What Are Normal Symptoms of Impending Menopause?

I’m just wondering if anyone out there can help me out in determining whether a couple of symptoms I have are related to impending menopause. I’m 46, and I’m having a bit of a hard time of it, but I’m not sure whether it’s worth making an appointment with my ob-gyn.

First of all, I’m finding that I’m retaining water so much more, especially at the mid-point of my cycle and right before my period, but more so of the former. I mean, I get to the point that I’m just popping the diuretics or else drinking extra coffee just to try and get my stomach to go back down. What’s the opposite of incontinence treatment? But while I’m at it, I’ll mention that not only do I have occasional loss of bladder control but occasional slipping of the backside, too.

Secondly, I have a lot more digestive, sleep and skin problems. I can treat all of this myself but I wonder if there’s some hormone therapy or something—maybe soy?—that will just take care of it all instead of my taking so many different OTC things. But what concerns me the most is the random cramping I’m experiencing in my uterus. Of course, I’ll get it all checked out at my yearly pap/physical, but I’d just like to know now if any of this sounds relatively normal.