I felt awful for quite a long time. I was baseline tired and grey and also had absolute crashes where I would be too fatigued to carry on, nauseous, dry eyes and mouth, headaches and just very gippy and gross.
I kept a diary and worked out that there was a distinct pattern and I was feeling ill in the run up to ovulation.
Started off every other month and then moved to most months. Some months very ill for just one or two days, sometimes stretching out to a week.
11 days after feeling better (it would lift like a fog) I would get a period. Whether that was a 21 days cycle or a 36.
I had a raft of tests and investigations, scans etc.
I had very low ferritin levels and was anemic.
Once that was sorted the baseline of tired and grey was gone!
I still had the monthly episodes but they were a bit more manageable.
Then they started getting worse again coupled with some night sweats, even more erratic cycles and a missed period, with mood swings.
Back to the docs, more tests, all fine including very nice ferritin levels.
HRT prescribed (History of early meno in family, I'm 45).
Two squirts of estrogen and 200mg progesterone for 12 days of the cycle.
First three months I felt GREAT! Energy back, exercising, sleeping, looking, behaving and feeling like a proper human again.
This month I delayed taking the progesterone because I had a very late bleed and wanted to try and get to the 1st of the month and start taking it by the calender.
Pre ovulation grossies are back! 😢
Since Wednesday all the symptoms have returned. Not sleeping properly, burning eyes, feeling off colour, exhausted, dry mouth. I fully expect it to lift completely over the next couple of days and I'll feel totally normal again.
So my question is, does anyone have experience or knowledge about WHAT is going on in those days?
Progesterone is low and estrogen building at that point in a normal cycle.
Might I be experiencing high estrogen symptoms and making them worse with HRT?
Might I be experiencing low estrogen symptoms those days when it should be building up and therefore the estrogen is much needed and maybe a bit more?
Might it be the low progesterone in which case is progesterone all I need?
If you can advise or theorise I'd love to hear it.
The GP is not going to want to have this discussion with me 🤣 but would probably tweak my prescription to suit - but to suit what??