BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Menopause Menopause & Nausea

I'm currently in peri-menopause. I have experienced nausea similar to morning sickness four times in the past year in the days leading up to the onset of my period.

This past week I had nausea for the four to five days before my period and it was bad enough to interfere with my daily life. I thought I was going to possibly throw up on a few different occasions and had to take some naps as well.

I did a search on "nausea and menopause" and found several threads of women talking about the nausea they were experiencing with their journey through peri-menopause.

I'm wondering if this is happening to anyone else. I know if I get nausea this bad again next month, I'll go see my doctor and see if she has any thoughts of how I can minimize this new symptom.

I do now have a stash of ginger ale & ginger snaps just in case :-)

When I was first starting into menopause, and in peri-menopause, I thought I was pregnant. I had all the symptoms. And believe me, after 4 kids and a couple of miscarriages, I am very familiar with the symptoms. Even the very achy breasts and the same food cravings. But a pregnancy test done at the hospital, where I worked at the time,proved negative. Another nurse told me that it was common to feel like this when in menopause.

Shortly thereafter I developed severe bleeding due to a large uterine fibroid and had to have a hysterectomy....no more nausea but instant, full blown menopause.

Hi Jeanne & Helen,

Thank you both so much for sharing your experiences on this topic. This is one symptom that I had not connected with menopause both from personal experience and in my research.

Waves of nausea after eating foods, or thinking about eating, led me to believe that the foods were to blame. In particular, acidic fruits and veggies seem to trigger nausea, making healthy eating a challenge at times!

This is most definitely going to be addressed in a future article.

With periods becoming more erratic during perimenopause, have either of you noticed that these bouts of nausea occur only around the days leading up to a menstrual period? Or have you experienced nausea at other times?

I have personally found the nausea occurring in the days leading up to my period. Right now my periods are still fairly regular with some of them occurring early or late - but still fairly regular at this time.

This last time the nausea was pretty bad with certain foods and smells definitely making the nausea a lot worse. It really was like being pregnant, except not. The nausea, for me, goes away with the onset of my cycle.

From my reading on the internet, nausea is not generally associated with peri-menopause or menopause according to the medical community. However, if you do a search on "nausea and menopause" you will find threads of posts of women describing the nausea they are having along with the change of life.

I would have to agree, the nausea went away when my period, which was very late, started. The funny thing is, my cycles had shortened to about every 3 weeks, when this happened, so I really did think I was pregnant.

It didn't happen again for me, so I didn't pick up a pattern before my hyster.

Well I've actually been having nausea on and off for the entire month of August. Today, I felt really nauseated & plain old yucky. Since I was out driving around I went through a drive-thru and bought a chocolate shake. For whatever reason that seems to calm things down.

Chocolate always helps!

When I went through menopause, I drank a lot of soy milk, usually in a yogurt and fruit smoothie on most days. The process was pretty painless for me, especially compared to the stories I was hearing from my friends. I had no nausea, painless but erratic periods, and only minor hot flashes and night sweats. And I was working in a hot, steamy commercial kitchen as a chef during that time, too.

The soy milk was the only real difference between my friends' general lifestyles and mine. My friends weren't interested in trying it because it tastes funny and can cause gas but that passes once the body adjusts to it, as it does to any newly introduced foods. Soy contains some naturally occurring estrogen-like compounds that are said to alleviate some of the symptoms.

I also used soy milk instead of dairy milk for hot and cold breakfast cereals and as a milk substitute when cooking things. I'm lactose intolerant so the soy and the yogurt provide nutrients I'd miss from dairy milk.

It's been several years now since the process was complete and I feel healthier now than ever! I don't drink soy milk anymore, though, for some reason. Hm?