ugly bag of mostly water

don’t keep sweatin’ what I do 'cause I’m gonna be just fine

  • 32 Posts
  • 2.83K Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: December 19th, 2023
  • klemptor@startrek.websiteOPtoWomensStuff@piefed.blahaj.zone•My perimenopause experience so far
    1·
    3 hours ago

    Yes I was horrified when I learned about all the genitourinary changes. I like my bits the way they are - I don’t want them to shrink, dry out, thin out, etc! Thankfully that part hasn’t started for me yet.

    I’ve heard good things about the Mirena, I’m glad to hear it’s helped you! And I really sympathize on the brainfog, especially since you’ve already got an uphill battle with ADHD. That must be so frustrating. But I’m interested to hear that dietary changes can make such a difference - that’s encouraging!

  • klemptor@startrek.websiteOPtoWomensStuff@piefed.blahaj.zone•My perimenopause experience so far
    2·
    2 days ago

    Sure!

    1. Is the level it’s impacted you standard?

    I wish I knew! I think everybody is affected differently. From what I read online, a lot of women are affected similarly to me, but probably a lot of women have more mild symptoms. For other women’s sake, I hope what I’m going through isn’t typical because it’s the pits!

    1. Which symptom has had the biggest impact on your life?

    It’s hard to say. Probably the brain fog. I’ve got degrees in physics and statistics and worked as an academic research analyst for most of my career. I really prided myself for my intelligence (sorry, I realize that sounds awful) and took for granted my ability to focus on intricate detail and work with data. And when the brain fog hit, I just could not function in the same way. I found I was making a lot of mistakes and my work pace slowed down considerably because I had to double and triple check everything. It made me super anxious and depressed, and I was relieved when my husband suggested that I retire. At the time I didn’t know what brainfog was - I thought I was just severely burnt out (which was true, to some extent). I used to feel so smart, and the brainfog made me feel so stupid and useless. :/

    1. You mention the brain fog and how other things made you feel like you were losing your grip on reality. How did you manage that?

    Retirement helped. After I retired things were better for a while because I wasn’t doing complicated mental work anymore. But then as peri progressed, the brain fog started to affect simple things like mental arithmetic. Since this coincided with other peri symptoms I was doing a lot of googling, and I finally figured out that it was brainfog, not just burnout. It helped a lot to realize that this was part of peri. But honestly I didn’t manage it well - I was always getting upset and frustrated when I’d make another stupid mistake. It was very demoralizing.

    1. What would you do differently if you went back in time?

    I would look at the picture holistically rather than address the individual symptoms. For too long I assumed they were all separate, unrelated problems. But peri really is a cluster of symptoms. I wish I’d seen that sooner!

  • klemptor@startrek.websiteOPtoWomensStuff@piefed.blahaj.zone•My perimenopause experience so far
    3·
    2 days ago

    Wow, I can imagine how frustrating sudden food allergies must’ve been!

    Regarding your wife, man that’s rough. I’d just remind her how much HRT has helped you, and tell her that she doesn’t have to suffer. If she tries it and hates it, she can always discontinue, but if she likes it it could be really helpful!

    I’d also emphasize that the estrogen and progesterone which are commonly prescribed these days are bioidentical, meaning in simple terms that they’re replacing your natural hormones with a form that behaves identically in your body. So if she tried HRT, she wouldn’t be adding something “artificial” so much as replacing something natural that she’s lost.

    Good luck!