Judith
Member49, Essex. Mostly here for honest stories, sleep chat, and women who get it.
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Activity (7)
May 26 · Replied
running and the fog
Three times a week is a meaningful increase from once. The afternoons improving is the part I would pay attention to, whatever the cause.
May 26 · Replied
The pattern I noticed
Patterns only show up with enough entries. A single day is almost never enough to see anything useful.
May 26 · Posted
Three months on progesterone, the ordinary version
I started micronised progesterone in October to go alongside the oestrogen gel I had already been using. My GP added it because I had been on the gel for over a year and the progesterone protection was needed. I had read some accounts that suggested it improved sleep significantly and I want to be accurate about what I found. My sleep did not improve in the first month. It was, if anything, slightly more disrupted. I was waking earlier than usual and finding it hard to settle again. By month two that had levelled out and I was back to my normal pattern, which is interrupted but not badly so. What I did notice, from about week ten, was that the low mood I had been carrying into Mondays was less present. I had not named it as a symptom before. It is possible it would have lifted anyway. I take it at night. I have had no headaches, which I had seen mentioned as a possibility. My weight has not changed. My reading concentration is better than it was last summer but I cannot attribute that with any confidence. I have another appointment in February.
May 26 · Posted
Three months on progesterone, the ordinary version
I started micronised progesterone in October to go alongside the oestrogen gel I had already been using. My GP added it because I had been on the gel for over a year and the progesterone protection was needed. I had read some accounts that suggested it improved sleep significantly and I want to be accurate about what I found. My sleep did not improve in the first month. It was, if anything, slightly more disrupted. I was waking earlier than usual and finding it hard to settle again. By month two that had levelled out and I was back to my normal pattern, which is interrupted but not badly so. What I did notice, from about week ten, was that the low mood I had been carrying into Mondays was less present. I had not named it as a symptom before. It is possible it would have lifted anyway. I take it at night. I have had no headaches, which I had seen mentioned as a possibility. My weight has not changed. My reading concentration is better than it was last summer but I cannot attribute that with any confidence. I have another appointment in February.
May 26 · Posted
Three months on progesterone, the ordinary version
I started micronised progesterone in October to go alongside the oestrogen gel I had already been using. My GP added it because I had been on the gel for over a year and the progesterone protection was needed. I had read some accounts that suggested it improved sleep significantly and I want to be accurate about what I found. My sleep did not improve in the first month. It was, if anything, slightly more disrupted. I was waking earlier than usual and finding it hard to settle again. By month two that had levelled out and I was back to my normal pattern, which is interrupted but not badly so. What I did notice, from about week ten, was that the low mood I had been carrying into Mondays was less present. I had not named it as a symptom before. It is possible it would have lifted anyway. I take it at night. I have had no headaches, which I had seen mentioned as a possibility. My weight has not changed. My reading concentration is better than it was last summer but I cannot attribute that with any confidence. I have another appointment in February.
May 25 · Posted
The pattern I noticed
For anyone else who goes blank in appointments: the boring notes have helped me. I have been writing down hot flashes, sleep, mood, and what was happening around it so I can describe the week more clearly.
May 25 · Posted
what I have learned about keeping track
I have been in perimenopause for about two years now, or at least that is the working assumption, and the thing that has made the most practical difference is not any supplement or lifestyle change. It is keeping a plain notes document on my phone where I write down what is happening and when. Not a diary. Not a wellness journal. Just a date and a short phrase. Hot at 2am. Headache Tuesday. Period late by nine days. Mood low, no obvious reason. Weight up two pounds, unchanged for three weeks. When I took that document to my GP appointment it changed the whole conversation. She could see patterns I had not consciously noticed. The headaches were clustering around the cycle. The mood dips were not random. Having it written down also meant I did not have to perform certainty in the room. I could just say, here is what I have observed, and she could respond to that rather than to my embarrassment. The other thing I wish I had understood earlier is that not every symptom is dramatic. Some of it is just a low-grade flatness that sits over everything. I kept waiting for something more definitive before I said anything, and I think I lost about a year to that waiting. The flat version is still worth mentioning. It counts.
Posts (5)
Three months on progesterone, the ordinary version
I started micronised progesterone in October to go alongside the oestrogen gel I had already been using. My GP added it because I had been on the gel for over a year and the progesterone protection was needed. I had read some accounts that suggested it improved sleep significantly and I want to be accurate about what I found. My sleep did not improve in the first month. It was, if anything, slightly more disrupted. I was waking earlier than usual and finding it hard to settle again. By month two that had levelled out and I was back to my normal pattern, which is interrupted but not badly so. What I did notice, from about week ten, was that the low mood I had been carrying into Mondays was less present. I had not named it as a symptom before. It is possible it would have lifted anyway. I take it at night. I have had no headaches, which I had seen mentioned as a possibility. My weight has not changed. My reading concentration is better than it was last summer but I cannot attribute that with any confidence. I have another appointment in February.
