Hi Annette, you certainly aren't the only one to have no clue what was going on. I like to think of myself as quite well informed, but I thought I had dementia.
During my 40s I did a degree in maths with the OU, I left school at 16 but always wanted to do it. Anyway it started off great, aged 42 at the start I had no mental fog, by the time I finished age 48 it was gruelling. I didn't take a year or two off because I was convinced I had dementia and it would therefore just get worse the rest of my life.
I finished it in a race against my encroaching dementia and won, got a First, so bucket list ticked there, yay.
Since then I've stepped back a little from work and I'm spending a lot more time for myself, my kids are now in their 20s and don't need the same effort from me all the time.
I'm nearly 54 now, I've been trying out HRT for a year and a half now and I've found two regimens that work so I hope to be allowed to use one of them going forward. I have a scan for abnormal or post meno bleeding next month, been waiting since last year for that. After the scan they will tell me what I'm allowed.
I no longer think I'm getting dementia, it settled and I have a new way of thinking I guess, I'm putting myself first more and working less.
If you can't take HRT, I'd recommend Black Cohosh as the hands down winner out of all the herbs you can buy in H&B. I also find mega vitamin C doses helps even things out and general B and D vitamins for hormone support. Magnesium and zinc too, but at different times of the day because each affects the absorption of the other.
Other than that, I'd say the answer is to slow down and expect less from yourself, but that's without knowing the question
