I'm directing this question to all women, not just cisgender ones or ones that menstruate. My understanding is that we all can experience hormonal fluctuations during the month, for some it's just more predictable or obvious than others. Hormone therapy can have this effect too for our trans sisters. Curious what you notice, if anything.
Yeah my meds have always barely touched my symptoms during the luteal phase. It’s even worse now that perimenopause has set in. Before I figured out I’d started peri, I was googling about early onset dementia because the ADHD symptoms had gotten so unmanageable. (Y’all, I forgot my own address where I’ve been living for seven years. Forgot my own birthdate at the pharmacy. Got lost on the way to the grocery store I’ve used for ten years. Couldn’t even watch simple TV because of spacing out too much.)
Fun fact: estrogen is a neurotransmitter that helps dopamine do its thing.
I take HRT now, but the 12 days of progesterone means a week of being an absolute box of hair. I stand up and forget why. Forget nouns and have to describe them (like that stabby shovel thing for putting food in your mouth). Cooking dinner and turn to open a cabinet and just stand there swaying back and forth with no idea what I’m supposed be doing, while the food gets all fucked up.
Woah. This is incredibly helpful! How do you get the perimenopause diagnosis? Like there’s times where I’m sure I’ll never be able to access that memory again, also thought Alzheimer’s
My BPD gets unmanageable too since Vyvance seems to keep me emotionally balanced
It’s all by symptoms. In my case it was night sweats, sweaty palms so bad I had to give up my hobbies, sudden development of eczema, dead libido, inability to climax, brain fog, loss of speech fluency, morning sickness, and the occasional very mild hot flash when angry or stressed.
There’s not really any test for peri, because hormone labs only take a snapshot of one moment. Not very useful because hormones fluctuate day to day. If doctors brush you off (super common ugh are we even people) there are telehealth sites that can help.