Three months on progesterone, the ordinary version
I started micronised progesterone in October to go alongside the oestrogen gel I had already been using. My GP added it because I had been on the gel for over a year and the progesterone protection was needed. I had read some accounts that suggested it improved sleep significantly and I want to be accurate about what I found. My sleep did not improve in the first month. It was, if anything, slightly more disrupted. I was waking earlier than usual and finding it hard to settle again. By month two that had levelled out and I was back to my normal pattern, which is interrupted but not badly so. What I did notice, from about week ten, was that the low mood I had been carrying into Mondays was less present. I had not named it as a symptom before. It is possible it would have lifted anyway. I take it at night. I have had no headaches, which I had seen mentioned as a possibility. My weight has not changed. My reading concentration is better than it was last summer but I cannot attribute that with any confidence. I have another appointment in February.
Three months on progesterone, the ordinary version
I started micronised progesterone in October to go alongside the oestrogen gel I had already been using. My GP added it because I had been on the gel for over a year and the progesterone protection was needed. I had read some accounts that suggested it improved sleep significantly and I want to be accurate about what I found. My sleep did not improve in the first month. It was, if anything, slightly more disrupted. I was waking earlier than usual and finding it hard to settle again. By month two that had levelled out and I was back to my normal pattern, which is interrupted but not badly so. What I did notice, from about week ten, was that the low mood I had been carrying into Mondays was less present. I had not named it as a symptom before. It is possible it would have lifted anyway. I take it at night. I have had no headaches, which I had seen mentioned as a possibility. My weight has not changed. My reading concentration is better than it was last summer but I cannot attribute that with any confidence. I have another appointment in February.
The pattern I noticed
For anyone else who goes blank in appointments: the boring notes have helped me. I have been writing down hot flashes, sleep, mood, and what was happening around it so I can describe the week more clearly.
what I have learned about keeping track
I have been in perimenopause for about two years now, or at least that is the working assumption, and the thing that has made the most practical difference is not any supplement or lifestyle change. It is keeping a plain notes document on my phone where I write down what is happening and when. Not a diary. Not a wellness journal. Just a date and a short phrase. Hot at 2am. Headache Tuesday. Period late by nine days. Mood low, no obvious reason. Weight up two pounds, unchanged for three weeks. When I took that document to my GP appointment it changed the whole conversation. She could see patterns I had not consciously noticed. The headaches were clustering around the cycle. The mood dips were not random. Having it written down also meant I did not have to perform certainty in the room. I could just say, here is what I have observed, and she could respond to that rather than to my embarrassment. The other thing I wish I had understood earlier is that not every symptom is dramatic. Some of it is just a low-grade flatness that sits over everything. I kept waiting for something more definitive before I said anything, and I think I lost about a year to that waiting. The flat version is still worth mentioning. It counts.
Likes & Replies (2)
May 26 · Replied to running and the fog
Three times a week is a meaningful increase from once. The afternoons improving is the part I would pay attention to, whatever the cause.
May 26 · Replied to The pattern I noticed
Patterns only show up with enough entries. A single day is almost never enough to see anything useful.
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Comments (7)
Snap on the reading. That was the one that got me, more than the flushes. Couldn't follow a plot, kept losing my place, gave up on a book I'd been looking forward to for months. It does settle, or at least it did for me once things were more managed. The list is a good move. Put the dryness on it, don't let yourself skip it when you're in there. x
The mood point is underrated. I noticed the same thing. It's a small thing but at the end of a day with hot flushes and work and everything else, not having to make one more decision is genuinely significant. x
Yes. Ask for a named menopause review when you book, not just a routine appointment. Some practices have a specific code for it. If your hot flushes are still frequent after two years on the same dose, that's a legitimate clinical reason to request a proper conversation about your oestrogen level. You're not being difficult. x
Notes on the phone was the right call. I did the same and it kept the appointment on track. The car park moment makes sense, being listened to without having to justify yourself first is not a small thing.
Stress at work was the clearest pattern for me. When a project deadline lifted, things shifted noticeably within a couple of weeks. I had not expected it to be that direct a connection.
Not being dismissed is not a small thing. I have left appointments before where I could not identify a single useful outcome. A follow-up date and a blood form is a concrete result.
Three times a week is a meaningful increase from once. The afternoons improving is the part I would pay attention to, whatever the cause.