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[diva]

I am starting to wonder.....
I couldn't face work again today. I just cannot cope with things I used to take in my stride. I am snapping at people and intolerant. As I am in a managerial position, it is is not fair on them and I am seriously beginning to doubt my ability to do my job anymore.

Can the menopause feel like depression? Can it just bring on depression? I am afraid that hiding at home could become a habit and I will lose the confidence to go out and get on with life.

Has anyone else felt like this?

[CLKD]

Yes, yes and yes.  Ask your GP to sign you off for 2 weeks and have a discussion about whether you require HRT (sorry if you have posted about this somewhere else  ). 

Some ladies have had to re-consider their work situation.  Is there someone above you with whom you could talk?

[diva]

I am the boss, which makes this all even more difficult, there is nobody to give me permission to just take time. I am also afraid that they can all see I am not coping right now.

I have GP app on Thursday and going to ask about HRT. Hoping that it will make things feel better.

[CLKD]

Have a browse round the menus, top of screen.  Make notes.  Make notes about your cycle for the last 6/8 months ….. also keeping a food/mood diary can help too.

ADs are often the cheapest and quickest way for GPs to treat ladies  .  If you have a history of depression you may find that a course 8-12 months may lift the cloud, enabling you to see the wood for the trees.  However, if you feel this is totally hormone related, then taking a list of what you think will suit you may give you the advantage!

Let us know how you get on.  If you are the Boss, do you have a PA you could take on-side?

[CLKD]

   I see now that I have responded in your original thread - so has Hurdity, she is a font of knowledge and you may find that re-reading her reply will give you ideas as to what you may require 

[dazned]

Hi I too would get signed off to give you some breathing space to decide which course of action you wish to take. Even if you decide on the hrt route this is very trial and error and can take a couple of months to see any great improvement ! Maybe a low dose AD along side this would help you through until you settle as you have a senior role to fullfill at work. Unfortunately  Hrt isn't to quick fix ,if only ! Hope you find some answers with a good gps support.

[diva]

Yes, I do have an Office Manager, but I am finding it difficult to talk to anyone outside of this forum about this.

It feels like every other woman on earth has sailed through this - nobody mentions it. Then I find this place and it is clear I am not alone.

Strange, all my life I have talked with other women about periods, childbirth, sex, weight, all kinds of things. But when it comes to menopause there seems to be a wall of silence.

I am not sure she would understand, so have said nothing - just keep telling them I have a virus or something.

 I am going to manage my diary to give me some half days and shut myself in my office as much as possible until things start to improve. I have a week off coming up in a couple of weeks, if I can make it until then, I will be able to sleep for a week.  I am afraid of AD, don't want to become dependent.

Crikey - you must all think I do nothing but moan - and I really am a glass half full person - believe it or not!!!

[dazned]

I was adamant about Ad too but sometimes needs must !  As I said hrt wont just make things disappear overnight and you might find you have to get a referral to a gynecologist or meno clinic first if your gp isnt supportive of hrt if this is what you chose. All Im saying is dont dissmiss them out of hand be open about any option of solutions,I dismissed them and wasted 8 months of my life ! I now take hrt and low dose AD and many women on here benefit from both ,whatever it takes ! 

[babyjane]

Hi, it is my opinion that menopause causes a kind of depresion, not full blown clinical depression but the hormonal kind caused by fluctuating and dropping oestrogen making it impossible to stay emotionally stable.

There is nothing wrong with ADs, I tried quite a few but I couldn't tolerate them. I, personally, have found that St John's Wort has helped me but that also is not suitable for everyone.

I do hope you can find a solution that helps you to function because it can be a miserable time otherwise, good luck 

[GypsyRoseLee]

I suddenly started feeling horribly depressed and anxious just over a year ago. It came out of nowhere and for no reason.

I had suffered from depression a long time but this felt very different. More intense and frightening. My GP insisted I took ADs. But they just made me feel spaced out and my low mood and anxiety kept breaking through each month for 10 days or so.

It took another GP to make the connection between my depressive episodes and my cycle. As he correctly pointed out ADs don't stop and start working each month.

He referred me to a specialist who confirmed my depression and anxiety were being caused by low oestrigen which was also fluctuating all the time. I didn't realise but oestrogen is responsible for our feeling of 'well being'. It also affects serotonin which is responsible for our feelings of happiness etc.

I have been taking HRT for 5 weeks and I already feel so much better. I wish I had been correctly diagnosed a year ago, and been spared a year of misery.

[SallyG]

Dear Diva

I so identify with what you have posted. I suddenly started feeling "weird" this time last year. Tingly and shaky of limbs and cross and snappy. I had a couple of meltdowns at work and then started to feel depressed in August. By this time I had approached both line managers to tell them I was experiencing increasing "low mood". I had a feeling that this was the menopause - and I had to convince my GP, but she was pretty supportive. She just didn't know anything about HRT.
I too felt the same about AD's but they are incredibly helpful at this time. I am on a low dose and it has been very helpful and I have become much more open minded about them. A lot of people need them who through no fault of their own have a chemical imbalance. They have come on a long way and there are different ones to try. Don't close your mind to them please. HRT has really helped me so much. I would not be without it. I wish I had known all about it a year ago. Like Gypsy Rose lee I have spent a year trying to sort it all out - I let myself feel rubbish for months, thinking I could bull doze my way through. And I ended up a complete mess in a heap. Don't hang around. Get help now and save yourself time and pain. Embrace every tool you need to feel good again.

HUg
Sally

[diva]

Thanks Sally,
that means a lot and makes good sense. I am just counting days to my appointment on Thursday and hoping I can get something sorted.

Told work I will not be in until later in the week. My job is so stressful and full on I really would be no good to anyone like this.

Thanks for all your support everyone
xx

[CLKD]

Take care of you!

Also modern anti-depressant medication is non-addictive.  Some do need a weaning off period - I had 1 and it took 9 weeks of gradual reducing to ease it out of my system slowly. 

You are very welcome and hopefully you don't feel so alone?  Let us know how you get on!

[Annie0710]

Diva

Your post was exactly what I could've written 3 years when peri literally hit me suddenly

Life was good (well apart from losing my dad suddenly 3 months prior) but I had a then 2 year extremely happy relationship (now 5 years), job was great, I was always being praised.  Great social life.  Healthy kids and grandchildren

One afternoon at work I came over 'strange' couldn't concentrate, well that afternoon I actually couldn't understand my job! I panicked , waves of feeling faint, nausea, pain repeatedly swept over me

I started to dread the job I loved, I'd feel faint during the 45 min trip to work and a couple of times I stopped in lay-bys to call my boss that I couldn't come in.  I was the only female there so had no one to talk to, no mum ,no sister.

It was a few months later I was diagnosed as peri, and I admitted defeat and left my job and stayed home 'to heal' gp wouldn't entertain any more hrt and said there was nothing they could do. I was desperately unhappy and distanced myself from everyone, even family.

Somehow and definitely not quickly , I have readjusted (accepted even maybe?) and those feelings I had , although not gone, have been replaced with more physical symptoms

I think testing and taking time out is ehat I needed, to have continued pushing myself back then, well, I dread to think what could've happened

I didn't know about these forums and I certainly didn't know to push for treatment

But I do now and I'm determined to get well again

Annie

[SallyG]

Dear Annie,
sounds very similar to me. You have to do what it takes to heal. I have to keep reminding myself that it is menopause, not madness I am going into. Why oh why don't people know more about it?
Look after yourself

Big hug
Sally