Fatigue
This month’s focus topic is FATIGUE. It’s one of the biggest symptoms experienced by women in perimenopause and can be debilitating. In this month’s series of webinars, we speak to various experts about ways to manage fatigue.
The videos include an interview with Helen Hardware. Discover how Rapid Transformation Therapy can help you manage fatigue.
Helen Hardware profile
Thank you for this. I’m now 55. At 48 I had to quit my fancy job. Having been a very good ‘yes man’ my whole career, my attitude turned to ‘do it yourself’, and I knew I had to go. I knew it was the menopause. Pretending to be a yes man without feeling it, and caring a lot about my legacy was very stressful, intensely so during my three month notice period. I took bio HRT for six months during this time, and it did calm me down.
Three days after leaving I felt a bit fluey, I went to bed and sweat for two days, couldn’t eat, could hardly move. When I emerged I was very weak, and there began the Big Sleep. 20 hours a day for three or four days at a time, a few days apart, aching muscles. It was eight months before I could ride my bike, and three years before I could work. I still get occasional bouts.
I was immensely fortunate that although I was confused I didn’t get depressed, and that I continually improved, albeit slowly. I have a supportive environment.
Since collapsing in 2013, I’ve had regular blood tests through my GP which have shown nothing unusual, and used yoga and acupuncture and various alternative therapies that helped me improve. I have not reached out to any communities or groups about it, or done much online research, where I could find nothing that chimed. I had to go with my gut, and those of people I know and trust. Nobody could officially name it… fatigue, chronic fatigue, PTSD, ME, fibromyalgia – all these different conditions, I seemed to have a bit of all of them but could find nothing that nailed it. Burn out was as accurate is I could get.
This is the first thing I’ve seen in seven years that properly resonates, and it’s very moving. Our experiences are similar.
I put a lot of pressure on myself, and I still believe that what happened was my doing, albeit in the context of menopause. I should have managed myself better, and stood up for myself more.
I’m very very good at saying no now, it’s one of my favourite words. This is not a mid-life crisis, it’s a mid-life epiphany.
FYI I’ve recently had a hysterectomy which identified ovarian cancer and endometriosis, and am wondering how long I’ve had endo, and how it may have affected my situation.
Thank you so much
Sarah