Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

Well, you guys know me: I’m frank. Pretty much an open book. So here is another very open personal edition of my blog. If bodily functions or female body parts make you squirm, turn back now. If, however, you can be an adult and actually care to read what is below, go for it. 

 I think my meticulous record-keeping skills may have finally paid off, or at least are serving me well.  I’ve been convinced for the past 3  years or so that I’ve been in perimenopause, but my old GP sang the same old song of “you’re too young,” despite me having many physical and psychological signs of such and him not doing any tests to figure it out either way. Because, as he said, “you’re too young.” I found my pocket calendar with dates of my periods back to December 2013, and man were they going wonky even back then. I remember 2013 being the year that I started getting periods every 2 weeks, and when I mentioned it to my Dr, he shrugged it off. Then in the midst of the weird bi-weekly periods I all of a sudden went 60 days with no period, and when I informed him of that he simply said, “Congratulations.” I’m not pregnant, you moron. 

 

The point is, for almost 3 years now I’ve documented periods that have been going completely out of whack. I went from having the “perfect period pattern” that was predictable every month, I’ve experienced hot flashes and some facial flushing that looked like I had a sunburn. The sweating? Oh. My. God. When we had the polar vortex 2 years ago and it was -40c with windchill I would be sweating with my jacket on. Even now, it’s horrible; I’m constantly sweating in the cold. And the heat, forget it. If it’s -20 I’m sleeping with the window open and a blanket covering my feet, the only part of my body that never fails to get cold. That is, of course, if I can sleep. The insomnia is incredibly horrible. I’d kill to be able to sleep. I am flipping back and forth all night like a sausage on a hot grill. I'm lucky if I am getting about 5 hours of sleep a night. 6 is luxury anymore, and it certainly isn’t quality sleep. And the dreams/borderline nightmares right now are so incredibly vivid. Sometimes I feel like I can’t wake from them. So much for getting any good sleep when I do get to sleep. 

I am convinced my brain-fog is worse, ask anyone around me. Since my surgery I’ve had trouble “finding words” even when looking right at things, but it’s gotten progressively worse. Here is me looking right at a mug on the counter not being able to think of what it’s called: “can you pass me the…ah…umm..behind you. That sippy thing you drink stuff out of.”  If it gets too pathetic Feral comes to my rescue and fills the words in for me.  And there is of course urinary incontinence. Nothing like a little squirt here or there when you laugh, cough, sneeze, switch positions, or step down. And that’s made incredibly worse when you happen to be bleeding at the time. And then there is always crying at the drop of a hat. I can tear up listening to a song, watching a commercial, etc. It’s not uncommon to see me reading something on my laptop with tears streaming down my face. But, you see, I can’t be experiencing perimenopause. Because I am only turning 36 this year and this sort of thing is not supposed to happen until you are in late 40’s or 50’s.

I get it. I’m not a doctor. But I have a lot of time on my hands, and I want to know what the hell is wrong with me. When it feels like your body is revolting against you, and for the longest time I had a GP that didn’t take my concerns seriously, you start researching. What I’m experiencing sure sounds like what I’ve heard of perimenopause.  And not surprisingly the more I researched it, the more I read that women can  enter the “perimenopause stage” of their lives at any time in their 30’s -50’s. The really cruel part is that this stage of our lives can last anywhere for the better part of 10 years. Seriously. Diagnosing perimenopause via bloodwork really isn’t that reliable, as a woman’s hormone levels fluctuate so much. Even if she isn’t in peri/menopause, her FSH test results will have varied readings depending on what time of the day they are collected. 

In addition to that it is very important to know when the first day of a woman’s last menstrual cycle was when the bloodwork is drawn. Up until my Vitamin C experiment, I was bleeding constantly and so I really didn’t have a start/finish to any cycle. As of writing this blog posting I am currently 32 days straight of no bleeding. We’ll see how long this lasts. Below are 35 symptoms of perimenopause. 

35 Symptoms of Perimenopause

• Hot flashes, hot flushes, night sweats and/or cold flashes, clammy feeling
• Irregular heart beat
• Irritability
• Mood swings, sudden tears
• Trouble sleeping through the night (with or without night sweats)
• Irregular periods; shorter, lighter periods; heavier periods, flooding; phantom periods, shorter cycles, longer cycles
• Loss of libido
• Vaginal dryness
• Crashing fatigue
• Anxiety, feeling ill at ease
• Feelings of dread, apprehension, doom
• Difficulty concentrating, disorientation, mental confusion
• Disturbing memory lapses
• Incontinence, especially upon sneezing, laughing; urge incontinence
• Itchy, crawly skin
• Aching, sore joints, muscles and tendons
• Increased tension in muscles
• Breast tenderness
• Headache change: increase or decrease
• Gastrointestinal distress, indigestion, flatulence, gas pain, nausea
• Sudden bouts of bloat
• Depression
• Exacerbation of existing conditions
• Increase in allergies
• Weight gain
• Hair loss or thinning, head, pubic, or whole body; increase in facial hair
• Dizziness, vertigo, light-headedness, episodes of loss of balance
• Changes in body odor
• Electric shock sensation under the skin and in the head
• Tingling in the extremities
• Gum problems, increased bleeding
• Burning tongue, burning roof of mouth, bad taste in mouth, change in breath odor
• Osteoporosis (after several years)
• Changes in fingernails: softer, crack or break easier 
• Tinnitus: ringing in ears, bells, 'whooshing,' buzzing etc.

 I am currently experiencing 27 of the above symptoms but I’ve been experiencing a few of them since either my brain surgery or cancer treatment, so I don’t know whether experiencing those symptoms now are from past issues or if something else is a contributing factor. Now that I have a new GP I will mention this to him at the end of the month and see if he says I “can’t” be in perimenopause I'm only 35.  Who knows, maybe I can be. 

~Tara