Hi, thanks for the info. I have been reading a lot about menopause and the advantages and disadvantes of HRT over the last few months.
About a year ago, I got two periods a month for about three or four months and then they went back to normal, they have been fairly regular until the last few months when my cycles have slowly started to increase to 28-33 days instead of 21-28 day. (I use an app to minitor) I have a very clear cycle at the moment. When bleeding stops I have a few symptom free days - 3 days to a week, then I have a "phantom period", bloating, cramps etc, this can last up to a week, then I go into my two week "PMT" cycle - depression, anger, irritablity, mood swings, headaches (although I think these may be eyesight related - I need a test), brain fog, memory loss, fatigue, overheating, itching, emotions all over the place, then my period which can range from really heavy to really light.
Sometimes it is worse than others, but eating a clean diet, exercising and having reducing the stress factors in my life help massively.
I had three months off work with what I believed was stress from November through January (stress was a factor but it was actually peri-meno). Once I had slept for three days I got up and cleaned up my diet and got back to a regular exercise routine, I immediately began to feel better, then I went away for a week and once I got back I slipped into old habits and my symptoms came back. This lasted until January when I once again, cleaned up my diet and got back to regular exercise, by the end of the month I felt amazing, back to my "normal" self and how I used to feel before this all started. I slowly went back to work on a phased return, as my shifts got longer my ability to eat clean and exercise lapsed and obviously stress increased. My symptoms slowly returned and increased as I tried different things to try and juggle work and life. I found my way in April, and have much improved. Stress is still a massive factor, and my emotions have been all over the place, but in a managable way. The mood swings have gone, the anger, irritabilty etc have all gone. I'm just crying all over the place. And as a person who is normally very emotionally repressed, this is weird for me to deal with, but I can live with it as a compromise.
I know that symptoms can fluctuate, but I also know how I have been feeling over the last 18 to 24 months and what has changed. There is a clear link between what I eat and how I exercise to what my symptoms will be. Eating sugar, refined carbs or processed food will lead to a worsening of my symptoms the next day, continuing to eat this way will make them worse to the point of unbearable, for me and all around me. Exercise will relieve symptoms immediately and if I don't exercise for a couple of days I can really tell the difference . I am still in the early stages of trying to find that balance between work, life, convenience, diet, exercise and being social. For the most part I have it down, but life likes to throw us curveballs every now and then. I have 13 hour working days including travel, so it's quite difficult to fit a lot of life in at the best of times, but I am figuring it outI do ensure that I get one complete rest day in my working week (today is that day
). I am listening to my body and monitoring my habits and symptoms very closely.
I haven't ruled out HRT completely and my doctor and I have agreed that it will be prescribed as an abosolute last resort only. At the moment, the risks very much outweight the benefits to me, especially if I can find a way of getting through this without medication, and that is what I want to do if I can.