Shocking symptoms women in their 30s can experience during perimenopause

Most women grow up hearing about menopause like it’s a sudden switch that flips in your 50s — but the reality is way more complicated.

Perimenopause is the stage before menopause and it can start as early as your 30s or 40s.

It comes with a whole mix of symptoms that are easy to miss or brush off. 

This can include hot flashes, mood swings, random rage and lack of sleep. But there are also other hidden signs.

DailyMail.com spoke to Dr. Natalia Llarena, a board-certified OBGYN and reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist, about what perimenopause actually looks like and why it should be discussed more openly. 

Perimenopause usually happens one to three years before menopause, which marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years. 

It varies from person to person but can last for a few months up to several years. 

Dr. Llarena said that during perimenopause, many women experience a symptom called menopause flooding. 

Most women grow up hearing about menopause like it’s a sudden switch that flips in your 50s — but the reality is way more complicated (stock image)

‘Menopause flooding occurs because, at extremes of reproductive age, ovulation may not occur regularly. A lack of ovulation can cause irregular, heavy bleeding,’ she explained to FEMAIL. 

‘Unpredictable bleeding can occur both in the years immediately following the first period and in the years approaching menopause.’

On top of irregular bleeding, Dr. Llarena listed other ‘uncomfortable symptoms’ women may experience.

‘Bleeding that is heavier or lighter than during a typical period, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, sleep disturbances, and mood changes, including depression,’ she listed to DailyMail.com.

‘After a person goes through menopause, they are at increased risk for heart disease, osteoporosis and bone fractures, and vaginal dryness/recurrent urinary tract infections.’

Another OBGYN, who goes by The Vag Doc on TikTok, also shared a series of other shocking symptoms. 

‘Joint pain – shoulders, ankles, hands, back – why is this happening?’ she explained.

‘If you think of estrogen as an anti-inflammatory and sort of like a magical body lubricant for our joints and parts of our body, you’re gonna start to realize that all those spots feel better when you have good estrogen levels.

DailyMail.com spoke to an OBGYN about what perimenopause actually looks like and why it deserves way more airtime (stock image)

‘When they start to go down, you feel creakier in those spots.’

She said a common phrase regarding perimenopause joint pain is ‘frozen shoulder.’

The second unexpected symptom she included was tinnitus and itching ears.

‘Do we totally understand it? No, but the itching in the ear, again, probably because estrogen has something to do with lubricating the tissue so it’s getting drier, it’s getting flakier, and it’s getting itchier,’ she shared.

Her third symptom was equally as surprising – burning of the mouth and tongue as well as dryness.

‘Nerve development sort of changes with the loss of estrogen. The dryness is super common, again, because estrogen lubricates our gums and our inner mouth. So you can start to get all these weird sensations in your mouth,’ she detailed.

The content creator also said some women can have electric shock sensations during perimenopause.  

‘Little phantom zaps and shocks throughout your body,’ she revealed.

‘People will tell me they get certain really sensitive areas where nothing’s going on, it just feels like something is an electric shock to that area.

‘In studies, it shows that it is more pronounced when the estrogen levels are going down which we can tell because the periods are getting more irregular.’

When a woman is in her later productive years, around her late 30s and early 40s, she might experience noticeable changes in her menstrual cycles such as a different flow and a shorter cycle.  

Dr. Llarena continued: ‘Early in the menopausal transition, ovulation becomes less regular, cycles may vary by seven days or more, and then women may begin to notice longer stretches between periods (sometimes 60 days or longer). 

‘It is often in this early menopausal transition when some women experience menopause flooding.’

The OBGYN explained what happens during a period and how our body changes once we start menopause.

‘Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have. They peak at 20 weeks of gestation and decline gradually until menopause,’ she told FEMAIL.

‘At 20 weeks of gestation, we have six to seven million eggs, and at the time of menopause, there are fewer than 1,000 eggs remaining. Every month, the brain sends hormonal signals (primarily a hormone called FSH) to the ovaries to stimulate an egg to grow.

‘In response, the growing follicle produces estrogen and, after ovulation, produces progesterone. This is the hormonal pattern that produces regular periods.

‘The estrogen, along with other hormonal signals from the ovaries (a hormone called inhibin), goes back to the brain and tells it that it no longer needs to produce so much FSH because it has responded appropriately to the signal by making estrogen.’

She continued: ‘In menopause, there are no longer eggs available to grow, and so the ovary no longer makes estrogen in response to the brain’s signals. 

‘In response to the lack of estrogen from the ovaries, the brain continues to produce high levels of FSH. Because the ovaries are no longer making estrogen, estrogen levels are low. 

‘This is the typical hormonal pattern we see in menopause: high FSH and low estrogen.’

Dr. Llarena Falso said that low estrogen is ‘responsible for many of the symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause.’

‘For instance, estrogen is thought to play a role in regulating temperature stability in the body,’ she expressed.

‘Without it, women become more sensitive to small changes in temperature (this is what scientists call a ‘narrowed thermoregulatory zone’), which is one of the reasons women experience hot flashes.’

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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk