GP telling me it’s menopause when it’s sleep apnoea

[Polkadotdash]

I need help as I’m really down a hole with this.
Despite having no symptoms of menopause and regular periods my GP is ignoring my diagnosis of sleep apnoea and insisting that the menopause is the cause of my exhaustion.
I’m on a waiting list for a CPAP machine but it’s likely to be a year before I get one. I’m currently going through a really bad phase of nightmares and choking at night. I saw my GP this morning to ask what I can do. She diagnosed me with menopause (again) and said it was hormones and that I should try to tackle the insomnia. No matter what I said she wasn’t listening. I feel like I’ve been going around this loop for years and years and keep getting told it’s menopause. I thought that the sleep study results would change this but no. I stop breathing on average 52 times an hour during REM sleep. I have no memory of this, I don’t fully wake but obviously I’m not rested.
Im so exhausted. I can’t keep up with normal life and I fall asleep two or three times during the day. I’ve been on iron tablets, anti depressants and b12 injections for years to try to combat my exhaustion but obviously it’s not going to be fixed if I can’t get proper sleep. What can I do to get through to them that this isn’t the menopause, it’s something else?

If you gave a very long wait for a machine I would consider complaining or raising with your local ICB (I'm happy to try and locate it for you if you give me a county level location for you). To me that seems like an obvious target for someone to swoop in and see what they can do to reduce waiting lists as there's a massive risk of accidents/people having to go off sick etc, and the cause is what a shortage of machines? Or appointments to get a machine (harder to fix)? The people I know with sleep apnea got a machine within a couple of weeks.

Ahah, X post with the above info on recalls - I didn't know that. That may well negate the suggestion I made above but I would try and see what the reason for the wait is if you can.

She just seems to be fixated with telling me that menopause is the cause of my exhaustion, loss of memory and concentration span.

Can you arrange an appointment with a different GP. In your shoes I'd ask for a GP appointment for stress and then explain that a diagnosis of menopause in the face of the results if the sleep study are increasing your stress to unmanageable levels.

Good luck.

Thank you so much!! That’s really useful information.
And I had wondered about air pressure settings etc if I try to rent one myself and set it up.

Research shows that women are not listened to by doctors. Shockingly, this is regardless of whether the doctor is male or female.

You're going to have to make a LOT of fuss and stamp your feet to get heard.

Are you able to buy a CPAP machine?

Someone upthread said they rent one for £120 a month, but I've just had a look on amazon and you can buy one for £345. Might be an option if you're going to be on a waiting list for a year.

If you're in this much of a state and can afford it, I'd buy one. They are under 1k so it's worth it if you can scrape the money together. Better than you possibly causing an accident while driving or worse.

Saw someone telling you not to bother your GP and, to be frank, they are a bloody idiot as this condition can be life threatening.

If you are referring to me @Invisibleeye I told the OP to contact the sleep clinic because all of DH's experience with sleep apnoea was dealt with by the sleep clinic at the hopsital and not the GP. I didn't realise that it was the sleep clinic who had told the OP she had to wait a year.

Quite frankly I'm shocked that the GP isn't taking the 52 non breathing episodes an hour more seriously.

Re the recall of CPAP machines - I took DH's to the hospital and all they did was change the chip while I waited.

How do you know you’re not peri menopausal? If your a biological female over 40 and you haven’t already gone though the menopause then you are probably approaching the menopause - you don’t need the typical symptoms - some women get none. It’s totally different to prostate cancer - because menopause and sleep apnoea are linked.

you are asking for things that help sleep aponea that aren’t a CPAP machine - so loosing weight if overweight (I think you said not an issue for you, stopping smoking (if you do) and for women treating menopause can help.

I wish you luck in getting a machine soon - keep on bugging the sleep clinic. Sadly the squeaky wheel does get the most attention so making a fuss will help but save your efforts for the people that can help.

No point in bugging the GP because they can’t help same as they can’t help with other serious stuff like heart attacks and strokes and going into labour

sleep aponea is specialist. Needs specialist intervention. GP has already referred for that specialist intervention so they are taking it seriously. Specialists have managed to say sleep aponea so bad is stopping breathing 52 times a night but we’re not gonna treat for a year. anger is justified but needs to be directed at the specialists who aren’t realising this risk and doing their job and treating the poor op in a decent time frame.

the GP cannot help beyond referring to specialist, advising weight loss, no smoke and maybe treating menopause

How do you treat something you don’t have? That’s my point. If my age means that I must be perimenopausal regardless of any symptoms, why would that be the thing that needs treatment? It’s not going to stop my throat collapsing in on itself all night is it? This is my point. But it’s as lost on you as it is on Gp.

