Menopause :: Perimenopause - Hair Thinning / Loss
Apr 2, 2015
I am 44 and struggling with perimenopause. I am losing my hair and it is so much thinner....this is really upsetting me..
View 31 RepliesI am 44 and struggling with perimenopause. I am losing my hair and it is so much thinner....this is really upsetting me..
View 31 RepliesIs anyone taking Nortriptyline (antidepressant, but I take it for chronic daily headaches) and experiencing hair thinning or hair loss. I've been on 20mg for the past month and a half and have noticed my hair has significantly thinned out to the point it's becoming very staticky and limp. If so and you have stopped taking this medication, has your hair grown back to it's original volume?
View 2 RepliesI think it would be kind to warn people who are prescribed alendronic acid that one of the side effects is hair loss. I took four doses each one week apart. As a result I have bald patches. Friends who also took alendronic acid have general hair thinning. It was only after I lost hair that I checked the side effects of alendronic acid.
View 1 RepliesAfter exhausting all other possibilities I am now wondering if my 15 month bout with hair shedding is simply sudden onset Perimenopause?
I haven't had any other symptoms at 48 besides fibroids which I plan on removing.
Anyone experience sudden onset of prolonged hair shedding where your hair is popping out all day long and your hair volume drastically diminished?
I had a bout with anemia but my ferritin has been over 90 for 8 months and my hair shedding has not changed at all. I do have regrowth but it cannot keep up with the rate of shedding.
I lose about 250 on wash days (2x per week) and about 100 - 130 on now wash days. I know they "say" that is normal but it was never normal for me.
I would guess I lost 25 a day previously and maybe 70 on wash days.
I would love to hear about your perimenopausal experiences with hair loss and other.
I'm 47. Have had PCOS since I was 13. No kids due to infertility, most likely caused by PCOS. OK, now onto the joy of being me part.
Been sick for over 20 years with various and sundry health issues, i.e, Lyme, Epstein-Barr, adrenal fatigue, MTHFR, etc. to name a few, but the last year or so I'm feeling sooooo much worse. Never had PMS, and now I get cramps a few days before the witch shows up. When she does show up, before when she would show up, she would last 5 or so days. Now she hits hard and fast, heavy for a days or so and then stops on day 2 or 3. Digestion has been horrible. I have so much gas and bloating in my upper stomach that I could power a small city and it's very uncomfortable. Total carb and sugar intolerance. My doc thinks it could be a bacterial infection called SIBO, but after reading everyone's symptoms here, it makes me wonder if it is Peri related. The worst anxiety and panic attacks of my life that hit out of nowhere, even when I am not worrying about stuff. Heart palps galore and according to numerous docs and tests, my heart is fine. Reflux. Overweight and can't lose weight. Emotional instability of a newborn. My mom died a few months ago and while I know grief can be at play, I can cry just watching a commercial. Dizziness, bouts of vertigo, vision getting worse, hair loss more than usual, chapped lips and back of hands, 0 and I mean ZERO sex drive. I almost feel repulsed by the idea. Luckily I have an incredibly understanding husband. Muscle and joint pain. Zero motivation to do anything. I am an incredibly creative person and have lost all my passions in and for life. Bone crushing fatigue. Sometimes wake up feeling like I'm trembling inside. Frequent waking up in the middle of the night.
These are the primary symptoms, though there are others. It's hard for me to tell which of these are Peri related and which are due to the other issues. I had a bunch of labs done in May and all my hormones were normal, including extensive thyroid testing. Can you be Peri and have normal labs? Very confused and ******. This crap is ruining my life. I can't even drive anymore due to the anxiety and dizziness and thus feel trapped in my house. I need to get this fixed as soon as possible. My doc thinks I am Peri and says we will work on it, but is trying to detox some of my other issues first.
Anyone else out there noticing considerable hair loss? I'm posting on the menopause board cause it seems everything (almost) comes back to that!
When I take a shower the water is up to my ankles because of all the hair clogging the drain!
