Night sweats can also be just a side effect from SSRIS. I had them a few times when I switched dosages for Citalopram. Thy’ve disappeared, though. You might want to adapt your bedding, too. A lighter duvet and an electric blanket with more then five settings allows you to sleep as warm or cool as you need.
I’m 34 and it’s just starting now. So far, I am getting off pretty easy. Heavier periods but further and further apart. I am hoping it goes well.
The biggest problem is that, since I am ‘only’ 34, when my first couple of periods were late, I thought I was pregnant. That was NOT COOL!
I am hotter than usual but I only get a night sweat every week or so. Get up, dry myself off, put on a new pair of jammies. I really don’t even wake up.
34? Oh, honey. 
You know what isn’t awesome? Trying to supervise a massively impulsive 4yo at a rock climbing place, then coming home and running a birthday party for 10 9yo girls, all while bleeding so much that your tampons keep threatening to fall out.
Fuck, you mother nature.
My perimenopause was worse than my actual menopause. It started roughly in my late 30s and went all through my 40s, first with the skipped periods, then with the periods themselves going from 5 to 4 to 3 to 1-1/2 days. I used to be regular as clockwork with all the physical signs I’d be getting it – the cramps, the bloating, the 1-2 days of bitchiness. I had to stash extra tampons in my car’s glove box “just in case” because all those signs disappeared. It was like, “Surprise!” 
I’ve only had one instance of hot flashes. I’ve never slept well to begin with. The memory fog? OMG, I wish there was something I could stick in my brain so I can sweep it away. I also hate my thinning hair. OTOH I almost never need to shave!
This is all sounding terribly familiar. I first went to a doctor to ask what the hell was up with the sleeplessness and memory problems about 10 years ago. I’m 51 now, and I seem to be skipping my period for the first time this month, but perimenopause is nothing if not fond of surprises, so I’m sure that could change any minute (probably the worst possible minute)!
I’m not a big fan of regular drug use, but I must say that Ambien is my good, good friend. When I have a lot of trouble sleeping for several days in a row, I’ll use it to knock myself out for three or four nights, and sometimes that breaks the cycle. Up until the latest family crisis began last weekend, I had actually started to sleep pretty well - I went two weeks without a sleeping pill!
And night sweats - I"ve only had them a few times, but there’s just nothing fun about having to shower and change the sheets when you’re half asleep at three in the morning.
Just in case, I may be using a page from my baby/preschooler playbook and making my bed like this: waterproof quilted mattress cover, fitted sheet, another waterproof cover, and another fitted sheet. At least that way you can simply strip off the first two layers, on which the sweat has pooled, without having to entirely remake the bed.
I also lerve my Ambien and use it in the same way. If I’m having several days of insomnia in a row, I’ll use it for one or two days to make sure I get a good night’s sleep.
Luckily my brain has been in a fog for the last decade due to always having a child under 5, so I probably won’t notice much difference.
Meh. Done with the kid thing and maybe this will be short and over soon?
My grandma was fully menopausal at 32. I figure it’s hereditary. So, I married early and started to try having kids early.
After having fairly regular periods for 30 years or so, mine finally started jumping all around the map last year, fairly short to, yeah, crime scene. I started taking women’s daily vitamins with iron…took a while to find one that didn’t make me throw it up right away, ugh…and it went back to normal. So far. Third month ‘normal’, anyway, so keeping my fingers crossed!
Haven’t had the night sweats that I’ve noticed, though I do feel hot at night. But I have been using tylenol pm to sleep for 20 years now, so that may be helping, or I just may be climbing the hill still.
I am one of those folks who waits until I absolutely must see a doctor before I’ll go in, but I swear to Ogg if having a hysterectomy would obliterate perimenopause I’d do it myself!
Years ago when I bought a waterproof mattress cover for my toddler’s bed, I was amused at the photo on the packaging: it showed a mattress on which lounged an older lady, a little kid, and a puppy. 
Ha, that is funny. Three examples of wet, leaky things. :eek: 
For what it’s worth, a friend of mine turned me on to a very good read with lotso helpful intel about this topic, called The Menopause Book (fka “Is it hot in here, or is it just me?”) by Pat Wingert and Barbara Kantrowitz. I found it to be helpful. I’ve started in with night sweats within the last couple months (age 46) and my cycles have been almost non-existent for the last year - and when they do pop up, it’s barely a day. So, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop…I started a different pill, Nora-BE progestin, as apparently, if one has aural migraines, estrogen is very very bad…funny my OTHER dr didn’t mention that when she put me ON estrogen pills. Hrmm. Anyway, the progestin seems to be helping with hot flashes, but the weird sleep and wonky dreams are killin’ me.
This thread is pretty timely for me, too: I’ll be 41 in a couple of months, and I’m pretty sure that perimenopause started this year. Every month I wonder if that’s what’s going on.
