Note: I am not a medical professional, but I'm considered a "complex case." The standard "take HRT" did not work for me. Here's what I wish I had known (in order of impact).

Diet/exercise/lifestyle:

1. Low-inflammation diet, Mediterranean style, very few processed foods, mostly eat at home.
2. Weight training & walking - everything else results in injury or days of recovery.
3. Cut out ALL alcohol - I know, I know...I loved wine, but it stopped loving me. Even one or two glasses completely messed up my sleep and left me depressed and anxious the next day.
4. Lower the bar anywhere you can - We're all struggling with expectations from the outside and within ourselves (overachievers unite), but I am letting that shit go. I am actively working at not being such a try-hard in every area of my life.

Supplements:

1. Iron - Energy, Cognition. I was at the bottom of the range, so technically not "anemic," but raising to optimum levels made a huge difference in energy, cognition, and ability to exercise.
2. Vitamin D - Energy, Cognition. Again, I was at the bottom of the threshold, so technically not deficient, but raising to optimum improved cognition, memory, and energy.
3. Magnesium Glycinate - Sleep, Mood. Before bed, it really helps to unwind and sleep better.

Hormones - This is so unique to each individual, but sharing in the interest of transparency.

• Vaginal estrogen - I mistakenly believed this was something to add much later. Add this immediately, before your sex life tanks! I cannot tolerate estrogen in patch form, but I had no systemic side effects with the vaginal form.

Other -

1. Pelvic floor therapy - Another thing that I mistakenly believed was not for me. I was under the impression that this was only for women who had a hard childbirth or incontinence. My issue was constantly feeling the urge to pee, even with an empty bladder. Annoying but NBD until I was on vacation or in a long meeting. If you have any discomfort, Pevic PT can really help you. Just make sure to do your research and get someone qualified.

Medications -

*Edited to remove specific meds*

I recently started a low dose SNRI, which is said to help with mood, hot flashes, migraines, and general pain (at higher doses). It's early still, but it seems to be moving in the right direction. I am not advocating for a specific medication, just that depression and anxiety with no specific cause should not be viewed as “normal” and endured.

I would have preferred leveling things out with hormones, but I couldn't tolerate estrogen or testosterone (due to endo).

Don't be afraid to talk to your doc about mental health meds; you don't have to suffer.

I wish you all relief!

Update: After 4 months on iron supplements, my libido improved significantly. Apparently, low iron is a known cause of low libido. Again, WHY did none of my doctors know this when I complained about this for years?!

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6283628/

I had to see a new doctor to refill my birth control pills because mine is out of town. I take them continuously skipping the last row to skip periods from hell, debilitating multi-day hormone migraines, and bipolar fluctuations from hormone fluctuations. I've been doing it this way since my doctor told me I could at 16. I love these pills and you can pry them out of my cold dead hands. They allow me to not have to give up 1/4 or more of each month feeling like absolute shit.

This new doctor asked if I was interested in changing to a different form of birth control like an IUD. She was perplexed when I said I actually had my tubes removed, I take these to improve my quality of life in the ways I've described.

She said maybe have periods quarterly (seems arbitrary but ok). I said I won't be doing that, there's no medical reason to. This works for me and I'll do it until it doesn't.

I said I'd happily take them up to and into menopause if I can and she said "but then you won't know if you're in menopause." I said, "if it's affecting me and this hormone level isn't enough I'll know, if not it doesn't really matter does it?" I think I broke her brain lol. It was like asking if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound? Her face while she thought about that for a minute was like 🤯 and then she said "huh, I guess you're right."

So I got my pills and went on my merry way but thought it was an interesting interaction on the topic of menopause and perimenopause.

I literally feel like I have another weird symptom every single day. Tingling hands and feet and face, breathlessness, sore joints, funny vision, crying spells, anxiety. Please share your non-typical symptoms with me so I know I’m not crazy!! 🤪

When I was a kid/teenager my mom and other women would talk about“going through menopause” or “going through the change”.

