Perimenopause? - Sacramento,CA

Our responses to hormone changes are SO different, that one woman's response to perimenopause/BCP can be completely opposite another's.

I was on the pill up to age 51 and had started having symptoms that seemed like perimenopause for only about 6 months. My doctor recommended I go off the Pill, and my symptoms disappeared!! I have no more hot flashes, night sweats, digestive difficulties, anxiety, etc. etc. I'm still having regular monthly periods now at 53.

My sister, on the other hand, went off the pill, had no periods, and was told by her doctor that she was completely through menopause, blood tested and everything, when she was 50 and she'd had NO symptoms. THEN she started having all the symptoms after she stopped the pill.

You and your doctor will need to strategize about what is happening, and what to try. You may want to go back to a regular 3 wk/1 wk pill cycle, or try a different pill, or a different BC method, to see if that helps.

I hit perimenopause in my early forties, but I was not on any kind of birth control (husband was sterile).
I would skip a month, then have periods two weeks apart.

Does your doc know that you skip placebo week? You should tell him or her if you haven't.

I was in peri-menopause for a long time. Hot flashes. Night sweats. I could LOOK at someone wearing a turtleneck sweater and break out in a hot flash like nobody's business. I'd peel off layers, sweating when everyone else was hugging their sweaters. They'd ask me if I was alright.

And I had a period every month during my placebo week. Every month.

Once in a while I had break-through bleeding during the regular pill cycle. My doctor said that it was indication of peri-menopause. (As if I needed another indication, what with all the hot flashes and night sweats!)

You're just at the beginning of this roller coaster ride. My doc told me that I could take birth control pills all the way up to menopause. I pretty much did until I was 50. Then my periods were sporatic the first few months while my body was adjusting to no hormones, and once I didn't have a period for a year, I was "in menopause".

The doctor did do a hormonal test on me, but he told me that I really needed to be off the pill for 6 months in order to get a proper reading. The pill skews the readings.

If you don't have hot flashes and night sweats, count yourself lucky, lucky. I hope the breakthrough bleeding is all you get...

If you're on the pill, that should prevent perimenopause from happening...I think.
You're giving your body synthetic hormones, so it's not working naturally. Meaning, the symptoms of perimenopause would not happen.

I am no doctor, of course. But I take BC because ovulation is majorly painful for me. Taking the pill fools my body into not ovulating, thus preventing the symptoms. I would think it would work the same when it's time for menopause?

i never took the placebos either. and it shouldn't be the placebos causing this. i certainly wouldn't disrupt the schedule to try to stop it!
i was off the pill by the time i hit perimenopause (a few years younger than you) so can't address your question specifically. but it does sound like you might be there. any other changes happening?
khairete
S.