A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I made a post about how I had perimenopause and I started hormone replacement therapy and then I disappeared and was never seen again.
Sort of.
Mostly.
Here’s some more of that story.
When the doctor prescribed those hormones, she told me, “You’ll need to come back in four months.” And, doing the quick maths, I realized I’d be in China, so I’m just now getting back to the doctor.
Today.
We reviewed the differences after four months:
- For about six weeks towards the beginning I was throwing up or gagging or nauseated a LOT. As if my body was pregnant. Which is fine, except so totally NOT FINE. But then I got a stomach bug and when I recovered my body finally stopped acting pregnant sick all the time.
- My bones and joints no longer hurt #AllTheTime Or, frankly, at all. I can sleep with my head on my arms again. Which brings me to the next awful symptom.
- I can sleep. Insomnia has three parts – can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, can’t fall BACK asleep – and I had all three parts. Now I fall asleep fine and stay asleep as much as is normal for me and when I do wake up, fall right back asleep.
- Depression is GONE. At least, the constant bullshit that was this symptom when I couldn’t sleep and my joints all hurt and I was getting hot flashes #AllTheTime
- Aforementioned hot flashes are two to three times per DAY instead of two to three times per HOUR and are #TotallyChill – before I’d have to #SitTheFuckDown now I sometimes don’t even notice until I realize that I don’t need a coat or sweater even though it’s ZERO degrees. It’s like a super power.
And all this is to say that I’m back to work full time (since China, actually) which is #AbsolutelyIncredible and I couldn’t be happier.
What are the next steps?
Well, I’m on this stuff for at least a year – I have a reminder set up in my calendar for April 2020 – and then we review symptoms and such.
She said that it’s typically the first year of symptoms that are the most extreme and that some women opt to go off of hormone replacement therapy after a year, because, they feel, “it’s not natural”.
I laughed.
“I’m taking fluoxetine as well. I’d rather enjoy the stability of constant hormones and lack of depression. I’d rather NOT be natural, thank you very much.”
Hence, I hope, this is my last post on perimenopause for a long long time. Unless you have questions or want to discuss something further. I’m happy to talk about it, but I think the debilitating symptoms are DONE.
#AndThenSheLivedHappilyEverAfter