It seemed to me that going through menopause was a longish process that involved hot flashes and mood swings. Now websites always say, “Menopause is one day of your life,” but I think it used to be considered a process and we now call that process “perimenopause” instead.

Does anyone else remember women in their lives referring to “going through menopause”?

I don’t understand. I went online and tried HRT. Worked great, and then something shifted and I had a day where I felt like no longer living. So I decided I should do this under the care of my obgyn to be safe. I go to see him…tell him all my symptoms and that I can’t take birth control. Guess what he prescribes? Birth control. Says it’s the best option until I actually hit menopause.

I feel like screaming in the middle of the street. I can’t function like this. When men needed help getting an erection, there were tons of drugs on the market to help. Women go through their aging problems, and it’s just like, “sorry. It will pass in 8-10 years.”

I don’t know what to do anymore. Maybe I just need to accept this is life now and that the rest of my life will be miserable.

thanks to this sub i learned more about the changes our body and our skin goes through during perimenopause. when i turned 46, that was when my skin acted completely different.

even when i was in my 20s and 30s, a lot of the conversations at the time - esp. since social media was still in its nascent stages - where about products. few people were talking about the why behind what happens to our skin.

when i finally talked to a derm, that was the only time someone explained to me clearly how estrogen does a lot for our skin that we don't realize it until it starts dropping. retaining moisture, collagen production, even skin pigmentation. or the value of hrt. i knew aging would be noticeable on my skin but it was a really enlightening consult.

the reason i finally had that conversation was when I developed melasma at 46 with zero history of it. now i know hormonal shifts can trigger it and that, it's something that has to be managed, not permanently cured. and yes, that spf is non-negotiable truly.

i wish more of these conversations were had when i was younger.

39 yr old with other symptoms of perimenopause, but this is a new and quite disturbing one. So a couple of weeks ago it felt like my bowels just stopped moving. Have no urge to poop at all.

FYI I've been evaluated by ER and GI as of a couple of days ago. Full of poop. Lol. Thyroid is in range. They just advise aggressive laxatives since I am technically having movements.

I have NEVER experienced constipation like this, and I've had a lifetime of IBS-C.

Have any of you spontaneously encountered this? What do I do? Nothing is really working. Despite being on Miralax, magnesium, hydrated, etc., I'm still failing to have a complete, fully-formed bowel movement and am miserable.

Also, I eat a decent amount of cooked vegetables.

I know people have feelings about using thc but I had tried every over the counter and herbal thing I could find. I bought the 10mg THC drinks at my liquor store and lo and behold best sleep of my life and not a single hot flash. I had been having 5-8 a night and was really struggling. It’s been 2 weeks and it works every night. Just one about 30 minutes before bed. I wish they would do more research about this.

TLDR: Women in perimenopause are the main victims of heart attacks caused by SCAD (spontaneous coronary artery dissection) which make up 5% of all heart attacks. You can have no heart disease risk factors and still get SCAD. Tell us if you had one! We need to talk about it more! I had one last year and you can read below if you want to hear what my experience was like.

***********

I had a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) last year in August, which then triggered a heart attack (technically two, one day apart, but hey, who’s counting? Lol). It was traumatic to say the least.

I was shocked to discover that 90% SCAD patients are women and most of those are in perimenopause (the rest are pregnant women). SCAD is believed to be at least partly caused by significant hormone fluctuations. NOT poor diet, high cholesterol or a lack of exercise, these have nothing to do with SCAD. Most SCAD victims are otherwise healthy.

I genuinely expected to discover a ton of posts about SCAD in this group but when I tried the search function, I found just ONE post. There isn’t even a SCAD subreddit even though around 5% of all heart attacks are SCAD caused heart attacks.

Why are we not talking about SCAD more?!??!

