55 and I want to write this down because I think I needed to read something like it about eight months ago and there was nothing. I was terrified. I genuinely thought something was catastrophically wrong with me. The sleep had gone completely, I was having flushes every hour or so overnight, and my mood was... I don't have the words. My husband didn't have the words either and that made it worse. I sat in the car outside Tesco one afternoon and cried because I couldn't remember why I'd driven there. I'm not going to sit here and tell anyone what fixed it because I don't think it works like that. What I can say is that eight weeks on from starting HRT and changing a few small things around food and getting outside most days, I had a follow-up with my GP last Tuesday and actually had good things to report. Which felt extraordinary. I had my little notes with me, which helped, because she asked what had improved and I'd have forgotten half of it if I hadn't written it down the week before. Sleep is better. Not perfect but genuinely better. The flushes are maybe two or three a night instead of constant. My mood is... recognisably mine again? I made a proper dinner three nights this week, nothing fancy, just something warm and real, and I noticed I actually enjoyed eating it. That sounds so small. It isn't small when you've been feeling like a stranger in your own kitchen for months. I still have things to sort. Told the GP I want to talk about the fatigue next time because that's the bit still lagging behind. But if you're at the beginning and you're frightened: it does move. It moved for me. That's all I've got. x