Perimenopause and Autism

Well they tell me they can't test for menopause at my age. I've asked several times. 

Hmmm as I'm only a week in I'm reluctant to continue. I could do a lot of damage in 6 weeks. Think I'll write an econsult tomorrow and see what comes back. Thank you for sharing :) 

hmm hormones are testble and messurable mental health or no.

I've been asking for opinions since I was 20 but I think they put it down to my existing mental health diagnosis. I'm basically making a scene about nothing. 

I'd ask for a second opinion if I were you.

The worst of it was about a month- it took about six weeks to feel like I was back to normal. Almost like I had to get through a whole cycle to start feeling better.

My GP won't even discuss menopause with me. She says at my age they can't tell if you're in it or not. 

Do you happen to recall how long you took to settle? My meltdowns have always involved self harm and I'm getting more and more dysregulated as the days pass resulting in a lot of injury. 

My mother had a hysterectomy too when she was in her early-to-mid thirties, resulting in an early menopause. As I recall, HRT wasn't a thing back then and I know that she found it a struggle to cope with the hot flushes, mood swings, tiredness, and other unwelcome symptoms that I'll refrain from mentioning here.

As I'm sure has been explained to you by your GP, with HRT it can sometimes be a matter of trial and error. Give it time and if you don't feel the Desogestrel is working for you, your GP can then try you with something else.

Thankfully I have not had a lot of bleeding and mine have gradually stopped over 6 months.  Good to hear there are a few of us here.

Desogestrel can be a nightmare for mood regulation. I'm on it for the same reason and I felt absolutely awful for the first few weeks. I'm glad to be on it now because things settled down for me eventually but I did wonder if I'd have to come off it because I was so miserable at the start.

Oh boy do I feel what you're saying. My dysregulation is getting worse and worse and mood drops in a second. I'm inclined to put some of the blame on all the contraception I'm now taking to try and control the bleeding. 

That sounds terrible, your poor aunt! My aunt's and mum had hysterectomies so I guess they missed this part! Mum was different to me anyway, I started at 10, she started at 17. She has trouble conceiving and rarely bleed. I regularly have to go find clean clothes cos it likes to surprise me, nothing for hours then a flood.

They've just put me on desogestrel on top of the arm implant and my mood has been so dysregulated I can't maintain reason for any length of time. 

I have used Facebook groups to get me through the HRT advise alongside a trained GP. 

Im glad I am not alone. I would like to start a group once my conditions are more stable and I can manage a 2 weekly video meeting. I will see how my new HRT regime goes and take it from there.

Hello max  

I am 54, diagnosed asd/adhd both aged 49.

I am only just going into peri menopause, at present I'm still having what are normal to me periods, with the occasional one being a week or do late.I must be the most fertile nanny in the North West.

I have always suffered with heavy painful periods, so to does my daughter. 

These past 2 years I have sincerely struggled with rage, meltdowns and just about have been left feeling fed up of life at times. However I have to tell myself over and over again, left to my own devices I can cope with myself, it's everyone else, including family who just do not understand the day to day challenges we face, and just how exhausting it is. From constantly losing things, looking for things, making the same mistakes over and over again, forgetting everything within a millisecond, the list goes on. I looked into the effects of menopause, reading through its symptoms, I unfortunately can identify with lots of them throughout my life, not just peri pause. 

That sounds awful for you. When I went through perimenopause, I kind of went the other way in that my periods became lighter and less frequent. However, we are all different. I remember that when one of my aunts went through it, she had issues with flooding. There was an occasion when she had to ask a work colleague to pop out and buy her a change of clothes.

I'm trying to understand my hormonal situation. 45, always had extremely heavy periods, they were always long but now they last 40+days with 10 days off in between. must be approaching peri by now but I've no idea how to tell. Doctor says they can't test for it. 

I'm in my late forties, post-menopausal, but was perimenopausal when I realised I was autistic in 2017. The death of my dad in 2019 seemed to be what triggered the transition from perimenopause to post-menopause.

For the past few years, I have been on the fence about going down the HRT route. Sometimes I think I definitely want to pursue it, but then I have a change of heart... usually when my symptoms seem less acute.

It's great that you have noticed an improvement in your mood with HRT. Most of the women I know who are on HRT have described it as a game-changer.