Hello!
I save my PCP today. After years of peri symptoms that everyone ignored, I was told my FSH is 55, solidly in the post-menopausal zone.
I am not sure how I feel. On one hand, relieved that I knew that I was having hormonal changes and am not crazy. I am frustrated that 4, yes, 4 other PCPs blew it off over the last few years. 45 seems young, which makes me afraid of possible long-term consequences.
And, now I don’t know what to do or what to expect. My now PCP says I don’t need to do anything. Yet, am I through the worst, or am I only just begun the “fun”? And, I thought FSH was a terrible measure? Or is that just during Peri?
Any thoughts on this would be welcome!
Hormonal testing only shows what your hormones were doing on the day the test was taken – nothing more. So your levels don’t mean anything really. You know you’re post-menopausal after you’ve gone 12 full months without a period, and that’s it. There’s no other test that confirms this. It’s just being w/o a period for 12 months.
So if you still have periods (even irregular), you are in perimenopause and not post-menopausal at all.
I had a similar result at a similar age. I still had more and more sporadic periods for several more years and peri symptoms during that time, progressing to full menopause. I started very low dose estrogen at 49 which helped a lot with the worst symptoms, brain fog etc. Hot flashes continued but have mostly ended now (53.) Not sure about long term effects of entering menopause early. If we even were early?