Zaburzenia umysłowe z powodu menopauzy
EN_01627573_0004
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A 47-year-old Leeds woman who was left severely mentally and physically impaired by the menopause - despite the fact that she was on HRT - has said her life was saved by testosterone gel.
Midlife wellbeing and menopause educator Niki Woods was already on oestrogen and progesterone HRT when she started experiencing symptoms in 2021. Even after sleeping for 12 or more hours through the night, she would wake exhausted. She found herself relying on SatNav for the most basic of journeys - including driving just over a mile into town from her home - and was regularly losing her keys and locking herself out of the house.
Niki explains: ‘The brain fog was really bad. I would regularly put something on the stove, leave the room or even the house and come back to find smoke alarms going off and the kitchen full of smoke. I struggled to have conversations, barely had the energy to speak and found following my own thoughts and sentences really challenging. I was confused, forgetful and shattered.’
Niki, who was working as a personal trainer at the time, lost count when she was counting reps and had to sit down frequently due to exhaustion. She had to turn away clients as she didn’t have the energy to train them and she suffered from constant muscle aches and weakness.
Using a combination of her own knowledge and research, Niki used private at-home blood tests to rule out other potential causes and to confirm her own hunch that she was severely lacking in testosterone.
Armed with this information, Niki returned to her GP and requested a prescription but was turned down twice, once by a doctor who said he didn't feel knowledgeable enough to prescribe it, and once by another GP who said testosterone is dangerous for women.
So she went private. ‘By this point, I was barely functioning. Life really didn’t feel worth living. The symptoms were so severe, that without the testosterone gel, I would either have ended up accidentally setting my house on fire, crashing my car, or because I was in such a state may have eventually ended up giving up and killing myself.
‘I was thinking - what is the point in being alive? I had no life and couldn’t even count to ten. I could barely drive, work or hold conversations. I was very clear that it wasn’t depression, it was that the impact of the symptoms were making me severely depressed.’
Her symptoms started to turn around after only two weeks of using the gel, and now she feels like her old self again.
Niki, author of The Man's Guide To Menopause: Everything You Need To Know But Were Afraid To Ask, adds: ‘It was as if the lights came back on. My brainpower returned and I could think and speak again. I feel so much better now and am really relieved that I have the right prescription. My levels are correct so my energy and brainpower have returned.
'Testosterone saved my life.’
Featuring: Niki Woods
When: 26 Jul 2024
Credit: Maryanne Scott/Cover Images
**EDITORIAL USE ONLY. MATERIALS ONLY TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH EDITORIAL STORY. THE USE OF THESE MATERIALS FOR ADVERTISING, MARKETING OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL PURPOSE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. MATERIAL COPYRIGHT REMAINS WITH STATED PHOTOGRAPHER AND/OR SUPPLIER.**
2024-07-26
Cover Images/East News
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