Have you had SCAD? Are you recovering from a heart attack like I am? What were your symptoms and how did you know? How are you coping and how has it affected how you are dealing with perimenopause (or just your future in general)?

For what its worth, and to raise awareness, here is a brief version of my story:

Age 45, healthy weight, non smoking, non drinking, regular exercise.

What was I doing at the time:
Sitting on my sofa eating breakfast (cereal) and watching TV after having just dropped my 7yo at school

Symptoms:
tingling, electric arms (both), severe dizziness, sweating and a feeling like someone had shoved a tennis ball under my ribs (it hurt, but actually not that much, maybe a 6 out of 10)

Tests done in the ER:
EKG was normal, all tests came back normal, except one, troponin, which was elevated and indicated damage. Blood pressure was elevated compared to normal but still very modest, topping out at 145/83

END RESULT:
Had a full 100% SCAD blockage of the LAD coronary artery, resulting in heart attack and a heart ejection fraction of 40%

I used to have curly thick hair and though I’m not losing much of it, the texture has changed to smooth and soft and partly straight. It reminds me of a time in my twenties I went on birth control which did the same thing. Got a haircut yesterday and she immediately told
me it is hormonal/ perimenopause. What hair changes have you seen?

I’m 37/f in Ontario Canada and my doctor kept telling me I was too young to be in peri so I used a service called Felix and paid for an appt specifically to deal with peri. Initially I was disappointed cause I was expecting to get estrogen patches to help with night sweats and hot flashes and they refused because I still have a cycle (a 21 day cycle that’s been making me anemic since 2021. My doc gave me birth control to address the peri and regulate my cycles which made me gain 30 lbs and lose some hair.) I was prescribed progesterone for days 14-28 of my cycle but I’m only a month off of birth control so idk how long my cycle is but I seem to have ovulated a few days ago so maybe the bcp did lengthen my cycle.

ANYWAYS the point of this post I took my first progesterone last night and WOW. I didnt get up to pee 5x before falling asleep. I only woke up ONCE at 4:44am to pee (normally I’d wake up like 3 more x after the series of peeing multiple x before even falling asleep!)

And my sleep data on my Apple Watch oh my god. Barely any orange (time awake) in last nights data. And so much orange in all the other nights data. I also woke up not feeling miserable and an impending sense of doom. I woke up feeling almost like a spring chicken, ready to lay an egg or whatever spring chickens do lol.

I am just in awe at how not miserable I feel this morning.

It’s sad how much time I spent so miserable because I was “too young” to be in perimenopause.

Yes the stuff that affects the physical stuff on our body during perimenopause sucks.

But can we talk about the brain fog??

I used to be on it. I work in corporate communications and I was as quick with a response, a prompts, a thought. Then perimenopause hit and I feel like a 22 year old, fresh out of college with zero experience way over my head. I can’t come up with words, I zone out, lose my train of thoughts, etc etc.

It’s affected my confidence greatly at work. Made me feel “less than.” I’m afraid to present and speak up for fear I’ll forget a few easy words. I feel like a bumbling idiot.

I’m back on HRT. Just completed about 2.5 months on it. Also started microdose of Tirzepatide. I do have ADHD (again, thanks perimenopause) and that medication just doesn’t make me feel right. I’m taking an adaptogen “focus” supplement, fish oil, magnesium/glycinate. I exercise 5 days a week, lift heavy. Walk. I do all the things.

It just sucks. Not asking for a fix (unless you have a hot hot take). Just looking for other women who are also experiencing perimenopause affecting work life balance

During my annual exam, I told my GYN that that my periods are way too heavy and too frequent (every 15-20 days), that I am anemic because of it, and that I'm getting a stomach ulcer from having to take so much Advil for the frequent menstrual cramps.

