What's the deal with perimenopause?

I did not choose to have any children until I was nearing the category "advanced maternal age" - read....old mom. I was almost 35 when I gave birth to twins (without the advanatage of fertility treatments) and then to my shock, I found myself pregnant again 13 months later. Within 21 months, I gave birth to 3 children by c-section. I then chose to have a tubal ligation.

Shortly thereafter, I began having problems with my menstrual cycle. Suddenly after years of being able to set my watch by when my period would come (28 days every month - arriving at 6am), I would sometimes go 45 days, 22 days, 37 days, 18 days. It had become totally irregular. I also experienced painful ovulation called "mittleschmerz disorder" and menstruation that was much heavier and much more painful than even when I was a teenager. The worst part was that I developed polycystic acne. This is much worse than "pimples". This is the type of acne where hard bumps form far beneath the skin. They are very painful, cannot be removed and last for months before going away - often leaving behind a scar. Great....my doctor said there was nothing wrong. My sister in law said it was because I had a tubal....huh? The last straw was when I actually had a hot flash.

I started doing some research after reading about bioidentical hormones from both Suzanne Somer's book and Robin McGraw's book. I learned a lot - it turns out that the main problem is that I am 40...really?

The main sex hormones: Progesterone, Estrogen and Testosterone exist in a balance and when one of them is deficient - the others can become "over expressed". This may result in symptoms of perimenopause.

Bioidentical hormone treatment is all the rage in Hollywood. Unfortunately, I was a stay at home mom and did not live in California nor did I have the financial resources to have my blood, sweat, saliva and other body fluids tested and treated with prescriptions specifically compounded for me. So I did a bunch of research and decided to take a risk and try natural progesterone cream from the health food store. My theory was that I could either get better, get worse or nothing would change.

At first I used 1/2 teaspoon as recommended - that turned out to be too much as I started feeling a little pregnant. I cut the dosage to 1/4 teaspoon rubbed on my inner arm or stomach each day for the 2nd half of my cycle (14 days after I start my period). I do this daily for 14 days of each month. It has been a miracle for me. My painful ovulation stopped, my periods are "normal" for me again, I don't get the acne and I haven't had anymore hot flashes. Really!