It's time for me to overshare again!

It's time for me to overshare again!

TMI Warning:  I'm gonna talk about my vagina and perimenopause.

Also, this is long.

Some backstory:

My crotch has/had been itching for like, 2 years. I LITERALLY couldn't see anything wrong, but I'd been scratching through my leggings like a crazy person for all of this time. I'd tried everything, like switching soaps and detergents, moisturizing, etc. Anything I could think of to make it stop.

I didn't think it was a yeast infection because that's not how a yeast infection normally presents, and I had no other symptoms of one of those, anyway.

Well, r/menopause saved the day again. Apparently, that can happen when your estrogen is low, so I mentioned that at my last Midi appointment (which was on Halloween), so she prescribed an estrogen cream for me to use.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR ME, that wasn't the problem. I went back to r/menopause and found a few posts mentioning the itching and Lichen Sclerosus (another autoimmune thing, yay). In the posts they said that Clobetasol usually cleared that right up. "Clobetasol" was tugging at my brain strings and I went searching through the bathroom cabinets and found some (in an alcohol solution). I'd been prescribed it for my scalp psoriasis (a long-ass time ago - the expiration date on this bottle was March 2017). But I was desperate and tried it anyway and by the next day I felt tons better.

Looking back, I probably should have just gone to a doctor, but all of the gynecology places I called had really long waiting lists, and I was getting my HRT from Midi via the internet, so I was mostly good.

Until this week. 😂

I showered on Monday and put on brand new (unwashed) leggings. I don't know if I got soap in my cooter or there was dye in my pants or what, but I gradually started itching on the inside. By Wednesday night it was so bad that I yet again went digging through the bathroom cabinets and found an un-opened Monistat 1 treatment (that expired in December 2023). Out of desperation I used it, hoping I'd just gotten a yeasty somehow.

Well, I don't think that was the case. My shit burned all night and all the next day. I was in bad shape.

I washed my business in plain, cool water when I got up yesterday. I took a look and the ol' girl was DEFINITELY upset. She was very red and irritated and I was like "I have to find a doctor that can see me sooner than a few months out, or I'll have to go to the ER." I did NOT want to go to the ER, so Shaun, wonderful Shaun that he is, helped me find some places to call. And I got STUPID LUCKY that a place that specializes in HRT was able to see me the very next day, which was TODAY.

The visit went very well. Their scale and their finger-holdy thing did more than just weigh me and check my blood air. According to their gadgets, I'm made of half fat at this point, which I can believe, and my Aortic Elasticity is low, and my body is responding poorly to stress (duh). Everything else pretty much looked ok, thank goodness.

We went through a questionnaire to see if the HRT I'm on is really helping me. I already knew that my sleep was going back to shit, but there are several other things on this list that resonate, especially the increasing anxiety. Like, my life is SO MUCH EASIER than it's ever been. I don't feel like I have any good reasons to be anxious, but the migraines are becoming more frequent again and one of my triggers is stress, so... I need this to stop.

I have to go have some labs done this coming week, and she did swab my coochie, so I'm going back in a few weeks to hopefully get some answers. But for now, she's confirmed the Lichen Sclerosis and prescribed me a cream for that, so no more precariously dabbing an expired alcohol solution on my bits.

Also, testosterone wasn't mentioned by Midi as of yet, but the symptoms in the graphic are usually from low T according to the doctor that I saw today. She gave me (for free!) 2 books to read, and I'm halfway through one already. I'm hopeful that she'll prescribe me some testosterone with my other hormones at my next visit so that I can get right.

If y'all ever need to talk about the hazards of perimenopause, please feel free to reach out to me. I definitely do not have all of the answers, but I'm for sure putting up a fight to feel the best I can as I age. I can try to point you in the direction of some resources, or at least commiserate. Be well, friends. ❤️