Mood swings, sleep disruption

[Late40s]

Hi Lara,

I have read your books and thought they were excellent thank you.

I am 47 years old, currently have a mirena (due to heavy periods - low iron, bad PMT, sore breasts). This is my 2nd mirena, so in total I’ve had it for around 6 years. It has been life changing for me - no more periods, no more PMT or sore breasts etc).

About 18 months ago my sleep started to get really bad. I don’t have any problems falling asleep, but I was waking at 2/3am and awake for hours before finally dropping back to sleep around 5.30am, to be woken by my alarm at 6.30am feeling exhausted all day. About a year ago my GP prescribed 10mg amitripyline. This has been amazing and I now sleep through the night. I am now too scared to stop taking the amitripyline as I don’t want to risk waking in the night again and not being able to go back to sleep.

Recently (I would say in the last 3-4 months) I have started to get other symptoms. Bad skin on my chin, this is very random, possibly cyclic (but hard to know when I don’t get a period), big zits/welts on my chin. Like being a teenager again!

I also have noticed a change in my moods. I seem to be far more irritable, unable to handle stress as well and snappy at people and my family. And I hate being like this.

I also have put on about 3-4kg, which I just can’t seem to shift like I used to easily be able to do. I have done a lot of reading around insulin resistance and think this could definitely be a problem for me. So I am trying to manage this through improving my diet.

I also see a naturopath who is amazing (she has been to many of your workshops), she cannot prescribe hormones etc, but she does have me on a lot of supplements - like trimag etc.

So my question to you is should I take a hormone replacement? I feel as though the sleep issue as ok with amitripyline, and the weight gain is annoying but I can live with it. But it is my mood swings and irritability towards my family that is really bothering me now and I’d like to do something about this.

I’m not sure who I should see, the specialists do not prescribe bioidentical and I haven’t felt comfortable to discuss this with my GP (male and new to me). Do I need progesterone? If so what kind and how much do I ask for? And if I do take progesterone should I stop the amitripyline?
After reading your book I know my symptoms are possibly high fluctuation of estrogen.

I do not have a history of breast cancer in my family. Although I do have fibrocystic breast disease. We do have heart disease in our family and I at the moment I have slightly elevated cholesterol levels.

Thank you

[wendymak]

Hi
This sounds just like me! Did you end up finding anything that helped?