Like with most of you, the tip-off has been historically regular periods that are suddenly quite irregular – but for me the flow/length hasn’t changed (thank goodness), it’s the timing: I used to get my period pretty much every 29 days, with the occasional “reset,” but this year I’ve been all over the map: anything from 3 weeks to 6 weeks between periods. I’m also suddenly having/noticing cramps: I’ve always had relatively short, pain-free periods, but these days I find that I don’t feel so hot for the first day or two. No night sweats or hot flashes yet, though, thank goodness (I did experience hot flashes for about a week in late May, but I think those were stress-induced [my mom had been hospitalized and nearly died]; I tend to run warm to begin with, and I did not like them).
It’s maddening, because now my periods are impossible to plan for/around! Not to mention that the 6-week stretches sometimes come with pregnancy concerns (though I’ve learned to wait it out and not worry as soon as I used to). I’ve been considering permanent birth control as a way to get through the next ~10 years, and the idea is even more appealing now: if my periods are going to be so unpredictable, at least I can not have to worry about getting pregnant.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any historical medical data: my mom had a hysterectomy when I was in high school, and no one has any idea when either of my (now-dead) grandmothers went through menopause. The next time I see my doctor I’ll mention it, but I’m pretty sure he’ll just say, “Yup, sounds like perimenopause. Good luck with that.”
That’s a pretty big difference, IMO!
P.S. Nature can suck it. :mad:
My sentiment exactly! I’m 55 and it’s just starting with irregular periods. I have a ways to go. Fortunately, both my mom and sister seem to have sailed through with very little in the way of symptoms, so I have fingers crossed…
Oh, hey, here’s a question for you all about something that usually isn’t mentioned as a symptom. And it’s private and potentially embarrassing so what better place to ask about it than an internet message board visible to tens of thousands of total strangers?
Anyone else have thinning pubic hair?
It’s not like it’s all fallen out or anything, I still have it, it’s just… thinning out. The hair on the rest of my body seems to be as lush as ever.
Oh, and I did do a google search, but most of what came up seemed to be promoting overpriced herbal supplements and/or vitamins so I didn’t view that as particularly helpful.
I got thrown into menopause by uterus cancer… after the surgery where they took out the ovaries as well I am now struggling with all the side effects. it’s horrible and we can’t find the right dosage to make the hot-flushes stop without making my boobs hurt not very funny
55 here, and post-menopausal. I had a lot of trouble with heart palpitations during the peri-menopause years. My first gyno, who advertised himself as catering to menopausal women, poo-poohed the idea that the palps were related to menopause. I then started going to a different doctor, and in her exam room was one of those public-info medical posters and it listed common symptoms of approaching menopause. At the top of the list: heart palpitations. Thanks, first doctor!
Daily magnesium supplements worked wonders at making the palps go away, as did avoiding lots of carbs or sugary things or alcohol. I still clung to coffee as my final remaining vice, though.
I started with the first mild symptoms in my mid-30s, and I’m now 53 and still not quite post menopausal. (I’m hoping, but things still aren’t quite settled as far as my cycle).
So far they haven’t been too horrible, the fatigue is the worst of it. About the only good thing about being overweight is, (from what I’ve read), is that supposedly fat can tend to help hold estrogen and make the symptoms less intense. I was concerned about hormone treatments and the side effects, so I refused to take any. I tried to use black cohosh and such, but it didn’t seem to help much.
The worst symptoms I noticed (and they seem to be dying out and only lasted for about the last 5-7 years), were the hot flashes. Up until about 2 years ago, they were only “warm flashes” then they got worse for about 2 years, and now they seem to be evening out and slowly getting less intense.
At first my hot flashes were only at night; now they can strike at any time. My hockey friends refer to them as my “short private vacation in the tropics” because I’ll go from normal to absolutely covered in sweat in minutes. Since my face perspires badly, it’s noticeable.
Growing up in the South, I remember hearing the little saying “Horses sweat, gentlemen perspire, ladies glow”.
I’m a freakin’ horse.
Oh Lord! I’ve gone the gambit with the night sweats, day sweats, hot flashes, etc, You name it I’ve gone through it! Fortunately the night sweats, day sweats, and hot flashes are minimal now, but I’ve been dealing with all this perimenopausal stuff since I was around 41. I’m going to be 50 in a couple of months and I actually welcome it! I can’t wait to get outta my 40’s! They suck!
I had a hysterectomy when I was 37 y/o, but they left my ovaries because they were healthy. I really have no indication of when I hit menopause since I don’t get periods. Lately I feel like I’m in a perpetual state of PMS/Ovulation, but I don’t know that my ovaries are actually ovulating since I keep getting a pain and spasm-like feeling on one-side, and then it will move to the other side. I’ve been having acne breakouts again (I thought that all stopped when I became an adult!), my breasts are constantly sore, and I’m so bloated, and have back aches. I haven’t felt like this since before my hysterectomy! :smack: What gives? Could this be a final push of hormone? I’m so ready to be done with this. :dubious:
Any stories or thoughts are appreciated.