30+ Perimenopause Symptoms: Early Signs You Might Be in Perimenopause

If you’ve been searching “What are the first signs of perimenopause?”, “Could I be in perimenopause in my 30s?” or simply wondering “I don’t feel like myself. What is going on?”, then this episode is for you. “I thought it was just me.” That’s the message I get every time I talk about the perimenopause symptoms I noticed when I entered perimenopause at 38. I speak into 30 signs of perimenopause, from my own body and from the women I work with: bloating, cycles changes, waking at 2am reliving old memories, forgetting words, heel pain, sore breasts, libido changes and many other perimenopause symptoms you might have not heard about before.

You are not crazy and you are not alone in this!

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"I believe the more we expand our capacity for pleasure, and the more we care for our body, the more deeply in love with ourselves and life we can feel."

I’m Patricia, Pleasurelit Perimenopause Educator & Coach, award-winner & certified

After growing up as the good girl, becoming a high achiever and later leaving a DV marriage, I became fascinated by what helps us fall in love with ourselves and life. I have explored hundreds of somatic practices and pleasure tools, alongside more than 20 certifications and years of study across health, nutrition, fitness, somatic pleasure & sex, tantra, yoga, and breathwork. I have entered perimenopause myself at 38, which has deepened my understanding of what it means to prioritise your health and pleasure when your body and life changes.

Through my programs, courses, coaching and community club, I help you build a healthy and pleasurable relationship with your body, so you can feel deliciously in love with yourself and life, especially during perimenopause and at times of disconnection.

I’m the founder of Pleasurelit®, bestselling author of The Pleasurelit Way, and host of the Pleasurelit Perimenopause Show, a top 5% globally ranked podcast.

Somatic Sex Coach • Perimenopause • Tantra Practitioner • Advanced Nutrition & Health Coach • Personal & Master Fitness Trainer • Breathwork Facilitator • Yoga Teacher • Former Nurse • Trauma Informed

When I started talking openly about the perimenopause symptoms I noticed at 38, my inbox filled up. Woman after woman wrote some version of the same line: “Oh my god, I thought it was just me.”

I had no idea how many early signs of perimenopause there were. I only worked it out once something felt off, and I started writing every strange change down. Then I did my research. Then a doctor confirmed it. I was genuinely shocked that nobody had told me any of this. I wasn’t prepared!

Perimenopause affects our whole body. It reaches well beyond our reproductive organs, which is why the list of symptoms keeps growing the more women I speak with. Below are signs I have experienced myself, alongside the most common ones from women I have supported. They are in no particular order.

As you read, notice which ones make you go that’s me.

What is perimenopause?

Perimenopause is the transition phase before menopause, when your hormones start to fluctuate and shift. For many women it begins in their 40s. For some, like me, it starts in their late 30s. It can last for years.

Around 8 in 10 women experience some kind of symptom(s) during this time.

Early signs of perimenopause in our body and belly

1. Bloating
Out of nowhere I looked seven months pregnant. All day, every day. Same training, same food, same movement.

2. Weight gain around the belly
Along with the bloat came belly fat I couldn’t explain. A little swimming ring around my middle that simply appeared.

3. Pimples and breakouts
I started getting more pimples at certain points in my cycle, like my skin had gone back to being fifteen.

4. Body odour changes
Some women suddenly start noticing their own smell. It reminds me of puberty. Perimenopause really is our second puberty, with hormones running a bit wild again. Midlife Puberty

5. Heel pain
I love walking. Suddenly my heels were so tender I was rolling a ball under my feet every evening just to ease them.

6. Joint and muscle aches
Knees that hurt and achy muscles without any change in what we are doing.

7. Frozen shoulder
Some women in perimenopause develop stiffness or frozen shoulder seemingly out of nowhere.

8. Slower recovery from exercise
I love weightlifting and usually bounce back fast. My recovery slowed right down and I felt extra sore for days, so I had to adjust.

9. Hair thinning
Your hair may start to feel finer or you notice more of it in your hair brush.

Perimenopause symptoms in our cycle

10. More intense ovulation
My ovulation became impossible to ignore. I could feel pain on my left ovary.

11. More cervical mucus
The pain synced up with a big increase in mucus around ovulation.

12. Shorter cycles
My cycle went from 28 days down to 26, then 24, 22, and 21. Each period came around faster than the one before.

13. Heavier periods
Faster and heavier. The whole bleed felt more intense.

14. Tender, swollen breasts
Leading up to my period my breasts became so swollen. It felt like I was breastfeeding again. Rounder, fuller, bigger, perkier but also painful to bump with my arm, like I would have gone hours without feeding.

Perimenopause symptoms in our mood and mind

15. Mood swings
Wild shifts within a single day. Up in the morning, down and up and down again by lunch. Far more intense than my usual cycle seasons.

16. Anxiety, new or returning
If you have had anxiety before, it might come back. For some women it shows up for the very first time.

17. Worrying about specific things
I started to dislike driving on busy motorways at peak hour. Multiple lanes, stressed drivers, my body saying no thank you. I would take the bus or drive earlier just to avoid it. It wasn’t like that before.

18. Loss of confidence
Questioning everything. Was that the right decision? Am I a good mum? Should I have said that differently?

19. Overthinking and rumination
A running brain that won’t switch off. Especially at night time.

20. Feeling more emotional and sensitive
I can’t watch horror anymore, my heart races and I just don’t want to see it. And a beautiful romantic scene? I start crying.

