11 Jun
60 next birthday and I still see women posting things like "will this ever end" and I want to reach through the screen and say: yes, mostly, but also it changes shape rather than disappearing, and that is honestly okay. I came off HRT about two years ago after a long conversation with my GP and I won't pretend the transition was seamless. Sleep went wobbly again for a good few months. Joints creaked in ways I hadn't expected. But I'm on the other side of that now and genuinely more settled than I was at 52, 54, 56. What helped me most, and I only share this as my own experience, was stopping treating my body like a problem to be solved and starting treating it like something that needed consistent low-drama maintenance. I do a short strength session three times a week. Nothing dramatic. I eat something with protein in it before I leave the house in the morning, usually eggs or yoghurt, because I noticed I was just having tea and then feeling awful by 10am. That's it. That's the whole glamorous secret. Sleep is still not perfect. I want to be honest about that because I think some of us expect it to snap back and then feel like we've failed when it doesn't. But it's manageable. I'm not lying awake for two hours catastrophising anymore. I've got an appointment coming up and I'm planning to ask properly about bone health and how to think about the next decade. I keep meaning to write my questions down beforehand so I don't walk out having forgotten the main one, which is absolutely what happened last time 😂 Anyway. For anyone early in this who's scared it'll always be this intense: it won't. You'll still be here, still figuring things out, but you'll have more tools than you do right now. That's worth something x