If You Were Here When My Kids Were Little This Might Be You Now

If you were reading my blog when my kids were little there’s a good chance you might be in perimenopause now too. Back then it was snacks, survival mode, trying to keep tiny humans alive and maybe drink your coffee before it went cold.

And honestly? I thought that was the hard part.

Why Don’t We Talk About Perimenopause More?

For almost 6 years things have felt different. Not just “I’m tired because life is busy” different. More like something is off and I can’t push through it the same way anymore.

The brain fog. The exhaustion. The feeling like my body just wasn’t keeping up with me anymore. And I kept being told everything was “normal.”

About 2023, I finally started getting some help. My physical therapist (and boss and friend) was the same age, and she recommended I get into the gynecologist. My primary kept telling me, “We don’t test hormones – they aren’t reliable” or “your periods are regular – you aren’t in perimenopause.” My physical therapist told me you need someone who will listen to you.

My Perimenopause Symptoms

I gave the gynecologist my list of symptoms:

Joint pain (hips, shoulders, all the things)
Not sleeping
Fatigue that made it so I could only do work, go home, sleep, repeat
Brain fog (Like where did the words go?)
Anxiety

She put me on the Dotti estrogen patch right away – 10 min conversation and she confirmed you are in the midst of it. Literally the next day I remember thinking “oh. this is what it feels like to think clearly again!” It didn’t fix everything, but it was the first time I realized maybe this wasn’t just “being a tired mom.”

There were other pieces too. There was heavy bleeding that needed to be addressed, an ultrasound (those aren’t as fun when you don’t get to see a bouncing baby by the way), a polyp removal, and a Mirena to help protect things and stabilize what my body clearly wasn’t handling well on its own.

I was lucky I have friends who visited their gynecologist and still were not listened to. If you need get a second opinion – find someone who will listen.

Not exactly the phase of life I imagined but here we are.

How to Advocate for your Health

After the first boost of feeling good the low iron fatigue hit again. With the bleeding my iron had absolutely tanked. I have spent the last year still feeling exhausted. I was still pushing. Seeing specialist after specialist, eliminating autoimmune diseases (guess perimenopause bring those on as well).

My allergist diagnosed me with MCAS (Mast cell activation syndrome) and we started working on getting my inflammation under control. My naturopath put me on LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) which helped with the overall pain.

With all those things the fatigue and exhaustion were back. I was still being told things were fine – for the last year. I knew they weren’t. It took way longer than it should have, but I finally pushed hard enough to get my low iron treated.

Now, almost two weeks after my iron infusion I didn’t expect this kind of shift. I’m feeling so much better I’m asking myself if there is something wrong because I feel good. I know that sounds like silly, but when you have been fighting fatigue and exhaustion for almost 5 years feeling good feels weird.

My energy isn’t perfect. I still have to pace myself (very intentionally ?). But for the first time in a long time it feels like my energy is actually there again.

What’s hard to sit with is that I waited a year for this.

A year of feeling off.

A year of second-guessing myself.

A year of being told it was “normal.”

If you’re in this phase too. If your body feels different, and you can’t quite explain it – please don’t ignore that.

You know your body.

Advocate for yourself.

Ask more questions.

Push a little harder if something doesn’t feel right.

If you’ve been here since the early days of my blog just know you’re not alone in this next chapter either. We’re just navigating a very different kind of chaos now.

The Blessings from All of This

Honestly, this whole experience is what pushed me to start creating my Perimenopause with a Side of Snark Coloring Book (which includes self-reflection prompts). I needed somewhere to put all of this the frustration, the humor, the “are you kidding me right now” moments. Something that felt like a small exhale in the middle of it.