After 5 weeks of waiting, i finally received a letter in the post yesterday fromt he Hospital regarding my MRI scan. It states in the letter that everything was normal APART from "a incidental 14mm calcified, extra axial lesion in the left frontal region, probably menigioma". It goes on to say "no further action will be required but a copy of the letter will go to visiting neurosurgeon for further clarification in this regard".
i've just googled menigioma and it comes up with brain tumor - should i be worried about this do you think? :-( i honestly didn't expect the letter to say this as i have waited over 5 weeks for these results. Can anyone advise? thanks
I am experiencing hair thinning from past 1 year but I observed it 1 month back and consulted a doctor. As advised by him I have taken 25 OH vitamin D total test. The result was shocking my Vitamin D level is 5.48 ng/ml which is less than deficient. I Google out the problems of Vitamin D deficiency they are shocking. So I want to get that level to around 75 ng/ml which is good (i think from my investigations).
My doc advised me for CALCIROL (60,000 IU) sachet every week for 3 months. So if I take this calcirol for 3 months within how many days I can reach level of 75ng/ml.
I began seeing bald patches on my head: one rather large one and 2 smaller ones. I also am losing a ton of hair each day. I have been diagnosed with a ferritin level of 8 and an iron level of 28. I am taking 325 mg of iron 3 times a day along with other vitamins. Approximately how long before I see an improvement in hair fallout and regrowth. I am also seeing a dermatologist for corticosteriod injections to help with regrowth in the completely bald spots. I am strongly considering shaving my whole head?
View 4 RepliesI am a 25 year old female and I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease probably around 2012 or so. I take 75MCG every morning and I do blood tests about once or twice a year to make sure my levels are stable. What I need help with are symptoms. My boyfriend has been very supportive, he was the reason I went to get the initial blood test because he said my symptoms reminded him of Graves Disease and it worried him. Well, I went to the doctor and got the tests done and he told me I had Hashimotos. Since then, my boyfriend has told me that he hasn't seen any improvement in my symptoms, in fact he thinks they've gotten worse. I have looked at a lot of different lists of symptoms that people with Hashimoto's Disease can experience and I experience a lot of them. I'll list the ones I experience the most and a little bit of a description to each so maybe someone can help me with what I need to do to feel better because honestly it makes me miserable.
-Hair Loss - Every time I brush or wash my hair there is always tons of hair in the brush or tub. It's everywhere all the time, I shed like the cats.
- Depression - I don't know if it is actually depression, but a lot of the time I feel like I'm just not good enough to be around anyone. I'll find myself crying at ridiculous moments with absolutely no reason for it. I also find myself thinking that people I know (and can acknowledge even when I'm feeling this way) love and care for me, and yet I still think they don't care about me and will abandon me at the drop of the hat, which breaks me down mentally.
- Stress - This is probably one of my worst symptoms. I am always stressed out about something, even ridiculous things that shouldn't be stressing me out. One of the biggest things I stress about is what I mentioned with the depression. I feel like my friends and loved ones are going to abandon me at any minute, which scares me and results in me lashing out at them in ways that if I can't control it soon enough may result in them actually leaving, which terrifies me and just puts me into a never ending loop of stress and depression.
- Anger - I can't seem to rationalize other people's behaviors. Completely normal behaviors that don't normally bother me result in me lashing out and screaming at people and saying things that I don't mean to say.
- Memory Loss - This is a really bad symptom. I forget things very quickly. If I don't actively keep it in my mind, I won't remember it. A perfect example, when I was still in college I was walking through town with some people and when we were going back to the dorms I made a comment about a truck I saw. I used to see it all the time and hadn't seen it in a while so I made the comment. The people I was with looked at me really confused and just flatly stated "You said the exact same thing when we walked by it on the way out" and I honestly don't remember seeing it at any point that day. In fact I didn't remember seeing it for around 5 months, and yet they claimed that I made the exact same comment I just had, earlier that day. It really messes with my head when people tell me that I did or said something and I can't remember doing it to save my life.
- Weight - Before I started taking synthroid I weighed 110 lbs, after I started taking it I gained like 30 lbs and I can't lose it. I'm stuck between 135 and 140 (I'm about 5'6" tall)
- Headaches - I get headaches on a daily basis. Sometimes they're really bad but generally they're just a slight discomfort in my frontal lobe area.