No, I couldn’t afford to buy one. I could maybe scrape enough to rent one for a month to give me a bit of respite.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2325747-sleep-apnoea-symptoms-in-post-menopausal-women-linked-to-low-oestrogen/
https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/ajrccm.163.3.9911064

osa often improves with hrt

That’s as maybe but I developed osa 9 years ago whilst I was pregnant and it’s never gone away. It’s not a new thing to me. It’s only the diagnosis that’s new.

Please don’t pester your sleep clinic. DS works in one in the midlands and they are overwhelmed with patients so have a long waiting list like yours. It’s not the staffs fault and DS is spending so much time responding to complaints and calls it’s taking them away from actually doing their job. they are so busy and now people are leaving because of it and not getting replaced. Which makes it worse and round it goes.

Complain to the hospital, the ICB who commission it and to your MP as the government fund the NHS.

Out of interest, what do you want your GP to do? They can’t treat your sleep apnoea, and have no sway over waiting lists.

DH is also awaiting a sleep clinic appointment, so I understand your frustration. But it would be absolutely pointless for him to keep contacting his GP to talk about his fatigue.

I was hoping for some guidance on how to manage my fatigue since I’m guessing that I’m not the only patient in the practice with sleep apnoea. This thread has been more helpful though.
At least if I was a man they couldn’t divert the question into treating a mystical menopause.

I get that and I absolutely do not think that any of this is the sleep clinic’s fault for having too many patients to treat and not enough resource. None of that makes me less knackered and able to cope though. And I haven’t got the energy to write that many composing letters. I just want some help.

I don’t remember who I was referring to but several people have said the same before and since. My frustration stemmed from the fact that I was told I could have died in my sleep my condition was so bad so in OP’s shoes I would 100% be seeking other options from a GP in the meantime! I appreciate there are few but as she’s only just been diagnosed she can’t be expected to be an expert.

Regarding the recall: They had to provide me with an entirely new machine of which they wait to get a batch delivered and then it takes incredible man power to organise appointments, swap machines, set up the new machine according to the patient’s own prescription etc etc. It’s not as simple as swapping a chip and even if it were that’s still clinic time taken up which could be used for new referrals. When I went up recently for a mask review I saw a room literally piled to the ceiling with CPAP boxes. I said how crazy it was seeing the huge workload that this recall had caused and they told me the huge pressure they are under as a result of it and “Phillips have a lot to answer for!” They said that their waiting list has always been really manageable but it’s now getting out of hand as so much effort is being put into swapping recalled machines. It took them about 18 months after the recall (I think! It was at least a year!) to get to me on the list to replace my
machine so it has been impacting them for a huge amount of time.

OP I had years of being told my fatigue was caused by other things despite asking for a sleep clinic referral (I was told no because I supposedly had the “wrong type” of fatigue!) so I completely appreciate your frustration! Additionally, OSA (for those saying so) isn’t always caused by lifestyle factors as it can also be anatomical (as it is in my case - I have snored terribly since childhood but never got taken seriously!) Have you looked into mouth apparatus which help some people? I can’t remember what they’re called off the top of my head. I think I also had a lower AHI when I slept in certain positions (only found this out once I had a machine though so might be hard for you to work out what works!)

However, I have to say the link between menopause and OSA is interesting and I will be logging that in my brain for when I get to that life stage! Thanks to those who shared that as I didn’t know 🙂

Out of interest, what do you want your GP to do?

Maybe, if they can't offer anything, they should be telling OP that instead of pushing menopause on her?

Don't know why so many people are struggling with this tbh. If there is no further treatment available, then there is no further treatment available. OP has had her hormones checked and isn't in menopause, therefore there's no point talking about it.

Op, look up sleep apnoea trust website, lots of info about condition and how to complain if NHS not treating correctly.
Good Luck 🤞🏻

It sounds like it's time to start seeing a different GP!

OK so you have sleep apnoea, which is the cause of your fatigue. You’re on the waiting list for CPAP. Yet you’re pestering your GP to fix your fatigue! If there was an effective alternative to CPAP, why would anyone bother with CPAP? What on earth do you think your GP can do? There is no magical cure.

YABVU.
This is why people can’t get GP appointments. We spend half our time dealing with people who have grievances with secondary care.

What will a different GP do?