Originally published in Sweden 2018

Original title: Perimenopower – hitta din superkraft när hormonerna svänger

Translated to English by Karin Shearman

© 2018 Katarina Wilk and Ehrlin Publishing AB

eBook ISBN: 978-9-18837-539-1

www.ehrlinpublishing.com

Foreword

A few years ago, things started happening to my body that I did not recognize. I couldn’t sleep, had panic attacks and sudden bouts of sweating. There were so many odd things happening all at once and I felt sad and confused. Perhaps the way you feel right now? Worried, low and sad? Like all you want is to get rid of this strange condition, although you can barely explain what it is.

During a girls’ dinner party, when I reluctantly admitted how I felt, everyone started laughing. In the end, we all laughed so hard that we cried. Everyone had similar symptoms, but none of us realized at the time that it could be because we were getting close to the time when our periods would stop. We still had regular bleedings and we were only in our forties. We had heard that you could experience similar things during the menopause, but surely that was something that happened when you were getting close to or past the age of 50?

Naturally a curious person, I decided to find out more. When I realized how little collective knowledge there is about this subject, and how many theories and advice were floating around, I made the decision to write this book.

My whole working life has been spent as a writer and editor with a focus towards health, training, and medicine. I have always had a great interest in the female body as I am fascinated by how amazing it is. For example, that a woman can carry and give birth to babies is incredible. Your body is a miracle and you need to look after it carefully, especially during sensitive periods such as puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause – times when your female sex hormones go crazy.

This book will not replace professional health care by licensed doctors; if you feel really unwell you need to get help. I won’t be saying that estrogen is better than natural medicines or that cardio training is better than strength training. Instead, I will present different alternatives and solutions, and give you the option of making an informed decision. I am offering you a chance to take charge of your life and I hope you will realize that you don’t have to live with these symptoms if you don’t want to, as there are things you can do to feel better.

The one thing I can promise you is that I have tried everything to feel better and today I am in better physical and mental shape than ever. But it has been a long and winding road, and it is this road that I want to share with you. There is such a lack of knowledge on this subject, but I hope that this book will help to change this. A tip I can give you straight away is to stop googling your symptoms. Most of them are conveniently compiled here for you.

Between you and me, most of my friends are »patients« of mine. I am known in my group of girls as the one who pretends to be a doctor. At the first sign of a symptom, I try to help them the best I can and with the knowledge I have. Even if it’s just to support them there and then. I want to help you too. I want you to feel more secure after reading this book. That you will understand more about what is going on inside your body and that you will know how to turn the negatives into positives. This period in your life isn’t an illness, it’s a phase. A phase that affects most women in the world.

I want to make you feel that you are not alone, but also give you the knowledge of what happens in the female body. For example, did you know that what happens in your body before your last period can go on for as long as 10–15 years before your periods end? Most of the symptoms you have are not unusual and they are the result of your hormones being completely off track.

This book is in two parts. The first part is based upon my own experiences which you may recognize in yourself. To make it easier for you, I will guide you through the necessary terms and describe what happens inside your body. The second part is about what you can do in order to feel the best you can. My hope is that you will use this book as a guide on your journey to find your superpower when the hormones swing.

This is a book for those of you who are 35 and older and interested in the reasons for why you are sleepless, sweaty, and down, and want to get the best tips for waking up well-rested, fresh, and happy. I want to help you find yourself again. You could say that this book is the result of extremely difficult hormonal storms in combination with a somewhat obsessive interest in medicine and a curiosity that irritates some and fascinates others. All medical facts have been checked by Evelina Sande Idenfeldt who is a senior doctor of gynecology and obstetrics and who runs a women’s clinic in Sweden.

Perimenopower is a new word, invented by me. It comes from the word perimenopause, which is the term for the time before your last period, and power. To be a woman is, in itself, a superpower and perimenopower is exactly what you need to get through this difficult phase. This power is already inside of you but, with all of these strange symptoms, it disappears out of sight. Even if it may not feel like it at the moment, you are incredibly strong. How many times didn’t things happen in your life and all you wanted to do was to curl up in a little ball? You may have done just that for a while, but you always manage to get up again. Use that strength now. Your perimenopower is there, I promise.

