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Hi Roozie
I just re-read my posts and I did sound like I was giving a bit of a lecture didn't I? Sorry, I didn't mean to. I just get on my soapbox a bit when I hear about OTT prog creams etc because they usually don't do what they say on the label. A lot of them don't have any quality control and can often make your problems worse if you don't address all your hormones levels as well.
Not all prescribed hormone treatment is “artificial”. The “bioidentical” celebs have been putting out a lot of false information. A lot of what your doctor can prescribe is already approved bio identical treatment, like oestradiol transdermal patches. These are routine prescribed by all doctors and they are bio-identical. The advantage is that they have FDA approval and quality control, where compounded bioidenticals and OTT prog creams do not.
btw – I just advised today, by a respected doctor, that you are better off using blood testing, and not saliva testing, because the blood is usually stored in glass, and most saliva tests are stored in plastic, and the plastic can affect the blood and give very inaccurate results.
Hi Martin and Tommy
Thanks for the welcome. Animals are great aren't they? You never have to wonder if they have any ulterior motives. They just love you because you are you….lol…
Hi Again Lynzi
TBH, I've never believed that nonsense about “getting the TV out of the bedroom”. I've often found the TV to be a very useful tool to fall asleep in front of. All my life I've never had a sleeping problem and for about the last 20 years have had a TV in the bedroom and it's never caused me a problem. So whenever anyone tells me it's a bad thing I just go “NEXT!”….lol…
Anyway, I hope you manage to overcome your insomnia problem. If you need a good forum to talk about menopause with other meno ladies, and get some very useful tips, I can give you the website address for one. I've found so much useful information on it, and I'm now about to embark on a new treatment plan which I have very high hopes for, and wouldn't have known about otherwise because it's not available in Australia. I won't post the address here, as I'm not sure how Martin feels about posting website addresses for other forums, but if he doesn't mind I can post it here for other ladies in need of help.
Something else I will add is that if you are around 40 you could very well be entering what is called “peri menopause”. That period could last for any where up to 10 years before you become post menopausal (the time after you have your last period – and you have to be 12 months without a period before you will know that you are post menopausal).
Peri menopause is a time when you may find you are having some minor bodily changes, like weight gain, frequent night time urination or irregular periods, but nothing too dramatic or worrying. On the other hand you could also start to experience more severe problems like insomnia, massive mood swings etc. Every woman is different and seem to fall into two groups – those who have a hard time during peri, but improve during post, and those who sail through peri, but begin having a hard time once they become post.
I fall into the latter group. I had very few problems during peri (which looking back probably started at around 40), apart from some weight gain, needing to pee every 2 hours at night and irregular periods, but I am having a really hard time during post which began about 2 years ago.
While you are peri you may become “oestrogen dominant” but that doesn't mean that you automatically have high oestrogen levels. They could be falling just like your progesterone levels, but may just be dominant to the progestone because the progesterone is lower, and lowered oestrogen levels can cause insomnia.
Like I said, it's all very complicated and the whole body and all the symptoms need to be addressed. Please don't just assume that using some progesterone cream will solve any problems.
I think there a two types of depression/insomnia associations. Firstly there are those who suffer from depression (or stress) which then causes the insomnia, and then there are others who experience insomnia which then causes the depression.
I'm in the latter group. When I'm able to sleep well I'm a very happy well adjusted bunny. However, when I have a bad night's sleep I immediately feel really down, and if the bad sleep continues my mood will become worse and worse, but when I get the good sleep again I bounce right back.
That's why I get very annoyed at the doctors who immediately assume that because you have insomnia it must be because you are depressed, and only want to addresse the depression. Yes you're depressed, but it's because you can't sleep. You just have to work out what comes first – the insomnia or the depression.
I've tried both the slow release melatonin tablets and also the drops, but didn't really find that it helped very much. Apparently you have to be very careful to only use a small amount, because if you take too much it can actually have the opposite effect.
I have learned so much over the last 18 months, since I became post menopausal and began experiencing insomnia.
The whole balancing act of female hormones is very complicated and isn't necessarily fixed just by using Prog Cream. In fact it can actually make things worse, because the depletion of oestrogen can also cause insomnia, and using just prog alone (without addressing the oestrogen depletion) could get that whole balancing act completely out of whack.. Even though bio identical progesterone is advertised as being “natural” it really isn't. It's not the same hormone that we naturally produce, so a lot of women actually have an intolerance to these hormones, whether they're obtained from bioidenticals or regular HRT.
I am one of those women and I also belong to a UK menopause forum where there are many women who suffer this problem. I am having a lot of problems finding a hormone treatment (whether BHRT or HRT) that will address this intolerance.
Also saliva and blood tests for hormone levels are pretty much useless because your hormone levels can change daily and even hourly. So whatever the test says today could be totally different tomorrow. You really have to try treatments based on what the symptons actually are.
I'm neither advocating nor against bio idental hormones or regular HRT. I've tried both and neither really works all that well for me. Bio identicals receive a lot of celebrity publicity, but they don't necessarily work for all women. You just have to keep trying and trying and trying again, until you find the right treatment.
Hi Lynzi
I'm also from Qld (Brisbane) and I'm 53. Can I offer a possible reason for your insomnia? ……menopause. You are smack bang at the right age.
Like you, I was always able to sleep any where, any time, and even have regular nanna naps in the afternoon on the weekends, without affecting my sleep that night. However, that all changed almost two years ago when I became post menopausal. A lot of people associate menopause with just have hot flushes, but there are so many more symptons, like insomnia.
My suggestion (if you haven't done so already) is talk to your doctor and maybe try some HRT, or if you are already on HRT maybe you could try a different type. I'm not saying that HRT is a cure-all for menopause. Far from it. I've been on and off various HRTs for the last 18 months. Some work really well for a long period of time and then stop working, and some will only work for a few weeks and then stop working. I am currently trialing another one, and I've been having a bad time of it, but last night I did sleep better so I'm hoping that my body is adjusting to the new hormones and things will settle. Time will tell.
Anyway, I really understand how you are feeling. I also understand that feeling of sleeping, but not feeling like I've been asleep. It's very weird. I chat regularly to a meno lady on a UK forum who is also having sleep problems and she has described this exact same feeling, so you are not alone.
