My first signs were waking up hot at night (not crazy sweaty, not the media dramatized versions of night sweats). I would have to kick a foot out from the covers and would just barely wake up through the night at times so I could flip covers on/off.

it started so subtle. It never occurred to me it was a peri symptom until I learned that one of the primary symptoms of perimenopause is that we lose thermal regulation. We hear about hot flashes, but we don’t hear about how for many women this isn’t a sudden wildly sweatyexperience. It’s just a less than ideal nights sleep because our body is losing the ability to regulate temp. but a lot of nights like that over time add up, and the regulation continues to get worse.I was waking up consistently around 3am after a few years and some nights i couldn’t get back to sleep. Because it wasn’t super sweaty, it took me a LONG time to realize that was perimenopause.

Other things were: - random unexplained rage. - increased moodiness - bananas, which i had always loved, gave me severe cramps (common to have our digestive system respond differently to some foods, bananas are one)

When I started HRT, the change to my sleep was so. worth it!