BlackSheepVegan
Branching Out
It’s a bit of a dirty word really isn’t it.
Ordinarily.
The thing no one talks about but over half of the population will personally experience.
The thing that GPs receive 7 hours training on. 7 hours. That’s it.
If you aren’t already aware, there is a vast gender gap within medicine, and an even wider gender pain gap. Women’s health is vastly underfunded, under researched and just doesn’t really matter within the patriarchal medical system we exist with.
Today is world early menopause day.
I was 36 when I went into early perimenopause. Strictly speaking it’s early onset ovarian insufficiency syndrome, but what a shit name.
It led to my ADHD and Autism diagnoses, because I basically stopped being able to mask in the space of a few weeks. I just, couldn’t cope with life at all.
This was really made worse by the crippling joint pain, horrific night sweats, insomnia, migraines, palpitations, panic attacks, dry cracking skin, brain fog and fatigue I was experiencing with no apparent cause.
In 2022 I was urgently referred by my GP to the Rheumatology hospital in Bath, with a full diagnostic procedure which began within a fortnight. I had MRI scans, ultrasounds, X rays, endless bloods and even a TB test. I was given steroid injections directly into joints in my hands and wrists. Courses of long term anti inflammatory drugs and steroid courses. Temporarily they would help a little and then stop helping.
After one of my many long term breaks from work due to poor health, I began to look into my symptoms more closely and persued a fresh line of research. That’s when I found multiple accounts of similar symptoms and problems on the menopause sub Reddit. It’s a bit of a large joke thread about the most outlandish other things you were proposed to have before being started on HRT.
I called my Consultant who said there’s no harm in seeing if HRT helps.
But the NHS wouldn’t even entertain me. I was “too young”. My periods were still regular, but they were different. Shorter. So I saw a private menopause Dr, at £300 an appointment.
I began a basic HRT regimen in Nov 2023, and it’s been swiftly upped to a continuous dose cycle as of today.
I am still unable to get one of my hormones on the NHS. Testosterone cream (yes we need it to!) but this has been absolutely key in my treatment, meaning once I added it twice weekly I have lost 58 pounds I had gained since 2020. I am stronger, and fitter. I’m 40 and in the best shape I’ve ever been in. If left to just the NHS and I hadn’t advocated for myself, I would probably be completely physically disabled and unable to walk/work by now.
That said, without medical cannabis, I would not have coped with my symptoms. Insomnia. Anxiety. Depression. Anger and irritability have all been vastly helped. Im not prescribed for menopause, of course, but it’s the menopause that’s meant my ADHD is raging without cannabis.
My osteoarthritis is absolutely brutal without cannabis, and menopause has greatly increased my pain from osteoarthritis. I was diagnosed at 29 with it in my hands.
Why am I posting this? Well, you all know or have women, or afab people, you love in your life. They may sail through menopause, or they may have the worst possible time that could happen. The rate of suicide amongst menopausal age women is staggeringly high.
So many of us are gaslit, ignored by Drs, or just won’t go in the first place. But it’s not necessary to suffer, and it’s so important to know the options for you with HRT.
If you’ve never talked to your partner about menopause, or your kids, please do.
Ordinarily.
The thing no one talks about but over half of the population will personally experience.
The thing that GPs receive 7 hours training on. 7 hours. That’s it.
If you aren’t already aware, there is a vast gender gap within medicine, and an even wider gender pain gap. Women’s health is vastly underfunded, under researched and just doesn’t really matter within the patriarchal medical system we exist with.
Today is world early menopause day.
I was 36 when I went into early perimenopause. Strictly speaking it’s early onset ovarian insufficiency syndrome, but what a shit name.
It led to my ADHD and Autism diagnoses, because I basically stopped being able to mask in the space of a few weeks. I just, couldn’t cope with life at all.
This was really made worse by the crippling joint pain, horrific night sweats, insomnia, migraines, palpitations, panic attacks, dry cracking skin, brain fog and fatigue I was experiencing with no apparent cause.
In 2022 I was urgently referred by my GP to the Rheumatology hospital in Bath, with a full diagnostic procedure which began within a fortnight. I had MRI scans, ultrasounds, X rays, endless bloods and even a TB test. I was given steroid injections directly into joints in my hands and wrists. Courses of long term anti inflammatory drugs and steroid courses. Temporarily they would help a little and then stop helping.
After one of my many long term breaks from work due to poor health, I began to look into my symptoms more closely and persued a fresh line of research. That’s when I found multiple accounts of similar symptoms and problems on the menopause sub Reddit. It’s a bit of a large joke thread about the most outlandish other things you were proposed to have before being started on HRT.
I called my Consultant who said there’s no harm in seeing if HRT helps.
But the NHS wouldn’t even entertain me. I was “too young”. My periods were still regular, but they were different. Shorter. So I saw a private menopause Dr, at £300 an appointment.
I began a basic HRT regimen in Nov 2023, and it’s been swiftly upped to a continuous dose cycle as of today.
I am still unable to get one of my hormones on the NHS. Testosterone cream (yes we need it to!) but this has been absolutely key in my treatment, meaning once I added it twice weekly I have lost 58 pounds I had gained since 2020. I am stronger, and fitter. I’m 40 and in the best shape I’ve ever been in. If left to just the NHS and I hadn’t advocated for myself, I would probably be completely physically disabled and unable to walk/work by now.
That said, without medical cannabis, I would not have coped with my symptoms. Insomnia. Anxiety. Depression. Anger and irritability have all been vastly helped. Im not prescribed for menopause, of course, but it’s the menopause that’s meant my ADHD is raging without cannabis.
My osteoarthritis is absolutely brutal without cannabis, and menopause has greatly increased my pain from osteoarthritis. I was diagnosed at 29 with it in my hands.
Why am I posting this? Well, you all know or have women, or afab people, you love in your life. They may sail through menopause, or they may have the worst possible time that could happen. The rate of suicide amongst menopausal age women is staggeringly high.
So many of us are gaslit, ignored by Drs, or just won’t go in the first place. But it’s not necessary to suffer, and it’s so important to know the options for you with HRT.
If you’ve never talked to your partner about menopause, or your kids, please do.
), so the same afflictions either also hurt some men too or are just underreported in men.
