Hi my name is Karen and I haven't had a period for 10 months so obviously well on my way to getting through menopause. I thought I was getting away very lightly with menopause, night sweats and hot flushes and the first thing my doctor asked when I went was how my mood was. I was fine (this was about a year ago) at the time, mood was pretty much normal for me and I was coping well. Then my dad, who'd had a long illness was in and out of hospital 3 times before ending up in a care home and finally dying in October. I was off work for nearly 5 weeks but as soon as I went back my manager had me learning a new job. I've been attempting to learn it for about 6 weeks and it's very slow going due to my brain appearing to be mush at times, not remembering things, forgetting what I'm about to say etc. It's been made much worse by sleep problems, I can get to sleep fine but it's the staying asleep which is a problem, I wake most nights for at least an hour or maybe two then 5 mornings a week I have to get up at just after 6 am to go to work. On Monday this week I went into a meltdown at work, in floods of tears, thinking I will never learn this job and even thoughts of leaving altogether because I can't cope. I think I'm depressed because of the year I've had but menopause symptoms are not helping. I have an appt with my doctor next tuesday so will see what he can suggest but my feeling is he will offer antidepressants and if so I will take them. My manager had a meeting with me yesterday and said she doesn't want to lose me and they will support me to learn the job and she's going through menopause too so could identify with me. I did ask to drop a day so I could catch up with sleep etc but she refused. Not really sure how it's going to go, I know this is part of my job I need to learn but it's so overwhelming and I'm worried I will ever get it and not being able to drop a day isn't going to help because I'm still going to be constantly exhausted.
I'm from the UK, work in the NHS and wondered if anyone else had any experience of what I'm going through?
Karen