@WanderingHuman If you have access to primary care, it wouldn't hurt to get your thyroid checked, just to rule that out. It can be a bit of a copycat.

Being in an extended period of crisis will trash the nervous system, so that comes into play as well. Humans aren't built for dystopia.

So it could be a few things, and maybe a couple in combination, but if you have a good doc or NP it's worth having a conversation about perimenopause if you haven't done that already.

Estrogen dropping takes dopamine along for the ride, which only makes things worse.

For a lot of us, the symptoms of peri and menopause are being amplified by the state of the world. Especially those of us with neurodivergent brains. Peri/menopause isn't a hormone event, it's a brain event. That little fact still isn't really discussed all that much.

Apologies if you know all this already. I'm doing an info dump from what I've learned/experienced. I didn't get hit with big symptoms until I was well into menopause. HRT helped me a lot, but now I'm in burnout, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

I hope you can get some answers tailored for you and that you feel better soon.

@StaceyCornelius I appreciate the info! I've, uh, been kind of procrastinating on the blood tests. 🙈 That's totally on me.

But the rest of what you said also makes sense. I've definitely been under stress for years and it's not going anywhere. Young kids and elderly parents. 😣 Plus career burnout. But I am doing something about that, at least.

So what can I do to help the fatigue, other than sleep? (And I am on HRT, too)

@WanderingHuman I second @StaceyCornelius comment.

Just wanted to mention also sleep apnea option, just in case. Because I have discovered that too many of us in perimenopause/menopause can suffer from it, just learned about it a few weeks ago… And as usual, symptoms are dismissed and/or confused with perimenopause ones.

Don’t forget as already mentioned that for us ND, perimenopause hits us so much harder... I feel you so much.

To help with fatigue can you have unwinding moments during the day despite everything you have to manage?

@adelinej @StaceyCornelius Ugh. I do have mild to moderate sleep apnea, but I can't sleep with a cpap machine, I've tried. And insurance won't cover a sleep apnea mouth appliance. 😞

Unwinding - I do try, but I also have things I need to get done. Given extra sleep, work and family demands, that just leaves the time after the kids are in bed. Then I have trouble getting to sleep at a reasonable time, because quiet time is so limited. 😭

@WanderingHuman One thing that helps me is the SnoreGym app (https://snoregym.com/). It's free, with paid add-ons. I couldn't even cope with the home sleep apnea testing gear, so I did some recordings with the SnoreLab app and started using SnoreGym.

Backstory: A dental clinic was running an upsell scheme with a local sleep clinic. The hygienist unwittingly told me that throat muscles can lose tone as we age, which of course sent my ND brain on a quest. Because muscles that can get weak can also be strengthened (duh).

The routine I do takes just 10 minutes and could be considered quiet, winding down time. So that might be an easy thing to try.

@adelinej