21. Not feeling like yourself
This was a big one for me. I was acutally fianlly in a great place after years of healing, great work life balance, and then all out of the sudden these changes. I didn’t feel like myself. I knew something was up.

22. Flat, neutral days
I’m usually bubbly. Suddenly I had days that felt flat. Not depressed, just flat.

23. Rage and lower tolerance
Some women feel a surge of rage. They stop caring what anyone thinks, set boundaries, and stop people pleasing overnight.

24. More people pleasing
Other women go the opposite way and people please even more, because they simply don’t have the energy for drama.

25. Pulling back and isolating
Some women go inward. Showing up less on social media, or feeling anxious about leaving the house.

26. A desire for big change
For me it was a deep pull toward nature, homegrown food, low tox living, fresh crisp air, and even moving countries. Other women feel an urge to change careers, rebrand, leave a marriage, or take up something completely new. People call it a midlife crisis. I would call it your hormones asking you what you actually want.

Perimenopause brain fog and memory changes

27. Brain fog and forgetfulness
I have always had an almost photographic memory. I would shop without a list and remember everything. Then I started coming home forgetting a couple things. My daughter looked at me and said: “Mum, you usually don’t forget things.”

28. Forgetting words
I’m German and I speak German with my family back home. Suddenly I was hunting for German words mid-conversation.

29. Swapping names
I used to wonder why my grandparents called me by my sister’s name. Then my mum started doing it too. Recently, I did it too.

Sleep and perimenopause

30. Waking at 2am
I love sleep. Vivid dreams, falling asleep easily, getting my 8 hours in and feeling great. Then I started waking at 2am, reliving old memories for absolutely no reason, and I couldn’t get back to sleep.

Perimenopause, libido and sexual changes

31. A libido spike
Around ovulation my desire went through the roof. I couldn’t stop thinking about pleasure, and I was dripping wet. I was already in tune with my cycle, and this was a whole new level.

32. Low libido or no libido
For other women desire goes quiet or disappears. That makes sense when you look at the whole picture. If you are bloated, not sleeping, overthinking and feeling low, of course desire takes a back seat. It did for me then too.

33. Orgasm changes
Some women get right to the edge and can’t go over. Others still orgasm and it feels fleeting. There, then gone, without the nourishment it used to bring.

34. Vaginal dryness
Your vulva has oestrogen receptors. As hormones change, the tissue can dry out.

35. Painful sex
Dryness and tissue changes can make sex uncomfortable or painful, which can quietly dampen desire and intimacy.

36. Frequent urination
These changes can reach your urethra and pelvic floor too. Peeing before you leave the house, then again when you arrive, then again. Getting up multiple times a night.

37. Leaking
Bladder leaks can start here as well, which is why pelvic floor care matters so much in perimenopause.

Other unusual perimenopause symptoms

38. Itchy ears and itchy skin
Some women describe an itch deep inside their ear. I haven’t had that one, though I did get a dry, itchy scalp. I even checked for head lice. Nope.

39. Crawling skin
Some women feel a tingling, like ants crawling across the skin. It has a name, formication.

40. Smell sensitivity and phantom smells
Some women smell burning or smoke that isn’t there. For me, strong perfumes and deodorants became unbearable. My daughter sprayed something two rooms away and I instantly got a headache. She couldn’t believe I had picked it up.

41. Alcohol hitting differently
One glass of wine now can knock me out. For some women it brings anxiety, heart racing, and a grey heavy mood the next day. Many women stop drinking altogether in perimenopause. Others notice they are drinking more to quiet an overthinking mind and to cope with what’s happening.

42. More headaches and migraines
I used to get a migraine maybe once a year. Then I had several months in a row.

43. Heart palpitations
These can be a perimenopause symptom. Please get them checked, because palpitations can also point to other things that need medical attention. All of the symptoms deserve a medical professional check.

44. Hot flushes (hot flashes)
The symptom everyone knows about. I haven’t had them yet, as they tend to show up more in later perimenopause. And as you can see from this list, they are only one of many.

How do I know if I’m in perimenopause?

Many of these symptoms overlap with other health conditions. Start tracking what you notice and when. Then take your notes to a medical professional and get checked. This post is for education and information. It isn’t medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. You know your body best. If something feels off and you aren’t getting the support you need, keep going until you find someone who listens.

You don’t have to push through perimenopause

This is exactly why I created Pleasurelit Perimenopause. Everything on this list is connected. The poor sleep feeds the low mood, the low mood quietens desire, and the dryness makes intimacy feel like one more thing to get through. So I look at your whole body. My work draws on somatic sex coaching, nutrition, fitness, women’s health, breathwork, yoga and tantra, so we can build a real plan for how you move through perimenopause. Your self-care and self-love practices are non-negotiable now. Making your health and pleasure a priority is how you come home to your body, and the more deeply you connect with and care for your body, the more pleasure and aliveness you can feel through this season.

If this list sparked something in you:

Join the Pleasurelit Perimenopause Club

Get the Pleasurelit Perimenopause Ebook

Join The Pleasurelit Perimenopause Program

Apply for 1:1 Pleasurelit Perimenopause Coaching

With love & pleasure,
Pleasurelit Patricia

Award-Winning & Certified, Pleasurelit Perimenopause Educator & Coach

*Disclaimer: Please listen to your body and honour your own needs while engaging with these practices and conversations. Not every practice is suitable for every person, every body or every season of life. This content is shared for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological or therapeutic advice.

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Award Winning & Certified Pleasurelit Perimenopause Educator & Coach