Hi I am Rae 44 and am dealing with irrational fears and anxiety from those fears for the last 2 years to the oiubt where i can barely go outside. I have recently had blood work done and my progesterone is fairly low 4.5 and testosterone is high 2.8. Estrogen is in the ok range. As far as symptoms other then the anxiety im getting phantom bug bites and dry irrated skin on my wrists and ankles, also have low tolerance for things now that would never bother me before.
Needing something to help balance those and hopefully help with the irrational fears.
Hello, Rae! Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you’ve been through a lot in the last couple of years. I would say that peri-menopause is a likely contributor to the anxiety you are struggling with. The dry skin is also a pretty common symptom. To be honest, blood work is not helpful in diagnosing or managing peri menopause, as it’s the big hormonal fluctuations which drive lots of the symptoms like mood disturbance, rather than the absolute numbers themselves. This is hard to map with blood work, and the blood work often does not correlate well with the symptoms a woman is experiencing. HRT may be something for you to explore, for the management of this anxiety. The best practice guidelines (from the UK and also those in Canada) recommend that it is offered as a first choice to women who are experiencing mental health symptoms where peri menopause is felt to be the likely reason for the symptoms. Of course, mental health is complex, and it’s also common for a range of other things to be contributing (like other forms of life stress, work stress etc.) so it is often a complex mix of stuff, in practice! But HRT often helpful for mood and anxiety symptoms, and has helped many of the women I see and support in consults.
Thank you for the explanation. I will see if I can get a referral to you and see if any of those options work for me.
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Hi! My name is Cally Jo and I am a 38 year old mom to four great kids! Lately I have just not been feeling myself. I have been having mood swings, irrational anger, exhaustion beyond what feels normal and random hot flashes. I’m here to learn more about menopause and see if that’s what is going on!
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Welcome, Cally Jo! Good to have you here 
Please feel free to ask any questions, and this community will do its best to help you find answers.
Hello! I’m N and I am happy to be here! I mostly have questions about perimenopause and iron deficiency. Has anyone else experienced anemia during perimenopause? If so, what were your methods for remedying?
Thanks so much,
N
Good to have you here! Anemia can be common in peri-menopause. Lots of causes, but often very heavy periods are the main reason. The key is to identify the cause of the anemia and treat this. For example, if very heavy periods are the reason, there are a range of medical management options to treat this (e.g. the Mirena IUD, birth control pills, tranexamic acid) and surgical management options if medical options are not enough (such as ablation of the womb lining - where the womb lining is burnt away by a gynaecologist). It is also important to replace the iron. This can be done orally (prescription tablets) or, if the woman does not tolerate these, with an IV iron infusion. So lots of options to consider. And important to make sure the iron deficiency is not due to something else (like a bowel problem for example).
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