The topic of peri-menopause has been coming up with my friends because we are at or around that age. I was curious of the symptoms of peri-menopause which webmd has listed as:

Hot flashes
Breast tenderness
Worse premenstrual syndrome
Lower sex drive
Fatigue
Irregular periods
Vaginal dryness; discomfort during sex
Urine leakage when coughing or sneezing
Urinary urgency (an urgent need to urinate more frequently)
Mood swings
Trouble sleeping

Great, considering about 3/4 of that list are also MS issue I’ve experienced at one time or another, how would I even know? Most doctors make the peri-menopausal diagnosis based on age and symptoms but having MS with that, I would think, might prove not highly accurate. They can do blood tests to check hormone levels. However, hormone levels change normally so multiple tests would need to be done for an accurate diagnosis. Peri-menopause can last years. Then comes another fun one menopause…

According to everyday health https://www.everydayhealth.com/multiple-sclerosis/symptoms/menopause-women-with-ms/  

Although menopause occurs in every woman who lives long enough, very little research has been done on its effects on women with multiple sclerosis (MS). The studies that have been conducted suggest that menopause may be linked to worsened MS symptoms in some women, but larger studies are needed to confirm that association.

Great more fun things to look forward too.  I’m more concerned with hot flashes truthfully because that’s the one side effect I can see really effecting my MS. If I overheat, my symptoms are always worse, wouldn’t that hold true in a hot flash?  I think of my back spasms I talked about in yesterday’s post how I feel this rush of heat going across my back that sometimes paralizes my hands. Can a hot flash paralyze my legs or my body somehow for a split second? I don’t know. I wish there was more information out there. There is a lot of speculation on the web about MS and menopause. You’ll read individual stories. What worked for one person might not work for another. There was a small study on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and MS where people saw an improvement in their symptoms. Once again this was a small study and in th U.K. Which doesn’t help us in the states. https://www.mstrust.org.uk/a-z/menopause

Considering you can’t stop this from happening, Mother Nature is going to take it’s course, I guess I’ll just take it as it comes. I can only hope for the best as I always do dealing with this disease.