Topic Tuesday // Mental health and menopause // 15 Aug, 7pm AEST

[BlueBay]

Yes yes and yes - definitely increase in mood swings.  I feel my mood swings have gotten worse over the past few years.

[BlueBay]

LOL @NikNik

[CheerBear]

Hahaha that is exactly what I felt like after posting too @NikNik 😂

[Mazarita]

@NikNik, for me the mood swings happened more in perimenopause. I personally found that a lot tougher mentally than what I am going through now. Now, it is mainly the physical side effects that effect me: hot flushes, fatigue, osteoarthritis, fluid retention, heart palpitations, weight gain and change to body shape, hair on face, skin drying, dry eyes, the list goes on. Although the list seems long, I find these physical symptoms a lot easier to deal with than the awful time (years) I went through with mental health during perimenopause. I did notice, however, that bipolar in particular is said to be commonly triggered in perimenopause and menopause. In my case it was depression of a major kind that got me.

[Shaz51]

 did you find an increase in mood swings? -- Yes @NikNik

• crying at a drop of a hat
• feeling like screaming at times
• crying over the tiniest things that happen

[BlueBay]

Yeah @Shaz51 I do a lot of that too

[NikNik]

It's tough @BlueBay

Research shows that most people experience mood-swings during the transition into menopause in particular.

Often people report reacting uncharacteristically to things that previously wouldn't have bothered them. 

Bursting into tears when you spill the milk (you know what they say about spilt milk ). You weep uncontrollably when you discover there’s no Nutella left (I don't need menopause to cause that!). You find that one minute you're loving your friend's new partner and the next you have an overwhelming urge to push their face into a cream pie (not recommended). And nothing seems to make any sense.

But mood swings associated with menopause and mental illness are separate. Mood swings are a normal reaction to what your body is going through. Most notably, they don’t last forever, they don’t take you to the pits of despair and there are ways to manage their impact.

It can be really tough though to know if they are purely just due to menopause or connected to a pre-existing mental illness. So it's always worth investigating this with professionals.

[BlueBay]

Great explanation thanks @NikNik

[NikNik]

@Mazarita - yes you are right in regards to bipolar. I will look at that and other mental illnesses in a sec.

What you are describing about the psychological impact during perimenopause is exactly what the research shows. Mood swings and depression seem to be more common in that phase than in menopause itself.

[Mazarita]

@NikNik, it's interesting what you say about the difference between menopausal mood swings and those associated with mental illness. I agree it is really hard to identify what's what really. There were good reasons for the big breakdown I had during perimenopause which may have been bound to occur regardless of stage of life. But I think perimenopause just made it all worse. If I am experiencing menopausal mood swings now, they are nothing compared to what I have known with bipolar

I also might mention that I find that health professionals don't always show great awareness or concern over these hormonal issues, especially the impact it can have on people with pre-existing mental illness.