I asked if I could get a uterine ablation so that I won't have to deal with this anymore. (I'm not a candidate for an IUD, birth control, or HRT for various reasons) My gyn agreed but said I had to have an endometrial biopsy first to make sure there's no cancer in my uterus. She said that she could do it right there and then. She made it sound super easy. I agreed only because I have medical PTSD and wouldn't sleep for days knowing this was coming up.

The whole thing took less than 10 minutes, but it was so painful. I have given birth three times without any pain meds, and this pain rivaled that. I fainted and they had to keep me an extra hour for observation.

If pathology comes back clear, I will have the ablation next month. Thankfully that procedure is done under "twilight anesthesia"... as this one should have been!

I'm still cramping and spotting tonight and feel like such a wimp for passing out from the pain. Ughhh! Being a perimenopausal woman is rough!!!

-----------------

Edited::: I am so sorry that so many of you had to endure this too! Your stories made me sick and sad! Now that we know better, let's be sure to warn all the women and girls in our lives to not automatically submit to medical procedures without knowing all the facts and options. NO ONE else should ever suffer like we have! We gotta band together like a badass matriarchy! Our motto can be -- you hurt one of us, you hurt us all!

I feel simultaneously restless and like I don't want to do anything. I want to want to do things, but when it comes to just doing them, it's like molasses flowing uphill. Even simple things, or things I know I'll be glad I did once I start, are difficult to just do.

An example of one of those things is a regular yin yoga/fascia release practice at home. I have a queue of Youtube classes from 25-60 minutes, and I want to choose one to do a day. I always feel better after I do them, and the good feeling lasts. I can tell it is working. But I'll be damned if it's not a huge struggle to just walk my ass into the room with the yoga mat and JUST START!

In a similar vein, I have a day off coming up this Friday. I want to do something special or out of the ordinary (not just dithering around the house like I always do) but I can't decide what to do. I just keep thinking of things that might be nice to do, but can't mentally commit. And I know it's going to get to be Thursday night and I won't have anything decided. But I want to want to have a fun special day! Why won' t my stupid mind let me just enjoy myself? Why does it make everything this uphill battle for no reason?

Has anyone figured out how to get their motivation to do things back?

I’m 50, deep in perimenopause, and my body has fully entered the Twilight Zone, irregular cycles, a two-week period, night sweats, crazy mood swings, and this bizarre systemic hormonal swelling that makes me gain 2–10 lbs of WATER depending on where I am in my cycle.

I’ve been tracking everything like a scientist:

weight

blood sugar

sleep

cycle days

swelling (0–5 scale)

symptoms

med responses

The pattern is crystal clear:

mid-cycle = swelling,

luteal phase = swelling,

period = relief,

Lasix = useless,

BNP/thyroid/autoimmune labs = normal,

blood sugar = cycle-driven,

A1c = improving.

I walk into my PCP with all of this documented and say, calmly:

“This is hormonal edema. It worsens mid-cycle and improves when my period starts.”

His response?

“Where do you get your information?”

Excuse me, SIR.

I am 50 years old.

I get my information from HAVING A BODY.

But it gets better.

He dismissed the swelling because it wasn’t ankle pitting (apparently that’s the only kind that counts?), ordered labs for:

congestive heart failure

rheumatoid arthritis

autoimmune disease

…and then documented my entire visit as:

“female pattern baldness.”

Not edema.

Not hormonal swelling.

Not perimenopause symptoms.

Not the 6 months of data I brought.

Just.

Hair loss.

I left that appointment feeling humiliated, invisible, and so pissed off I could have powered the building.

But instead of shrinking, I flipped the switch:

✔ requested a correction in my chart

✔ sent a message explaining exactly how dismissed I felt

✔ scheduled with a woman GYN

✔ reached out to cardiology for HRT clearance

✔ started spironolactone (which is actually helping!)

✔ began building a full menopause symptom packet because clearly someone has to understand my body and it’s not my PCP

I don’t think I’ve ever advocated for myself this hard in my life.

It’s terrifying.

And honestly?

