Okay, so coming back to this post from 6 months ago where I raised the possibility that many of my new body problems may be due in part to HRT, I have a few updates.

Post-viral fatigue is a lot like ME/CFS, but it's different in some ways. I am pretty sure I have the former but I'm not sure about the latter. I have never been tested or diagnosed.

I am fairly certain I have POTS, as my pulse regularly increases by between 30 and 60 when I stand up. I have always been like this and just thought it was normal? I don't faint so never saw it as a problem.

Early last month I started suspecting I may have EDS. I went through the criteria myself and ticked a lot of the boxes. I have to wait until June to see someone about it.

In general though, a lot of my long-covid symptoms have either gone away completely or only seem to come up rarely, in times of high stress. My body is generally a bit tired, but I don't really feel 'fatigue'. This is good! (Progress! Recovery! Tentative hope!) And the weird head sensations I experienced kinda went away in late November to early December. (This is the most positive change, because I didn't know what it was and it worried me the most.)

I watched the documentary Unrest (2017) last night. It was great. (I cried a lot.) I then looked at at later blog posts from the producer/director about how she had a sudden recovery after cranialcervical fusion surgery and tethered cord release surgery. These aren't going to help most people, but interestingly these were related to hypermobility (possibly due to EDS).

One of my EDS symptoms is that I can make my thumbs touch my wrists. It's a slight strain but I can do it pretty easily.

... or at least I could do it last month. I no longer can.

I got my blood test results back last week with my recent hormone levels which showed that my testosterone level had increased to 2.0 nmol/L, and this all started to paint something of a picture about a possible theory about what may have happened to me last year.

To summarise my current theory:

* In a lot of cases, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is related in some way to ME/CFS. Hyperflexibility can reduce the ability of the brain to communicate clearly with the rest of the body.

* I have a flavour of EDS which includes various kinds of hyperflexibility. It's relatively mild.

* A body's level of hyperflexibility is related to hormone levels. eg. higher testosterone can reduce flexibility.

* Women are more likely to be diagnosed with things like EDS because the symptoms present more clearly.

* Women are more likely to have autoimmune diseases because hormone levels make them more flexible and any genetic predisposition is more likely to be expressed.

* When I got covid in March, it was the first time I was sick since starting HRT. My body was different - specifically, my testosterone level was < 0.1 nmol/L so my EDS symptoms were accentuated - and dormant predispositions were unlocked.

* Covid is a particularly bad thing to be infected with and it messed with much of my body. I'm still fighting it.

* Since I stopped taking a T-blocker (cypro) in July and switched to monotherapy (pellet implants), my T levels slowly rose. In October they were at 0.4.

* I started taking (oral) progesterone in October and it wasn't sufficient to help suppress testosterone. My level kept rising until January when it reached 2.0 nmol/L, the top end of the 'normal' range for women.

* My symptoms have been improving since October and this helps to explain at least part of why.