Fatigue

Before I worked out some of my allergies, I was overwhelmed with fatigue. 

Sugar and inflammation was the first thing to get sorted and this made a night and day change. Eventually I had to cut out gluten and grains. I'm now on a FODMAP diet and try to mind the sugar. << about 30 years of getting myself sorted. 

Over the last two years I've run systematic dietary experiments, starting with only eatng rice and water and then adding one food at a time to figure out what I tolerate and don't. I managed to put together a nutritionally adequate diet and have been on that for at least six months now. It is great no to have the digestive problems I used to, and I've gained weight right up to the middle of the healthy BMI range, but I'm still tired. Maybe less tired than I was before I started the process, but still tired compared to when I was younger. And specifically more brain-tired. It's harder to focus.

Over the last two years I've run systematic dietary experiments, starting with only eatng rice and water and then adding one food at a time to figure out what I tolerate and don't. I managed to put together a nutritionally adequate diet and have been on that for at least six months now. It is great no to have the digestive problems I used to, and I've gained weight right up to the middle of the healthy BMI range, but I'm still tired. Maybe less tired than I was before I started the process, but still tired compared to when I was younger. And specifically more brain-tired. It's harder to focus.

okay yes, i wish my periods would just bog off now too!. sorry to hear it's so hard to get hold of what you need, i hope you feel better soon 

I feel much better overall since I started on progestins, rather than estrogen-based BC. I am thinking of switching to a synthetic androgen (danazol) instead, but it's harder to access and expensive so I don't know if I'll keep it up. It depends what dose I end up needing to keep my cycle suppressed, as that's the priority for me. I would rather die than menstruate.

I suspect T would help because obviously my levels are way below where they should be as a male, but that's gatekept so hard I don't know if I'll ever get it.

i have to say when im on the progestogen part of my cyclical hrt this really wipes me out even worse.  could you be progesterone intolerant?  i know i am but i still have a womb and if i want to connue taking oestrogen as part of my hrt for perimenopause, i am forced to take the progesterone as it protects the womb.  its so complex and a real battle to get right unfortunately.

i started perimenopause at 36, so its not unusual mid to late 30s to start haveimg these changes.

Peri and full menopause are important to mention, thank you. I'm currently having long-term (5 years) treatment for breast cancer - the daily drug Anastrazole helps with cancer but it has given me a 5 year menopause. It's an oestrogen blocker.

I never had troublesome symptoms when I went through my natural menopause years ago. Now, with this (necessary) drug, my fatigue, lethargy and brain fog are through the roof. 

Highly unlikely it's that then.

God I hope that's the case. I've been looking forward to menopause for 25 years. I'm on high dose progestins to shut down menstruation, although I've been tired for longer than I've been taking them.

I wondered if you might have been experiencing peri or menopause but you do seem a bit young for that although some people can experience peri-menopause symptoms from their 30's.

The brain fatigue/fog is classic of that, according to the accounts of some women who I've had dialogue with about it.

You could get your sex hormones level checked easily with a blood test but due to your age and if your menstruation is normal it's doubtful an NHS gp will do it.

I managed to see a student doctor in 2012 who did blood tests (normal apparently on the iron front, no inflammation, and I don't have caeliac) but she left and every one since then has been dismissive.

I don't remember being particularly tired then. More anxious, which I'm not so much now. I sometimes feel like anxious and tired are the only two states I have ever experienced.

Wow, that's not OK! Get a second opinion or change GP?

I do not have a good success rate of convincing GP to do anything like that. I tried to do Thriva a few years ago (this is a long-standing problem) but couldn't get enough blood, it just made my fingertip numb for a couple of weeks.

35, pre-T transmasc

What's your biological sex and age?

Have you had blood tests? It could be your thyroid or various other things. Says someone who suffers from fatigue and has never done this because I hate blood tests even though I have to have them every year for meds and could possibly ask them to check things related to tiredness... hmmm, maybe I should this year? But executive functioning...