I know exactly how you feel this started happening when i was 23 at first I thought I was pregnant for the first time. Then all those symtoms happened to me I am now nearly 7 months without a period. Its slowly getting longer between periods and they are getting lighter. I get so frustrated with having to wait to know I am now 28 and have only been 7 months without a priod so far. I have been tested and told there is nothing wrong its just stress it would be nice to finaly know what is going on.
What you are experiencing sounds very usual. In the time around menopause, it is common to feel bloated, have PMS symptoms, breast tenderness and the other things you are experiencing. It happens because your FSH is trying to make your ovary mature an egg and have it ovulate. The ovary starts to develop several eggs due to the high FSH level, but usually none actually fully mature or ovulate. So there isn't any progesterone. The estrogen causes the uterine lining to build up and eventually it is so thick it 'breaks through' and sheds partially. This can be heavy. Without the progesterone, there is never the release from the PMS or a completed shedding of the uterine lining. The heavy period is the buildup of all those 6 months of estrogen only.
Do be diagnosed with menopause, you will have to wait a year from that last period, not 6 months. In the meantime, women often experience the symptoms you are describing. You can talk with your doctor about taking progesterone every month or two or even less often. This will cause the lining to shed and relieve some of the symptoms. Eventually, the progesterone will not work because your body will not make enough estrogen for either your symptoms or your lining to shed. You can also take an estrogen progesterone combination to help. Be sure to take a multivitamin. If the bleeding continues, your doctor might want to check the uterine lining with an endometrial biopsy to be sure there is no abnormal build up of the tissue there. All of this might go on for a year or even longer.
Machelle Seibel, MD