My story so far, part 1

My story dates back to 2006 when I decided it was time to give my body a break from pretty much non stop use of the pill, namely Dianette and Yasmin, since I was a teenager.

My periods were very light and started skipping and I began to get hot flushes and night sweats more commonly associated with a much later time of life. I remember naturally assuming that coming off the pill would mean my body would take time to reset itself and get back to normal. During that year, the threat of redundancies at work also came to light adding to the stress, hence not worrying overly about it.

In early 2007, things were still not right so I saw my GP who recommended a blood test in which my FSH levels were tested. FSH is Follicle Stimulating Hormone which is the hormone responsible for sparking up the menstrual cycle each month, sending a signal from your pituitary gland in the brain to the follicles in your ovaries to release an egg. A normal level for a woman before menopause would be approx from 0 to 10 (depending on who you talk to!), as a normally menstruating woman would not need much FSH to release an egg. From 10 - 20 indicates means you've got problems and anything over 25, we're talking menopausal ranges as it means that your brain is sending more and more of the FSH signal to get the egg released but your ovaries are not interested anymore.

My level came back as 63. Not just I've got a problem or I'm pre-menopausal even, but straight through to the other side. There it was on paper. I was post-menopausal at just 33 years old.

I made an appointment to see a gynaecologist though there were problems with when he could see me, so I decided not to see him. I was going through a hellish time with all the flushes every hour, no sleep, night sweats all sorts, plus I also had other stressful problems going on in my life too so what did I do next? I lied to the GP, said my periods were back, must be stress and I was happily back on Yasmin pretending none of that ever happened. Yes it was denial, but I thought that I needed to sort out all my other stresses first, then when my life had calmed down and I was more settled again, I'd come off the pill again and then everything would be back to normal, right?