For many years before the actual menopause, most women experience perimenopause symptoms such as irregular periods, hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness and mood swings. The timing of perimenopause and the symptoms vary significantly from woman to woman, but last an average of two to ten years. Most women’s hormones start changing in their thirties. However the signs and symptoms of perimenopause usually don’t become pronounced until the forties.
In the beginning of perimenopause, symptoms can vary widely and it’s particularly difficult to understand what is going on with your body or what treatments are working. Your periods might be irregular for a few months and then become regular again. You might have weeks of horrible night sweats and then weeks with nothing unusual.
7 Common Symptoms of Perimenopause
- Irregular Periods: As ovulation becomes more erratic, your periods may become longer or shorter, the flow may be heavy or light, and you may skip some periods.
- Hot Flashes or Flushes and Night Sweats: Hot flashes can vary from feeling a strong blush to profuse sweating with intense heat. Their intensity, duration and frequency vary. Night sweats can wake you up in the middle of the night, soaking wet.
- Emotional Turmoil: Many women feel more irritable, depressed, and anxious than usual. Hormonal shifts can also cause mood swings.
- Sleep Disturbances: Many women start having difficulties going to sleep, or waking in the middle of the night or early morning and not being able to go back to sleep. Night sweats can also disturb your sleep.
- Loss of Sex Drive: Some women experience a decrease in sexual desire during perimenopause. Decrease in estrogen causes the vaginal lining to become thin and dry which can cause pain and bleeding during intercourse.
- Fatigue: Dealing with perimenopause symptoms such as changing periods, hot flashes, night sweats, lack of sleep, mood swings is exhausting. In addition, some of the fatigue can be caused by a decrease in testosterone which is the hormone that keeps women feeling energized. Thyroid imbalances can also cause fatigue.
- Weight Gain: Most women gain weight during perimenopause. You may notice that maintaining your usual weight becomes more difficult and that the inches tend to accumulate around your abdomen, rather than your hips and thighs.
- Food Cravings: Food cravings may intensify, especially for chocolate and other carbohydrates.
Keeping a Perimenopausal Diary
Keeping track of your cycles and your experiences on a daily basis is an interesting and helpful thing to do. You can’t always tell if physical or emotional changes are related to menopause, the normal aging process, or something else. But by monitoring your menstrual cycle and recording your signs and symptoms for several months, you’ll gain a better understanding of the changes occurring during this time. You will also have valuable information to discuss with your doctor should you have a concern.
The good news is that perimenopause ends!
Perimenopause symptoms subside a few years after menopause when your hormone levels even out. The joys of life after menopause are many and great — you just have to learn how to manage the perimenopause symptoms!