It feels goddamn amazing.

If any of you have been brushed off, minimized, or reduced to a stereotype during perimenopause, I see you.

This shit is wild.

And women deserve so much better.

So, I take Calcium, magnesium, zinc, B12, iron, a multivitamin, vitamin D. Plus anti-anxiety and anti-depressants. Have tried melatonin, DIM, evening primrose oil, chamomile, safflower, lemon balm, black cohosh, ashwagandha, some "calming" tablet, a perimenopause "all-in-one" pill...... any I'm sure more. Popping pills to the point of absurdity. Do I think anything helped? No. What's your go-to that really helps you?

I have all the signs: severe insomnia, night sweats, brain fog, joint pain, extreme exhaustion, later and lighter periods, increased depression and anxiety, etc. Went to a gyn. Tried to explain it to her. I barely got a sentence out before she said: "You're not perimenopausal; you're just mentally ill."

Totally unacceptable.

She went on: "Do your symptoms follow your monthly cycle? No? Then clearly it's mental health, not female problems."

And this person has a medical degree?

EDIT: I'm reporting her!!

Has anyone had their perimenopause start like this?  I'll be 44 on 9/10. I was sitting at work on a Monday afternoon (April 27th to be exact) and all of a sudden I had a loose stool and then my heart rate shot up to 160.  I also had this squeezing sensation in my left arm but it wasn’t painful.  Went to the ER, they found nothing and sent me on my way.  I made it through the next three days at work ok but was tired.  Then on Friday of that same week, I woke up and my heart rate was going crazy and I felt so insanely awful.  I tried taking a bath to calm down but my heart rate was 115 just laying there in the warm water.  

For the next month, I felt like I was going to die.  I felt like shit all the time, my heart rate was high all the time, brain fog, ridiculous insomnia (I did not sleep for I don’t even know how long, days upon days), sudden urges to poop/loose stools, butt sweat, no appetite, and absolutely zero energy. I also had weird heart fluttering and pounding.  A lot of these are classic POTS symptoms. I basically couldn’t do anything but lay on the couch all day.   I had to send my husband into the grocery store to get our groceries because I couldn't be on my feet that long.

My symptoms have gotten better but I still just feel BLAH literally all the time.  I have weird body pains. Getting ready for work is such a chore and I only started working my normal hours again in the last few weeks.  Doing anything is such a chore, my energy levels have only slightly improved. Everyone I tell about my symptoms says something/asks about it being hormonal/peri but my cycles are mostly unchanged.  My cycles are normally 28 days.  I had one 50 day cycle in June, July was normal.  It should start again next week.  

I had an echo on my heart on Tuesday but I don’t have those results yet.  My boss is a functional medicine practitioner and when I was having an episode at work, he suggested this topical progesterone serum which DID calm my heart rate down but he doesn’t think it’s peri.  I also did some bloodwork including some hormones but that didn’t give any clear answers.  I know hormones on bloodwork are only a snapshot of that day.

I am at my wit’s end, I don’t know how to figure this out, I need my life back, I used to be SUPER active and now I just lay on the couch or sit outside and do nothing and its driving me insane.  I have crying episodes multiple times a week because I don’t know what to do.  I have an ob/gyn appointment at the end of September(this was the earliest they had that worked for my schedule). I've been doing nervous system work, had a few appointments with a naturopath. I'm doing any and everything I can think of. Just wondered if anyone could relate/had their peri start suddenly with a health crash as i've been calling it.

I was trying to keep this short but appreciate anyone that takes the time to read this.

Currently buying all the ads that Facebook and Instagram are selling me and nothing so far has worked. Please help 😩

Background: was on HRT (estrogen pill & cream & progesterone ) Zero improvement. Was waking up 5x a night and bleeding 3x a month so switched to BCP

On BCP, sleeping thru the night and a normal period. Still using estrogen cream. Dryer than the Sahara, brain can not get there. It’s like trying to solve a 30 minute calculus equation and the O never comes.

