My Journey so far........
WTF has happened to my mind and body?
So it all started back in lockdown, I was 45 and was sitting having a wee when suddenly I felt what can only be described as a hot fire rushing from my ankles to my face. I thought what the hell was that? It was boiling outside if you can remember we had that amazing weather which made lockdown slightly easier to digest so part of me thought it was that!
Actually, dare I mention the word digest? I now discovered I was having the most horrendous heartburn and acid reflux, what the hell ???? I have to say I have always been incredibly lucky with my general health and never had any issues that either bothered me or were persistent. Until now.
I used to like a glass of White wine or a cold glass of Cider but that was deffo off the menu as this only made the heartburn worse and acid reflux. I bet you’re wondering why the hell is this a symptom. We all know the first symptom I had was a hot flash that’s the most known and talked about symptom for Peri/Menopause but acid reflux and heartburn? Well, when our oestrogen levels lower over time our stress hormone cortisol levels then rise because Oestrogen is meant to keep Cortisol in check. When Cortisol rises it can then affect the gut and digestive issues. This is me So far
Hot flash
Digestive issues (when my Oestrogen levels decide to drop )
These symptoms gently pushed their way into my life without being invited, and then the worst one showed its ugly head and that was the worst ever. Period pain.
As you know in Perimenopause our hormones fluctuate so when my Oestrogen goes down I suffer from symptom 2. and when my Oestrogen rises I suffer from Heavy and Painful Periods now Symptom 3. Again throughout my life, my periods have never been an issue to me. They have always been regular and I mean to the day, each month. I have never suffered from heavy or painful periods but now wow, I am certainly paying for it. This is me so far
Hot Flash
Digestive Issues due to low Oestrogen
Painful and heavy Periods due to high levels of Oestrogen
My body is now a pain in the ass (not literally). This is when I started to read up about Perimenopause. Could I really be going through such a thing? as it was something I had never been told about? Jesus why the hell aren’t we told about this at school? School is full of learning shitty maths and pointless things, don’t get me wrong there are vital subjects at school that we really do need and that’s Science, English, History, Geography and shitty Maths. We were all taught PE and how to kick a ball and swing a hockey stick but surely there should have been a little topic added to this subject to teach us what happens to our bodies during different stages of our lives. we get taught sex education and what happens when we reproduce, what sex is and how to put a condom on but no one ever told me that when you hit a certain age your hormones go to shit creek wherever that is?
Life skills at school are missing don’t get me started on teaching kids what a Mortgage is etc. that’s another conversation. These are all things that are vital to us throughout our lives and we just don’t get told or taught anything that we will definitely need in life.
Anyway, so you are now thinking there can’t possibly be any more symptoms right? that’s what I thought too. Here we go onto number 4. In Lockdown I was totally into my fitness, I signed up to Own Your Goals, Davina McCall’s online fit club. I did it almost every day not only for fitness and to keep the weight down, because the fat was starting to gather around my tummy and waistline quite a lot , but also for my mind. Being in Lockdown was enough to mess anyone’s head up let alone a perimenopausal head. I was doing weights, cardio and boxing on the app as well as adding a ballet workout to the mix. There I was happily doing it and loving it until I was forced to meet number 4.
The shoulder pain and no it wasn’t an injury. It was muscle aches and pains. I am pretty good at knowing how to do exercises properly, my dad an ex-pro footballer and my Grandad was a trainer at Crystal Palace football club. They either told me about certain exercises or I would sit and watch my dad and take it all in. So I knew this wasn’t any kind of injury again I knew this was another symptom and here’s why?
Remember our hormones are fluctuating.
Oestrogen is a fab lubricant for our joints, so it protects them from Inflammation and pain. As I mentioned before Oestrogen drops and the stress hormone Cortisol rises which then causes tension in areas where we hold stress, for me this is around the shoulders.
Progesterone is the hormone that keeps us calm so a fall in this hormone can also cause muscle tension.
Hot Flash
Digestive Issues
Painful and heavy Periods
Muscle and Joint Pain
There is One more and that’s pretty much it.
Sleepless and not in Seattle ! the type of sleeplessness where it seems like it takes you all night to drop off and once you have to be rudely awakened by your bladder. Desperate for a wee, not once but twice and there has been a third time I recall quite frequently.
During Perimenopause there are a few things that can affect your sleep and mine was the bladder issue always wanting to pee along with a couple of night sweats where I would become soaked through and then wake up freezing. All with the thanks to hormone fluctuation.
So there you have it my famous five.
Hot Flash
Digestive Issues
Painful and heavy Periods
Muscle and Joint Pain
Sleepless.
Was I going to put up with this shit show? was I hell? After reading book after book and gaining as much information as I could I decided to take action and the way I wanted to do it was to replace the hormones that were getting lower and lower in order to stop or help the pesky symptoms. So I chose to give HRT a go. I knew it was going to be trial and error and that there isn’t one that fits all. It’s all about patience and understanding your body and doing the best you can for it.
Before starting HRT I lost my love of exercise, cancelled my subscription and just couldn’t get into it, not only that it hurt my joints and muscles. Instead, I started to watch what I was eating and go on walks. I’ve always been a pretty healthy eater and was a vegan for a good few years. Then decided I wanted to eat fish but never eat Meat. I was desperate to get back to what I enjoyed so after starting HRT I got my mojo back for fitness and have joined back up to Own Your Goals which I really enjoy the fact it makes my body hurt in a good way and is amazing for mental health. It got to the stage where I could feel myself slipping into a hormonal type of depression (not clinical depression). So determined not to let this eat me up I started on Eleste Duet, they didn’t really do much so I thought after taking them for over three months I would try an alternative and that was the Evorel Sequi patches. I used these for a long time. If you don’t know these particular patches contain two weeks’ worth of Oestrogen and then two weeks of Oestrogen and Progesterone and whenever I started the last two weeks of patches with Oestrogen and Progesterone I would feel a complete drop in mood. This is what I meant by Hormonal Depression. I would worry constantly and feel anxious when there was nothing at all to feel anxious. It was hell! It made me cancel things that I really wanted to do, I used to dread it when I was getting to the last two weeks knowing that I had to wear those patches. So again I thought this was not going to get me. I am bigger (quite literally around the belly) and stronger than this and I do not want anything stopping me from doing the stuff that I want to do. When I started the journey of HRT I was in the middle of doing a TV show talk about throwing myself into it. Thank god I pushed myself as I loved every minute of it.
I gave myself another go at trying another way of getting my hormones back and now am trying the Oestrogen Gel and Progesterone tablet. So far so good I think? I now take amazing supplements, eat well (I STILL LOVE CRISPS THOUGH), exercise, read, take cold showers and breathe (properly).
This has been a long blog post but I wanted to share with you my honest experience and let you know we can all go through it. I decided to become a licensed Menopause Champion and paid for the privilege of being taught exactly what happens to us why and how we can help ourselves. I chose to do this and help others. I don’t charge others for my knowledge as I want to help in every way I can because it can really be a shit storm but if you know how to deal with it then it doesn’t have to be. I thought sod it I’m going to offer a totally free membership, where I can give as much information as I can, whilst working full time. I love trying new products that are created to help us on our journey and tell you guys about them. Most of the time I can get you guys a discount code every little helps.
So don’t give up on yourself or others who are going through this, help them and if you feel you want to train like I did then of course drop me a line and I will guide you in the right direction. Keep strong and love yourself
Love Claire x
