#4 Therapy Take Out - Perimenopause and My Hormone Rollercoaster Ride - Weee!
How I started advocating for my own body this week.
Welcome to Therapy Take-Out! Think of this series of posts like an order your placed with Shake Shack but instead of food you’re getting bite sized pieces of my therapy sessions delivered to you at home. Yeah Shake Shack might sound better but this is better for your mental health people! If you don’t have time for therapy, or you feel a bit weary about the whole thing - I wanted to be able to share with you what’s helping me.
This week in my therapy session we solely focused on health.
If you’re a woman and in your late thirties, early forties you might relate to this. Perimenopause. Literally a hormonal - mental health - rollercoaster. Everyone has a different experience but for me it’s like a wooden rollercoaster that you’re riding on in the dark in the pouring rain. Never mind it’s not rain it’s definitely a scorching sun because the hot flashes will surely kill me. My god. It’s been a ride.
Six years ago when I was doing IVF my doctor ran all the normal tests and told me that I would hit early menopause. My egg count was basically gone and my hormone levels were heading in that direction. Sure enough - here I am. I tried riding it out for awhile with natural remedies until it really started impacting every piece of me. I would experience raging moods, hot flashes and depression during each new phase of my cycle. The bleeding was INSANE and my periods were a mess. I finally gave in and have been on a form of birth control where I get my period every three months and guys? It was life changing. I felt SANE!
Things took a turn at the beginning of this month when my body started to reject whatever the hell these pills were trying to do to my natural hormones. I was having breakthrough bleeding, major mood swings and basically mini baby periods. I reached out to my OBGYN and her response? Oh, just keep taking it. I was flabbergasted. I followed her instructions anyway and for the next two weeks things settled down until this week when I had a splitting headache so bad I thought I was going to be sick. Instead of vomiting I proceeded to get another period. I wrote to my doctor again and said that I would no longer be taking the medication.
There’s a point when it comes to our own physical and mental health that we need to lean into our intuitive gut. I knew my body was saying to stop. It was showing me physically that I needed to stop and find another way.
I found Midi Health and now have a consultation. Midi Health’s mission is “As a female founded and led company, we encountered firsthand the shocking lack of accessible, affordable care for symptoms of menopause. So we set out to build the healthcare we—and the world—needed…”
Insights for this week:
Women need to advocate for their bodies. We need to learn how to lean more into our intuition and speak up. There are HUGE healthcare disparities between women and men in this country - we need to stop getting dismissed. Dr. Tania Eskaoff from Cedars Mt Sinai says this “Women simply aren’t listened to as much as men. Their concerns are not taken as seriously. For example, if women present several complaints, doctors may think they’re hypochondriacs and not address the individual issues. But within those concerns, there may be something serious that needs to be addressed.”
Perimenopause and menopause used to be something that was kept under wraps in a women’s ever changing life but now more and more people and companies are bringing it out into the light. Naomi Watts has a new book out called “Dare I Say It.”, Drew Barrymore is talking about it on our show and so on. For myself I was excited and happy to see that I wasn’t alone! No one mentally prepared me for what might or what might not happen. The question though is it too much information from too many different directions? Will women get overwhelmed or filled with anxiety about whats to come or not come at all? I loved this Substack from
The two self-care things I’m doing this week -
While riding out the hormone crash from getting myself off birth control I’m going to stop working out for a few days, drink extra water, breathe through the raging hot flashes and remind myself that I will find a new solution.
Taking my daily supplements - iron (because I’m anemic now from this whole life change), calcium, collagen and magnesium.
See you next week!
Kelly
I am so happy you're talking about this! I'm post (scary face here) and my peri was mind-boggling, and I went through it while building a business, my daughter diagnosed with a brain tumor and a major move. Yep it was not fun. I didn't know much about it peri or menopause and there really wasn't much discussion or books that were helpful. Brava! to you for sharing your journey and all the information you're gathering! This should be a much and often discussed topic! Yes to putting your health first and advocation for your body!