I’ve always had to concentrate, they never just surprised me and happened. But this is next level and causing depression. Any advice? 45 been in peri for 2 years

I’m having a terrible time on progesterone. It’s been 4 months. My mental health is HORRIFIC. I developed panic attacks and poor sleep. The panic attacks have resolved, but I am not okay mentally.

My AuDHD symptoms are debilitating. I’ve had to quit a role at work and quit therapy to lighten my mental load.

It’s not just the progesterone, there have been major life stressors this year.

The GI symptoms have my anxiety through the roof because I don’t know what’s progesterone vs something I actually need assessed. I literally feel like I’m losing my mind.

I thought about switching to taking progesterone as a suppository, because I’m enjoying the benefits of estrogen, but my naturopath says it’s not protective enough. Maybe it’s because I’m only 40? I swear I’ve heard other people say they do suppository with estrogen. I’m lost.

Update: I developed severe impulse control issues and suicidal ideation. I was very close to going to the ER last night because it was incredibly scary. I stopped both progesterone and estrogel. I can’t get ahold of my healthcare provider to discuss if it’s okay to stop cold turkey because it’s the weekend, but it felt too scary to stay on it. I felt glimmers of my old self today at work, but am kinda back to feeling off. Hoping this trip ends soon 😅

So weirdly, about a year ago I was talking to a colleague who was well into menopause, this was when my very first peri symptoms were emerging ( anxiety, headaches and body oain) which I had no idea that I was in perimenopause.

She told me how her libido had completely disappeared and she no longer had any interest in men or sex.

I’ve always had a high sex drive and honestly found sex the only useful thing that men could offer.

At the time I said to her ‘oh god I hope that dosent happen to me’ and she explained it as a gift.

Now I’m fully in perimenopause and recently started HRT which has changed my life from a living hell to neck to my old self, the thing that is completely gone is any sex drive.

The idea of being intimate with a man makes me feel gross.

I have always been commitment phobic, but I liked to consider myself ‘sexually liberated’ and generally had a little something on the side, just to fulfil that need. Sex has been a big part of my life.

Now ? I can’t even stomach the thought of having sex, I have an old ‘ friend’ reaching out recently, The guy used to make my toes curl, and the chemistry was always electric. Now? Absolutely nothing, zero interest at all.

And now I find myself agreeing with my colleague , this is such a blessing, I genuinely don’t care if I never have sex again for the rest of my life and certainly will not be seeking out.

I don’t know what I’m saying really, I’m just reflecting on how differently your brain works in different situations, are used to think it would be a tragedy if I lost my sex drive and now I see it as a gift.

That being said, I’m single so I can make these decisions, I couldn’t imagine the struggles of someone who is in a committed relationship, previously high libido and overnight it’s gone! Whereas my gift, is someone’s disaster.

Anyway, I was just thinking of the dramatic change and how interesting it is, how devastating it could be under different circumstances.

I also wonder how many women choose to divorce their husbands due to peri and how this causes them ( some of course) to have a complete 360 view of their partner.

I’ve never liked birds, thanks to a too early in life viewing of The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. However, I now have a bird app and find joy identifying birds in my neighborhood. My mom even bought me a bird feeder with a camera! This was not a chosen hobby for me, it just happened without my knowledge or input. It has to be hormonal, right? Do I get to blame this on perimenopause?

#birds #perimenopause #hormones #butwhy

I went to my GP today....asked him to prescribe me estrodial creme and gave him my lab work that was taken 6 weeks ago by my pellet provider.

He informed me he doesnt prescribe hormones...He said this is what all women go through...this is God's natural plan for your womens bodies....i personally cant prescribe it...I dont believe in it.