- Sleep - It takes me forever to fall asleep and even when I do I can't stay asleep and then I feel exhausted all day when I wake up, as if I never slept at all.
Another thing I've noticed and that is that sometimes I feel like I can't swallow properly, I always feel like I have to yawn to get a lung full of oxygen, and my nails curl downward along the curve of the tip of my fingers on like 3/5 fingers.
I suffer from the problem of hair loss before marriage at the age of 19, where he was my hair loss, which is a dense tuft and continues to now (24 years old) so my hair has become very small and too short
Use Pantene Shampoo
To know what to make .....
I want advice and guidance and your directions even know the main reason
What are the required medical tests ....
For the past year, I've been losing my eyebrows in patches. Patches will grow back, but then fall out weeks/moths later. I'm a 38-year-old female, healthy and fit. Recent blood work all normal. Thyroids normal. I'm not losing hair anywhere else, and my skin has no redness or dryness. It is just my eyebrows that keep falling out. The only thing I could think of was my birth control--I was on the Mirena IUD. But I removed it and ceased all birth control several months ago and the problem persists. All doctors I've visited have been stumped, thus my online question.
View 2 Repliesit has become so hard to see if i fit for peri-menopause as I do not have hot flashes at all but i seem to have all else creeping up on me. lots of women say if you don't have the hot flashes then it can not be peri...So really what is the best way to know that your entering that stage of life or not..i read alot of posts where all these woman have all these tell tale sign of menopause and instead of there doctor taking there age into consideration for menopause they all run to do all kinds of tests and this and that..is it really that difficult to decipher when in menopause or not? I'm so confused and since I'm 42 my doctor wont even talk to me about it regardless that my mother and her went into full menopause at 45 yrs old..i just hate to be running to the DR and getting all frustrated when some of my symptoms or all are peri-menopause related.
View 2 RepliesMy first post focused on Anxiety and the possibility of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It has recently been brought to my attention, there is a possibility my symptoms could be hormone related. Something I never actually considered.
Brief list of symptoms...
Fatigue (groggy and heavy type tiredness)
Brain Fog
Feeling detached and 'spaced out'
Weak and Shaky
Jelly Legs
Weak Fingers and Toes
Sensitive to light and sound
Sometimes feels like I have flu or a bad virus (even though I know I don't)
Light Headed
Light Dizziness
Easily tired out
Occasional Palpitations
Frequent urination (occasionally)
Anxious (more so than usual)
Brief History...
I have had anxiety issues, on and off, for many years and also hormone induced migraines. This year the migraines are definitely worse and so too is the anxiety. I had an 8 day brutal migraine early/mid September, followed by 8 days of severe brain fog/dull fuzzy head. I haven't been the same since. I'm also wondering if my symptoms are migraine related? I've had 2 full blood tests done and 2 urine samples taken. All came back normal/clear and healthy. I've also been to see an ENT consultant who ruled out an inner ear virus. He also checked my throat and balance. I had a full eye examination last week and my eyes are in great shape. I have an MRI booked next week and also an appointment to get an ECG recorder fitted for 48 hours.
My symptoms are so broad and general, it could be a number of things... I have even considered CFS. Now I'm thinking it could be hormone related? I feel more anxious not knowing what this is.
I had an upper respiratory issue a few weeks back and am pretty much over it, but a week after the worst of it I started running a low grade fever almost every evening. My face and neck feels really hot like the heat is just radiating off it and I want to fan myself. I otherwise don't feel bad, not like I usually do when I have a low grade fever when sick, I just feel hot. My normal temps runs around 97.5 and I know that temps are lower in the mornings and can go up in the afternoons but I have never had it like this. It has been about 98.6, 98.8 and today it has been 99.3. But like I said, it isn't like a sick fever, and it is mostly my face and neck area that feels so hot. It starts every afternoon around 3pm.
Does anyone else experience anything like this? Could it be related to perimenopause? My cycle is really messed up right now.
