Hello everyone,

I'm looking for a bit of advice for my mother as shes having a very hard time with the menopause.She cant sleep, shes very stressed and agitated, she has constant flushes even from walking uo the stairs brings one on...basically its taking over her life.She has tried pretty much everything you possibly can to help - even herbal remedies but no change.She got the menopause very very badly in her early thirties and got such a scare so she was put on HRT but had to come off it when she turned 50 due to increased breast cancer and has now been fighting the menopause since then, this was maybe 14 months ago or so.But just yesterday she was talking to a woman online and she send my mother some information on HRT and how now due to recent research HRT doesnt give or increase risk of breast cancer at all infact it is very easily confused with heart disease or heart attacks and this is only if the person has a heart condition!
So i'm looking for someone who knows about this or has some other miracuolus way of helping my mother as going back on HRT isnt really a good idea in our opinions - just incase, and due to the fact that in maybe 5 years from now she will have to give it up again and go through what we call 'cold turkey' lol so anything anyone can think of please share!

Thanks ever so much!

Karen x

I'm new here but i need info. I'm only 30 years old and i'm very curious about what age does the first sign of menopause start. I've heard that if someone sees their period at an early age they may go through menopause early. Is that so?

At 32 , I started having a wave of heat hit me every so often. I told my Dr. he said no way.Too young. At 46 now, still hitting hard,with other syptoms also. I have an appointment for some help. I cannot live like this anymore.I tried to not take anything for too long. I started my period at age 12.

There is no set age of when a woman will go through perimenopause or menopause because I think that all woman are different. I am 43 years old and have been suffering with hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, and changes in my cycle for the past 6 years. When I first started with these symptoms I went to my doctor and of course they told me I was too young to be experiencing perimenopause. Well my body doesn't think its too young. I've struggled with it until the past 6 months when I found an all natural balancing creme. It has helped tremendously. I can't say that it has 100% taken all my symptoms away but it has worked wonders for me.

Early Onset Symptoms

Irregular Vaginal Bleeding

Irregular vaginal bleeding may occur during menopause. Some women have minimal problems with abnormal bleeding during perimenopause whereas others have unpredictable, excessive bleeding. Menstrual periods (menses) may occur more frequently (meaning the cycle shortens in duration), or they may get farther and farther apart (meaning the cycle lengthens in duration) before stopping. There is no ?normal? pattern of bleeding during the menstrual transition, patterns vary from woman to woman. It is common for women in perimenopause to get a period after going for several months without one. There is also no set length of time it takes for a woman to complete her menopausal transition, as all women are different. It is important to remember that all women who develop irregular menses should be evaluated by her doctor to confirm that the irregular menses are due to menopause and not as a sign of another medical illness.

Hot flashes & night sweats

Hot flashes are common among women undergoing menopause. A hot flash is a feeling of warmth that spreads over the body. A hot flash is sometimes associated with flushing and is sometimes followed by perspiration. Sometimes hot flashes are accompanied by night sweats (episodes of drenching sweats at nighttime). The cause of hot flashes is not yet understood. Recent research theory suggests that women with hot flashes seem to start sweating at a lower environmental temperature than women without hot flashes. There is currently no method to predict when hot flashes will begin and how long they will last. Hot flashes occur in up to 40% of regularly menstruating women in their forties, so they may begin before the menstrual irregularities characteristic of menopause even begin. About 80% of women will be finished having hot flashes after 5 years. Sometimes (in about 10% of women), hot flashes can last as long as 10 years. There is no way to predict when hot flashes will cease, though they tend to decrease in frequency over time. On average, hot flashes last about 5 years.

Mood Symptoms

There is considerable controversy about exactly which behavioral symptoms are due directly to menopause. Research in this area has been difficult for many reasons. First, mood symptoms are so common to begin with, that it is sometimes difficult in a given woman to know if they are due to menopause. Also, women who have been diagnosed with depression in the past may be sensitive to a recurrence of depression toward the time of menopause, but the menopause isn?t really ?the cause? of the depression, strictly speaking. To further complicate matters, mood swings could actually be linked with the sleep disturbance triggered by menopausal night sweats. Researchers are now trying to determine what factors can influence mood symptoms during menopause. Factors that have been suspected and are being analyzed for their impact on menopausal mood symptoms include education level, exercise level, familial support system, and history of depression.

Late Onset Symptoms

Vaginal Symptoms

Vaginal symptoms tend to begin some years after the cessation of menses. Postmenopausal women (the term for women who have completed their menopausal transition) may experience vaginal dryness, itching, or irritation due to the lack of estrogen. Pain with intercourse (dyspareunia) can also result from the loss of estrogen. However, these types of vaginal symptoms can be due to other causes as well, and should be evaluated by a physician.

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is the deterioration of the quantity and quality of bone that causes an increased risk of fracture. The density of the bone (bone mineral density) normally begins to decrease in women during the 4th decade of life. However, that normal decline in bone density is accelerated during the menopausal transition. As a consequence, both age and the hormonal changes due to the menopause transition act together to cause osteoporosis.

The osteoporosis process can operate silently for decades. Some osteoporosis fractures may escape detection until years later. Patients may not thus be aware of their osteoporosis until suffering a painful fracture. The symptoms are then related to the location of the fractures.

Hi Karen x,

I have an aunt who have been in the same fate as your mom and what she did is go to the doctor and she prescribed her a pill called Avlimil and since then she has recuperated from all the pains and her mood swings are not that worse anymore.

If you try to search for the pill to know more about it, the best result that can give more information is this site:

Just tell your mom about this and give her the details from that site. My aunt told me if it works for her then it might help your mom too...

Hope this information may help her get better!


Alma Babes

There's a good book available titled "Before the Change". I forget the author's name & I'm not home to look at it, but she has many natural, tried &tested things to help with symtoms. I saw her on Dr. Phil with Robin one day. Maybe thatwould give you some things to try.

The book is Before the Change - Taking Charge of Your Perimenopause by Ann Louise Gittleman.

I just bought it last week and learned so much. I thought that I was losing it but it looks like I am probably in Perimenopause. Apparently it can happen in your 30's and 40's - I am 45. I've got a doctor's appointment this week to hopefully get some more answers. My doctor is a woman so hopefully she will be on top of this stuff.