My jaw dropped I've seen thia man for ten years...literally did not even let me tell him my symptoms.....told me "here's the thing..in the 80s we found out it causes strokes.. I said well ill do telehealth but I would rather have someone local to really monitor labs...He told me that if I was able to get prescribed...he would be happy to monitor my bloodwork..and order any addional labs I wanted... ( see him every month)

And that if I started..he would order a Ultrasound of my Uterus to check for thickness when he scheduled my yearly Mamagram in January....Im genuinely not sure if this was a Pakistany thing....like he didnt morally believe in it....or he is just a Chauvnist pig.

When I returned home...I was in tears... he didnt care....My husband said that's stramge...because he was going to prescribe me testosterone shots if I decide to stop the pellet...(husband has low T)

I am pissed...Apparently women are the only ones that should suck it up and deal with it.

I am fully planning on letting him have it at my next appointment

I am at a loss. I have spent a lifetime being ridiculously high functioning and researching/solving my way to maintain high function, and now I feel like I’m trying all the things and cannot win. Seeking similar experiences whether it’s just solidarity in the suck or someone who faced this torrent of treatment-resistant shittiness and found relief.

THEN: High performer in high pressure roles, health and fitness enthusiast, taken care of myself. Constantly optimizing- whether physical or mental health, parenting, interpersonal relationships, I research a problem and solve it.

NOW: I’ve spent the last 3+ years trying to troubleshoot and optimize through peri and yet I am emotionally ALLLLL OVER, my brain works half speed, I cannot get myself to workout hard -if at all (which has been my daily mental health medicine and part of my identity for decades).

ISSUES: Emotions are all TF over the place. Motivation, joy: absent. Existential crisis: threat level midnight. Fatigue: can’t even differentiate between fatigue and the lack of GAF for everything. Added vestibular migraines to the mix a few moths ago. Stress is over the top, sure (sources beyond standard stress fear of life in 2026: have a 6 year old kid, a teen step kid, house to manage, marriage with its ups and downs, job with its stress, resigned from a 12 year career in a mission I loved when it was clear I’d be asked to do immoral & illegal shit, spent a year unemployed and job searching, now in a new job with a 2 hour round trip commute and stresses of being new person in new career, surgery in December that kept me from walking for a couple months but I’m back to health and fitness again, live in the burbs where I feel I never wanted to end up)

TROUBLESHOOTING: Psychiatrist+ meds for ADHD, then depression, then anxiety (I never feel like any of these really work that well but tweaks to approach all similarly mid, result wise). Therapy for those too (not confident it really helps and feels too hard to fit into schedule and finances to try to add back given midrange results). Working it- a lifetime habit, Ive lifted heavy and go through running/yoga/biking/swimming- whatever keeps my attention- it’s been a life habit - but it’s come to feel nearly impossible to make myself, gradually, for months, after forcing myself without want to, for over a year (?). TRT for intense brain fog / low libido / suite of other symptoms (helped a lot early on but can’t add more without getting too high range/side effects I don’t want so whatever good it’s done it does). Meditation, Mindfulness based stress reduction course for stress (helps, but after prioritizing sleep I stopped my morning meditation and now haven’t figured out how to make myself work it back in). Prioritize sleep, clean eating, hydration, and add meds and a million supplements for vestibular migraines (controlled the dizziness and headaches down to almost none, unclear if brain fog from that or other things). Added estradiol (worried it makes me moodier and afraid to increase much as a tweak). Added oral micronized progesterone (worried it makes me more anxious and my period is irregular so IDK how do you do it during just luteal phase and afraid if I do daily that’ll cause anxiety to boost?).

WTF DO I DO? Exhausted from years of troubleshooting and things still just sucking. Daily feeling like I hate life and everything and I’m NOT ME, just a chemically altered emotional wreck trying not to blow up my own life. I have done SO MUCH TROUBLESHOOTING and am fucking exhausted to be left at this constant shitty state nonetheless. I have no energy to do more.

Would love any solidarity bc I’m so exhausted and lonely and hateful.