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[ali 61]

Hi again. I'm quite new on here, so apologies if you have all heard this before...but can anybody tell me if this is normal?
I am Post-menopausal. 57 years old..I have lots of symptoms ie  Flushes, sweats, anxiety, insomnia, stomach issues etc.
But I would really like some help/advice as to what you all do about the Fatigue?

I manage about an hour out of bed and then literally feel as if I will fall asleep standing up.
I walk my dog for 20 mins and then need to lay down.
I have Zero energy at all. I feel like I'm wading through treacle. Even putting the kettle on is a big-deal!

Has anybody found anything at all that actually helps? I am now putting off doing everything. I am cancelling going anywhere and just about manage the supermarket, quickly, once a week. It's becoming ridiculous.
My head feels "foggy" too.

Any suggestions as to anything that helps would be wonderful.
Ali xx

[Dotty]

Fatigue and total exhaustion were my main menopausal symptoms. I literally had no energy at all and couldn't do anything ! HRT sorted it out x

[AG]

Hi,

I was completely surprised by the fatigue and exhaustion I have been getting at times mainly this year very clearly in later peri stage for me. I sometimes have had to lay down after walking back from work. I did get comprehensive blood check about a year ago as I thought iron levels or something else was off but all seemed fine. Now, this year it has become very clear that it is peri related. One thing that may be worth checking if you have not had that done is check (e.g. blood test) for thyroid function, iron levels and vitamin D levels also. Thyroid underfunction can apparently cause similar symptoms.
I hope things will be improving for you and all the best, Anna

[Annie0710]

I was like you.  I spent more time asleep on the sofa than doing anything else.  Testosterone was my missing link.  Oestrogen will help your flushes x

[Dotty]

Ali61 - same here. I had every blood test under the sun and they all said I was very healthy! But I was very ill and felt dreadful. X

[SueLW]

Thyroid needs a better look.  Ask your surgery for a print out of you last thyroid test, with reference ranges, and tell them you will drop in to pick it up.  Don't have it read over the phone.

Come back on here and grab my attention so that I can look at your results for you.  GP's are almost criminally negligent where hypothyroidism is concerned these days.  If you scrape into the reference range you are apparently "fine".  However your set-point might be a lot further up the range resulting in you being ill.

Hypothyroid and menopause symptoms overlap a LOT.

At this stage eliminating things properly is important.  Vitamin D levels should be at least 100, closer to 150.  Ferritin needs to be around 80.  You also need good levels of folate and iron for your own thyroid to work properly so if there are any issues these vitamins and minerals need optimising.  Also B12 needs to be over 500.  The reference range for "fine" B12 is huge and very much not fine towards the bottom.

Hope that helps.

[FoggyMoggy]

There are also a lot of other conditions with fatigue and exhaustion that can get conflated with menopause - fibromyalgia, ME, lupus, POTS, Sjrogrens, UAT, to name a few and don't let anyone tell you that these conditions don't exist and are really some other condition, these are very real conditions. Yes by all means get all the others things ruled out first but it is very difficult when you have other conditions on top of menopause.   

[Tiddles]

Sounds really awul Ali.  I hope some of the brilliant responses above will help you get to the bottom of it.  Are you getting good quality sleep at night?  Or are the menopausal symptoms keeping you awake?  Have you considered HRT?  HRT has fully restored night time sleep to me.  One other thing I've done is switch to on line shopping / home delivery.  Sounds trivial but dragging myself round the supermarket, packing and lugging bags, unpacking at home and putting stuff away turned into a massive challenge for me and on line shopping with home delivery has made it manageable. Hope things improve for you x

[Hurdity]

Tiddles! You've disappeared! Hopefully you have only deleted your account by mistake (easily done) as I can't see anything obvously amiss with the posts, but do hope you are OK and will rejoin? If not please take care and all the best

Hurdity x

[CLKD]

I had your symptoms 18 month's ago.  It was due to low VitD levels.  A course of capsules perked me up!  Make sure that the recent blood tests covered VitD!

[CLKD]

Start the H&B VitD.  It won't do any harm.

Also, what digestive 'issues' do you have - we have several threads about those too! 

[Annie0710]

I think 5000 whatever-the-unit-is is a strong one x