Menopause Symptoms

Symptoms of Menopause and/or Perimenopause

Hot Flash: Some experts and women prefer not to call menopausal or perimenopausal changes “symptoms,” a term usually reserved to describe diseases.

Emotional / Mental

  1. Anxiety or Panic disorder
    • Feelings of dread or impending doom
  2. Heightened emotional state
    • Depression
    • Irritability
    • Mood swings
    • Nervousness
    • Crys easily
  3. Mental or Memory Issues
    • Disorientation
    • Difficulty concentrating
    • Mental confusion
    • Memory lapses
  4. Dizziness
    • Light-headedness
    • Loss of balance
  5. Sleep disorders
    • Difficulty going to sleep
    • Difficulty staying asleep
    • Sleepy all the time

Physical

  1. Allergies
    • Increased sensitivity to existing allergins
    • Development of new allergies
  2. Brittle nails
    • Soft nails
  3. Dry Skin
    • Sagging skin
    • Loss of elasticity in skin
  4. Eye related issues
    • Dry eyes
    • Light sensitivity
    • Blurred vision
    • Increased tearing
    • Swollen or reddened eyelids—a condition called chronic dry eye
    • Itchy eyes
  5. Changes in body odor
    • Increase in bad body odor
    • Strange body odors
  6. Fatigue
    • Generalized tiredness all the time
    • Extreme exhaustion, no energy
  7. Hair loss, hair thinning
  8. Incontinence, especially upon laughing, coughing or sneezing
    • Urinary urgency, a pressing need to urinate more frequently
    • Urine leakage in general not upon pressure
  9. Increase in facial hair
  10. Increased abdominal fat
  11. Menstrual
    • Irregular periods – perimenopause
    • Worsening of premenstrual syndrome – perimenopause
    • No period for a consecutive 12 month period – menopuase
  12. Osteoporosis
  13. Weight gain
  14. Headaches
    • Increase in headaches
    • Increase or new Migraine type headaches
  15. Irregular heartbeat
    • Rapid heartbeat
  16. Digestive problems
    • Belching
    • Bad taste in mouth, change in breath odor
    • Nausea
  17. Gastrointestional problems
    • Bloating
    • Flatulence
    • Gas pain
  18. Increased dental problems
    • Gum problems
    • Increased bleeding
    • Tooth loss
    • Need for dentures
    • Gum recession
    • Higher risk of gum tissue injury
    • General hot and cold tooth sensitivity
    • Decreased bone mineral density (BMD) in the jawbone

Sensations

  1. Burning tongue
    • Roof of mouth has burning sensation
  2. Electric shocks or tingling sensations
    • Electical shock or tingling sensation under the skin
    • Electrical shock or tingling sensation in the head
  3. Hot Flashes
    • Hot flushes
    • Cold flashes
    • Clammy feeling
    • Night Sweats
  4. Itchy crawly skin
  5. Joint pain
    • Aching joints
    • Sharp joint pain
  6. Muscle or tendon soreness
    • Muscle tension
  7. Tinnitus
    • Ringing or whooshing sound in ears

Sexual

  1. Breast pain
    • Breast tenderness
    • Sharp pain in or around breast
  2. Loss of breast fullness
  3. Fertility
    • Decreased fertility – perimenopause
    • Deceased fertility – menopause
  4. Vaginal dryness
    • Discomfort during sex
  5. Loss of libido

Diseases a woman is more at risk for during menopause and postmenopause
1. Heart disease
2. Diabetes
3. Osteoporosis
4. Cancer

Testing for menopause or perimenopause?
The test commonly used by medical practitioners test for FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) levels.  FSH is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland that triggers the ovaries to secrete estrogen making a woman fertile during her childbearing years.  During perimenopause these hormone levels fluctuate erratically and dramatically greatly affecting the results of this test so it not deemed reliable as a course of discovery and treatment.

Hot Flash: For some women especially if they are under 40 or have other symptoms not listed, it may make sense to test for other causes of symptoms that can mimic perimenopause, such as thyroid disease.

Hormone Replacement Therapy
There are several prescription estrogen-based therapies’ that are government-approved to treat menopause-related symptoms and decrease long-term health risks across the menopause transition and beyond. They are available in pill, patch or gel form. Some women may experience immediate relief after beginning treatment while it may take 6 to 8 weeks for others to get the full effect of treatment.

Bioidentical Hormone Therapy 
Bioidentical Hormone Therapy is many times used to describe medication containing estrogen, progesterone, or other hormones that are chemical duplicates of the hormones produced by women. Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy is safe and many times recommended when following FDA guidelines using tested, approved and regulated prescription hormones.