New- Just joined

[springerspirit]

Hi Suffering,

I’m so sorry you’re going through this. It is so devastating. I echo your story and the one of many others here in that I suffered for so long before I got any real answers or got better.

I was compelled to reply to you due to the hormone element in your story. Unlike most of us here, I decided not to go for the meds, but instead adopt a functional medicine approach and try to rebalance anything that was ‘off’ in my body. This led me to discover a thyroid condition that was not picked up by mainstream tests. I started taking (and still do) levothyroxine and T3, including lots of supplements. I completely changed my diet to a paleo one, got rid of caffeine and alcohol (now I have the occasional tipple). I also tried to take as much time as I could to rest and de-stress. One of the things that an in-depth hormone test picked up was also an oestrogen dominance/ something not metabolising properly there, so I take a special supplement for that. All in all, I now feel about 95% most days, with flare ups happening during long car journeys, too much time exposed to supermarket type lights and too much stress. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that for me everything started with a miscarriage, and I can only imagine your menopause was a similar trigger. My advice is, see if you can find a buddy also struggling with a chronic condition and support each other. A friend of mine got chronic fatigue syndrome at a similar time and we helped each other no end. And this forum was also always a life line for me.

I hope you can find a medication that gives you relief, but I would urge you to see a hormone specialist too (make sure they test your T3 levels too, not just T4 and TSH, when you get your thyroid tested). And don’t underestimate the power of diet and lifestyle changes. If you want to talk more about anything, PM me and I’ll send you links and advice etc.

Best of luck in the meantime,
Anna

[Onandon03]

@Suffering

I started having mystery symptoms of constant motion sickness and nausea the year I hit menopause

I could find half a dozen similar on here, myself included, anytime. It’s no coincidence vestibular specialists waiting rooms are packed with middle aged women. Investigating any possible cause id always the way forward in any condition. There’s a far better chance of success with a definite condition that can be treated over a diagnosis of exclusion under the broad umbrella of MAV. As @springerspirit says go looking for a solution. And meantime check out all the usual menopausal symptoms which in fact overlap about 85% with possible MAV ones so it’s best not to ‘blame’ MAV/VM for everything that transpires whilst on The Change. It can be a very difficult time health wise for many women.

[Suffering]

Thank you so much Anna. After reading your post, I went to see what my T3 thyroid was and it is within normal range. I am not familiar with the paleo diet but I do believe that rest and reducing stress is important. It is hard to do though. Stress means different things to different people. Yes, I did not have any of this before my last period hit me and boom I woke up the next month with a swimmy head and went to Urgent care. From there it was BPPV and then when that resolved with physical therapy but I kept having a nauseous head awful feeling all year. PCP was awful and I kept losing more and more hope. Since I have discovered this forum just in the last couple of days, I am feeling and getting hope vibes. I’m still waiting on Lamotrigine to see if it will do something if I stayed on it for some more days. I am so tired of not getting well.

[Onandon03]

@Suffering

I did not have any of this before my last period hit me and boom I woke up the next month with a swimmy head and went to Urgent care. From there it was BPPV and

What you describe is totally typical for many. I had a few months delay between that last period and the onset of BPPV-like symptoms which I am positive were just MAV’s first bout in an breviated form. I never made the link to menopause for years and have had consultants still deny there is one. These days on medication all I need is a hot flush for the dizziness to kick in so I draw my own conclusions from that. Retrospectively I discovered there is a window during which HRT which may help can be introduced. Others on here have tried it. Some with success, others not so. All avenues are worth investigation and as soon as possible.