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?

Sorry posted too soon….
That would be for the community respiratory team.

CPAP is the treatment. You’d make a complaint that a GP can’t pull a CPAP machine out of their arse?

Thank Christ I’m not a GP.

The OP wants the GP acknowledge she has sleep apnoea! did I mention CPAP?

I am sorry if all of this has been said already, op, I have read some but not all of the posts on this thread; a blood test will show if you are perimenopausal. There definitely will be changes in Oestradiol, Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinising hormone (LH). Rather personal but sleep apnoea frequently occurs in people who smoke/drink and are overweight. I am not suggesting that applies to you but it is a fact. My husband did not smoke or drink but he had it; he was very overweight and snored badly.

It's good you are on B12, that does make a difference. Please take care of yourself.

I’m sorry you’re experiencing this, lack of sleep is truly brutal.

I think I’d be open to receiving treatment proposed for menopausal symptoms, even if it only works as a placebo.

I also note you say you can’t afford to buy a cpap, and I don’t want to be insensitive to the financial difficulties that anyone is facing now, but can you honestly afford not to? Your health is the most valuable thing you have, if you are on the verge of malfunctioning then it really does need to be a priority for you. If you can access a loan/credit/the mercy of loved ones to purchase one, I would do everything in your power to do so.

To echo some previous posters, and I note you don’t say if you are a driver or not, but this is a serious condition with serious ramifications and it’s a legal requirement to notify the DVLA of your diagnosis. If you are in employment, could you ask for a loan/advance of wages to get a machine?

Who said I was 52? Not sure where you got that from but I’m not

Sorry, I must have misread it

I have just thoroughly read all of the op's posts and noticed '52' was mentioned in one but not in connection with her age. The number stayed in your mind, Movinghouseatlast; it happens.

OP, I am sorry suggestions I made in previous post had already been dealt with in the thread.

I just hope you get an appointment soon and have some relief.

The thing is, women of your age who still have a uterus and ovaries will definitely go through menopause sooner or later. Some of those women, despite the adverts we’re currently being bombarded with, may have no symptoms until they realise that they’ve not had a period for 6 months. Conversely, you will NEVER need prostrate treatment, nor will you break your leg as women don’t have prostrates whilst most people manage to go through life without breaking their legs. So your analogy is plain daft.

When the OP said in one of her posts that the GP said something along the lines of ‘most other people with sleep apnea can manage without a CPAP’ it sounded to me like the GP was acknowledging the diagnosis.