I'm a little worried as I have had a tension type headache for approx 5 days during my period ? Anyone else had this please ? Should I be worried ?
View 18 RepliesIm 37 and have been experiencing almost every symptom of perimenopause. The worst ones being, anxiety, insomnia, night sweats, hot flushes, periods areso unpredictable. I have suffered with pcos but know how that affects my periods etc. My periods have never been this far apart.... Ever! They have also become lighter and shorter in duration. I have mood swings constantly and feel irritable but this could be due to the sleep deprivation. I have been backwards and forwards to my gp. He did some blood tests on my hormones which have came back within normal range.......am I right in saying that blood tests are normal during perimenopause??
My mum seems to think i'm heading for the menopause as she got similar symptoms, she was only 39 when her periods completely stopped.
I really don't know where to go from here. Cant seem to convince the drs this is hormones
I am really suffering at the moment and I'm into day 35 of an anxiety/depression dip. I have been suffering this on and off for over ten years. The closer I get to the end the dips seem to be lasting longer and coming more frequent. I really don't know how much longer I can hang on. My quality of life at the moment is very very poor. I am starting to consider HRT as I've really had enough of this horrible roller coaster. I was hoping to hear from some ladies who have tried HRT and it has turned their lives around or offer experiences from other ladies. I have a doctor who will prescribe bioidentical hormones which I would prefer to the synthetic ones. I just have to make a decision. I so wish I didn't have to and wish I could sail through this like other ladies. Last year I had 7 periods and its 3 months since my last one. I'm just wondering if you can take HRT with this scenario.
I really need the strength to keep going.
Have cried all day today as it's all becoming to hard.
I would love to wake in the morning and it has lifted.
I am 54 years old mother of three and grandma. I am in perimenopause, symptoms bad depression where I wouldn't get out of bed. I was told years ago to have a hysterectomy because of fibroids but I haven't yet thinking I will get through this. I have a enlarged uterus due to fibroids and thickening wall of the uterus . I go in August for an sono and ultrasound to check uterine wall. This hormonal stuff is driving me crazy. I stay home, don't get out much and scared when my husband leaves to go to work.
View 52 RepliesI feel like that batty cat lady from the Simpsons - I feel like I LOOK mad, and I am unravelling mentally and physically.
I'm 49 and have been going through the peri-menopause for a couple of years. First my periods were horribly clotty and heavy and every three weeks, now in the last six-nine months they've got further apart and lighter.
But it's how I feel that's so weird. I am shaky, anxious, when I'm talking to people I'm trying to think what expression I should be wearing on my face. I feel tired but not sleepy, like as if all my energy has been sucked out of me and all I want to do is sit down. Everything seems like too much effort and I am not enjoying life when I feel like this. Some days I feel great, but there are too many days like this now.
If anybody I know is going through a hard time, I've always been THE most supportive person, but lately it just makes me anxious because I feel I'm being sapped of what little strength I have left. I avoid people, especially high maintenance people.
I'm trying to force myself to take a shower now. I love being clean and having freshly washed hair, but even that's too much. My roots need doing but I can't be bothered. And I don't even feel human, let alone like a woman. I feel like I'm drifting away from friends, like I have nothing to bring to the table when it comes to being good company.
And I wonder if anybody has any experience of whether diet helps. I felt really good last week and I was eating well - could it be as simple as that? I've had a weekend of too many carbs and a curry this weekend.
I feel like my anxieties are getting worse at times. It seems when I am anxious my bowls leak out with me not even taking a bowl movement. When I was at the movie with my brothers wife and their kids and my boyfriend seeing Annie around 6pm I started feeling like my heart was racing again and feeling like I was going to pass out or just scream like the other day when I was ran up to someone in the building next door to our building screaming I'm scared my heart was racing then and I felt like I was going to pass out then I felt so weak and when the fire department came in with me to my Apartment I went to the bathroom and I wiped away some stool that leaked out. Could this be because of a heart problem or what because I feel like I am having flu like symptoms tonight or is this part of perimenopause would like to know i feel like putting myself in the hospital.
View 36 Replies