Help! I am too hot

Attention Red Flag

It started one day while I was waiting to pick up my youngest daughter from school. I was just standing there inside of an air-conditioned space and suddenly the heat from within my own body had left me completely debilitated. I sat down. I fanned myself with whatever papers I could find around me. I could see the other women looking at me with supportive and knowing expressions. I had no idea what this meant. A few days later, I felt myself hot again, but too hot. I could sense that my body was changing, but I refused to think that could be the inevitable ‘change’ my mother spoke about. I started to have other symptoms. My body ached and my muscles felt like I had been in a fist fight. I suffered daily headaches and couldn’t concentrate. My memory was slipping and I felt as if I couldn’t remember people’s names I had known well for years. Stories of my own became difficult to remember. I couldn’t sleep. I was tired to be sure, but I could not fall asleep. And when I did manage to find sleep, I would wake up with terrible leg cramps and a sweat soaked pillow. During the day while I was working with a friend on an interior design project, I had to excuse myself because my fingertips went completely numb. No amount of shaking or stretching of my joints could relieve the numbness. I would just have to wait for it to slowly go away similar to the weight felt while having a hot flash or leg cramp. My quality of life was washing away and I had no control. After living like this for about 6 months I understood I needed to go see my gynecologist.

Finding relief

According to her, had I realized earlier I was perimenopausal she could have kept them from coming so fast with a low-dose of  bio-identical hormones. At that point I needed to have a proper blood test in order to understand where I was with my hormones. This all took another month before it was clear what I needed. Finally, I was prescribed two different creams consisting of a cocktail of progesterone, estradiol and testosterone. One to rub on the pulse and one to rub around the vulva, both taken in the morning. I also needed to supplement with a hormone called DHEA.   Two weeks after starting the hormones I did feel relief. My night sweats had almost disappeared. The hot flashes were few and far between. Because of the DHEA, my mood was much calmer and rational and I could feel the anxiety melt away and I was able to continue to exercise and maintain muscle tone. I had to start being careful about my diet because I did notice that I was gaining weight, especially in my abdomen. Apparently, this is a natural response from womens’ bodies to create the estrogen that we are no longer producing as we were during our fertile years. The tingling sensation inside of my hands had completely gone away. I had no more headaches and my body felt rested and clean. Some of the weight I gain started to reduce and I was feeling almost normal. Also, my sexual desire, I could see had increased and my ability to self lubricate was perfect.  I finally saw improvement to my whole life and I could breath a real sign of relief.

I can’t go back to the woman I was. I am different now. I am a warrior who is fighting to keep her head above water. And the more I speak about it with other women the more powerful we all become together. I can start to appreciate the woman I see now in the mirror with joy and respect. I love the new version of myself flaws and all.