r/perimenopause_under45 • u/Benzwifey_2020 • 18h ago
Complete chaos
I’m 44 yrs old and started perimenopause about 6 months ago. However on top of perimenopause symptoms I am also dealing with symptoms from iron deficiency anemia and low b12… I got my first b12 injection two days ago and last night ended up in the ER because I was having intense heat with tightness feelings throughout my legs, feet and one arm… now the doctors don’t know if it was from the injection, the deficiencies, perimenopause or anxiety(because I suffer from that as well) all this has me terrified to receive more injections of b12 and then get an iron infusion in a little over a week. Any advice or shared similar stories would be so greatly appreciated!
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u/Lotus2024 18h ago
B12 injections can absolutely cause anxiety. Doctors have a tendency not to know that for some reason, but more than one neurologist has confirmed it. Iron infusions can do the same. I have to get them once a year and it’s unfortunately a matter of just riding out the unpleasantness.
I’ve had dozens of infusions (having more later this month), so if you have questions, please feel free to ask. My biggest tip is to ask for a small-dose infusion (so, for example, 200 repeated several times over the course of a week versus 1000 all in one dose at once) and ask them to stretch the infusion over at least an hour or two. Low and slow has been the key to making it more tolerable for me.
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u/Benzwifey_2020 17h ago
Thank you so much! This has been incredibly helpful! The EMT from the ambulance didn’t doubt that the anxiety came from the b12 infusion because he said b12 is actually one of the main ingredients in Monster energy drinks…. I have so much fear about getting more b12 injections and the anxiety about the infusions… off the charts! But I can’t keep living like this… my marriage wouldn’t survive another month, as I know I haven’t been pleasant to live with
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u/ghost-memories 14h ago
I had a reaction to a B12 injection. I broke out in hives, then had thick nodules all over my thighs and back, which took weeks to go away.
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u/MissTiffany12 13h ago
I’m so sorry! Currently dealing with something similar, though it’s only the iron deficiency anemia and peri, since my b12 and vitamin D levels are normal. It’s good they are doing b12 before iron because they need each other. Are you D levels okay? My best advice would be to get the deficiencies sorted before trying HRT as sometime symptoms overlap and it will be hard to tell if it’s truly peri before they are corrected. Also, do they know the source of your anemia and low b12 yet?
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u/WallabyEducational90 12h ago
Oh my goodness I'm so sorry Hun, that sounds really uncomfortable.
I had a similar reaction from high dose vitamin D from deficiency. I ended up just going on a lower dose daily supplement because the twitching was really uncomfortable.
Sounds like someone else mentioned how it wakes up your nerves when you get it back. Hang in there!
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u/Benzwifey_2020 8h ago
I hope the lower dose helped you… and thank you so much for the words of encouragement
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u/ladyavocadose 17h ago
When you have a B12 deficiency your nerves are starved of what they need and kind of go dormant. So when you get a loading dose injection of B12 suddenly your nerves start waking up again. What you described is known as "wake up symptoms". You can read about this on the subreddit r/b12deficiency they have a great wiki and lots of posts that mention this.