I read an article today in the Harvard Women’s Health Watch that discussed the complaints of midlife women about insomnia. They made a number of recommendations one of which is not to got to bed to early because we as we get older we require less sleep so if you go to bed at 9pm by 3am you will be awake because you have already had six hours of sleep and at this stage in life we usually sleep between 6 and 7 hours. The article goes on to talk about all the psychological stress women might be feeling at this stage in life but it never mentions the most obvious cause of lack of sleep at this stage in a women’s lives which is the change that take place in our hormone levels at this stage in life.
I had my ovaries removed two years ago for what was considered to be borderline ovarian cancer. What is borderline ovarian cancer? It’s not cancer but instead a way of duping me out of my ovaries due to being in menopause and the doctor covering her ass due to malpractice.
After the removal of my ovaries, I began to have sleep and incontinent problems. I went to see a doctor about the incontinent problem and he told me the reason this was happening was because of lack of estrogen. He recommended I try a drug to help with this but I had no interest in taking a drug.
I made an appointment with and OB/GYN who I had seen a few years ago and she did some test and wrote a prescription for bioidentical hormones . I had used estrogen patches for nine years prior to the surgery which gave me amazing relief from the perimenopausal systems I had been having and they told me I should not use hormone replacement. I did not listen to what they had to say because I have done years of research on the relationship hormone imbalances have on women’s health.
It can take a little time to get the dose right when first going on bioidentical hormones. I did get relief from the incontinents which made me want to go want to go but I still was not sleeping the way I use to.
I called my doctor and she added a little more estrogen to my prescription and now I can barely stay awake when I get into bed to watch a little TV.
I have some links on this blog to compounding pharmacies and other resources for getting a better understanding of the amazing relieve you can get from having your hormone balanced. Hell even Oprah after being misdiagnosed with a bunch of stuff she did not have found incredible relief when she began using bioidentical hormones.
If you are suffering from lack of sleep in midlife, get your hormone levels checked.
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