Katarina Wilk, Stockholm 2018

Part 1 : Perimenopause – Just hit me!

CHAPTER 1: MY STORY

My first symptoms began soon after I turned 40. Because I didn’t know where to turn, or even if my symptoms were anything to be taken seriously, I started to look for answers wherever I could find them. The questions were numerous, and so difficult to find answers to since I could hardly explain the symptoms even to myself. Why did I feel so low? Why was I unable to sleep? Why did I wake at night with palpitations and sheets drenched in sweat?

I’m not depressed – I just want to sleep

I remember it vividly. It was just before Christmas and I simply could not get to sleep. It wasn’t that I had difficulties going to sleep or that I woke up several times in the night. I simply didn’t sleep a wink, not even one second throughout the night. Have you ever experienced this? Then you know that the only thing you think about when you can’t sleep is how much you want to sleep, which builds up panic and frustration that doesn’t make falling asleep any easier.

I explained away the sleeplessness as stress. You know, as can happen around Christmas. There is food to be cooked, presents to be bought, and trips to grandparents and in-laws to be planned. No wonder, you have a thousand things on your mind. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shut my brain down, so I went to my doctor.

The doctor asked if I was finding things difficult at the moment. If I was feeling low. I had to stop myself from shoving the stethoscope down her throat. Of course I felt low, most people who get no sleep feel low. It was a badly formulated question. But I was starting to panic. I felt so bad and I was getting no help. And I simply couldn’t get to sleep.

A day or two later, I returned to the medical center and started to cry out of hopelessness. The doctor realized that this person had to sleep or something terrible would happen. So, she prescribed some strong sleeping tablets.

• Depression or exhaustion, she said, and despite feeling neither depressed nor exhausted, I nodded while sobbing. I had no other alternative.

I took one of the strong sleeping pills that same evening. But it was the first, and definitely the last, time I tried that. I suffered terrible hallucinations, and what should have been a beauty sleep ended with me hardly daring to go to sleep again. The nightmares I had that night were worse than all horror films put together. So much blood, so many babies without heads. When I woke, I was completely wiped out and filled with such anxiety that I thought I may need admitting to a psychiatric unit. So, although I’d been asleep, it was a sleep I could have done without. I remember my next visit to the medical center when I told the doctor about my night filled with nightmares.

• I think you should start a course of anti-depressants, you show all the signs of being depressed, said the doctor.
• I don’t want to take anti-depressants. I’m not depressed, I just want to sleep. It must be something else.
• It’s probably just temporary, continue with the sleeping tablets and you’ll be fine. These things just happen sometimes.

I was terribly sad when I left. My questions about why I felt the way I did had not been answered, instead it felt as though the doctor had tried to persuade me that I was depressed even though I didn’t feel like that at all. I felt more confused when I left than when I had arrived. Have you ever experienced this – leaving the doctor and wondering if you’d even been helped?

Insomnia: Insomnia is the medical term for sleeplessness. It means that you are unable to sleep, you sleep badly, or wake early. It can be temporary or more permanent.

Seeing connections and looking for solutions

Once Christmas was over, we went to Spain. I was feeling panicked, since I still didn’t know why my body refused to sleep. The panic grew every day as I got more and more tired. I simply could not get to sleep. But since I had lived in France during my youth, I knew that you could get strong medicines over the counter in southern Europe, and I was not disappointed. The local pharmacist in the Andalusian mountain village recommended a supplement of melatonin, a natural sleep hormone produced by the body but decreases with age. Melatonin is sold as a supplement in Europe and the US but not in Sweden. I had taken it a few years earlier for sleeping problems caused by jetlag when I was in the US and it had worked then.

I took melatonin and finally I could begin to sleep a little again. But I still wondered what was going on, my brain was working overtime. What caused the sleeplessness? I had also started to suffer from low blood sugar more often and had to eat regularly in order not to feel weak and shaky. I had never experienced it so vividly before. Have you experienced problems with blood sugar? Then you will know how weak and faint you can suddenly feel. Like you just want to devour an entire bar of chocolate just to get some energy back.

book.

Perimenopause: The time before your final period. A period in your life when you are experiencing hormonal changes. It can start as early as age 35, but for many the age is between 40 and 45.