th esleeping pill over to valium then wean down, thats what the 'pro's' say to do. it will take a little while... did you take the progesterone at the same time that you were using valium? i would love some sleep.....
and did they test your bloods for hormones??
I know exactly what you ladies are feeling. Why can't I just be happy go lucky like some people and don't obsess so much about my health. It's awful. Do you socialize much? Or do you seem to be a lone with your thoughts more? I am beginning to think that is part of my problem! Please help me
Something I have found that helps, a little, is following positivity posts on instagram. Daily posts give me something to focus on first thing in the morning. Just a simple quote stops the negative thoughts entering my head and repeating the positive quote over and over in my head. It's not easy but we have to help ourselves to be more positive or get drowned in negative thoughts.
Todays quote: Beautiful things happen when you distance yourself from negativity.
Hope you find something to help you. Have a nice day x