If you’re approaching mid-life and are experiencing unusual symptoms such as sudden and unexpected fearfulness and tension, you may be wondering whether you’re suffering from anxiety or whether you could be entering perimenopause.
Symptoms such as a rapid heart rate, palpitations, nausea, tremors or shaking, sweating, chest pains, a dry mouth, rapid breathing, headaches, or panic attacks can all be signs that you’re suffering from anxiety, but they could also indicate that you’re reaching your midlife transition.
Anxiety is an extremely normal response when in a stressful situation, however, it begins to cause a problem when you start to struggle to control it, causing you to feel overwhelmed or stressed, and preventing you from living life to the full.
Many people experience anxiety for one reason or another, and just because you’ve never suffered from any mental health issues before doesn’t mean that it can’t happen to you now. You’re not alone in experiencing this symptom, and you mustn’t feel as if you’re somehow at fault, or simply not able to cope.
It isn’t too difficult to see why so many women in their mid-40s and 50s wonder what’s going on when they start to experience unusual symptoms since they tend to coincide with a number of other major life changes that could all cause anxiety.
Financial problems, children moving away from home, caring for elderly parents, and stress at work can all cause the body to begin producing cortisol, our stress hormone, which can impact on your mood, sleep patterns, and menstrual cycle.
As a result, you may find that your period becomes more irregular, more or less intense, or may even be missed altogether as cortisol causes an imbalance in your oestrogen and progesterone levels, mimicking the start of perimenopause.
However, if you’re not actually under any additional stress, it may be time to question whether or not you may be approaching menopause.
Anxiety and the signs of perimenopause
When you reach around 45-55 years of age, you might start to notice your periods become less regular as your ovaries slowly produce less oestrogen. You may also notice other symptoms such as mood swings, a lower sex drive, brain fog, hot flashes, sleep disturbances, sore breasts, vaginal irritation, and bloating.
The most significant sign of entering early perimenopause is a long-lasting change in your period of seven days or more in your menstrual cycle. If you’re experiencing intervals of over 60 days between periods, you’re possibly entering late perimenopause.
However, another common symptom of perimenopause is anxiety, and in some women, this may be the only perimenopausal symptom they experience. As a result, they fail to spot that there’s a connection and simply think they just can’t cope the way they used to.
Anxiety during perimenopause may occur for several reasons. Firstly, hormonal changes and, specifically, changes in oestrogen levels, are linked to anxiety, while physical symptoms such as disturbed sleep and hot flashes can also contribute to these feelings. Furthermore, midlife stressors and fears of ageing may exacerbate the problem further.
The good news, if you’re experiencing perimenopausal anxiety, is that there are treatments available, including taking prescribed antidepressants, undergoing psychotherapy or CBT, or taking Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) to help relieve the symptoms linked with perimenopausal change.
Seeing an expert in women’s health and menopause care is the best course of action if you’re experiencing anxiety that is interfering with your daily life. A specialist can work with you to determine the right treatment plan for your needs so you can find relief and enjoy a better quality of life as you navigate this transition.
