Better sleep on HRT but still exhausted during the day

[tichbrew]

After recently increasing my estrogen patch and starting on Testosterone I have started to sleep a lot better of late and am no longer lying awake for hours every night. However I am still really tired during the day. Off today and I slept really well last night, got up went to the gym and did a fairly moderate workout then came home for some lunch and I could go to bed now!

Only been on testosterone a couple of weeks so far but was hoping it would improve my energy levels a bit! I felt very good when I first started on estrogen a few years ago as my energy went back up to what it had been but now although it helps with sleep and symptoms energy is still poor.

Have you had any recent blood tests? If so, check where your Levels sit Compared to the labs reference ranges. Many women feel better with Iron closer to 80-100, but it will be marked ‘normal’ as low as 20.
B12 can be marked as ‘normal’ as low as 150 but new guidelines say likely deficient below, iirc 300.
so many people are vitamin D deficient over the winter months that many Drs don’t even test levels these day, just say to supplement.
Low folate also causes tiredness.

You could feel miles better if all your levels were optimal, so it’s worth checking if you have the nhs app.

@YouDriveMeCrazyButICanDoThatMyself Thank you for replying! I'm in Scotland so no access to the app. I am taking some Iron tablets but thought they would be kicking in by now, also the testosterone is supposed to help with anaemia. I will add in a D vitamin and a B Complex and give it another few weeks and hopefully I will perk up a bit!

@tichbrew make sure you are taking your iron optimally.

One ferrous sulphate 200mg every 48hrs, with high strength vitamin C (I took 1000mg tablet).

Not within two hours of food or drink other than water.

I took mine at 5am so that I could have my coffee on the way to work at 7am.

Anymore frequently such as daily, and your body can't absorb it. It's new advice my GP told me about.

And fyi, I got my iron from 16 to 118 in 6 months (plus I had a mirena fitted).

Never heard of testosterone helping with iron though... Where did you see that? I am on T, and curious about that info.

I’m the same, OP - completely exhausted all the time.

I already take iron (have always been on the low side), a vitamin B complex and vitamin D.

I did see the GP and was offered Zopiclone (sp?) sleeping tablets to see if it would reset my sleep patterns. It hasn’t. I’m going to go back and get iron, vit B and D levels checked.

Hi op my neighbour was low on VitB12. My vitamin D was 20 should be 50. Like you had no energy. Im feeling more lively this week.