Are You Going Mad Or Is it Your Hormones?

It’s taken me a while to write this because quite frankly, until recently, I was still at the behest of my raging hormone imbalance.

I was always convinced that I was destined to develop post natal depression when I had my little girl, but having somehow skipped out on that, I wasn’t prepared for the hormonal havoc that would ensue when I came off breastfeeding when she was aged 15 months.

Cue a world of problems (which later I discovered were hormone problems, to be exact).

Rages, mood swings, brain fog, hot flushes, diving sex drive, fatigue. My whole life felt the strain. I thought perhaps I was going mad.

For a good year Mr C tiptoed on eggshells as I just could not get a handle on myself for 75% of my monthly cycle. It’s a miracle he stood by me – and for that I am forever grateful.

But I couldn’t go on like this. It was killing our family.

And then one day I had that light bulb moment. Suddenly I had an inspired moment that perhaps instead of me being crazy, that perhaps it could be my hormones. Truth be told, with everything I was experiencing I thought the perimenopause had come to knock on my door ten years earlier than it should.

But knowing how flippant GPs can be about this stuff, and I just couldn’t face months more of this as I tried to decipher why exactly I was such a big hot mess. And so on to Google I went…and eventually I came to my own conclusion I needed to see a hormone specialist, and sooner or later, all internet paths lead to the Marion Gluck Clinic in London, a specialist clinic specializing in the use of bio-identical hormones to restore and maintain optimal health and hormone balance. I promptly bought her book It Must Be My Hormones. It only made me more certain that I needed to visit the clinic.

And thank goodness it did.

By the time of my first appointment with my consultant, I had convinced myself that I was a freak show. But suddenly in that appointment that all started to fade away as it transpired that so many women came to the clinic experiencing that I had been experiencing for different reasons.

Blood tests were done and as I had begun to expect, my hormones had become out of kilter and never settled down post pregnancy. Not by much, but all you need it a little imbalance to reign havoc – well at least in my case at key points in my monthly cycle. I had become hell on earth every time my hormones changed – just before and after my period and during ovulation…apparently because my levels of progesterone were just slightly out of whack.

And so off I went with my prescription of bio identical progesterone cream (bio identical hormones being the buzz word here because they have the same chemical structure as the naturally occurring hormones which are produced in the body), to be applied during those periods of havoc.

Ten months on, although I am not perfect, I am the best and most livable version of myself I have ever been since I stopped breastfeeding. It wasn’t cheap but I maintain it was a small price to pay for getting my life back on track and bringing harmony back into my household.

Have you found your hormones never truly settled down after baby? Do you think they could be responsible for your thus far inexplicable behavior?



Motherhood: The Real Deal is run by Talya, a mum to a very intense, amazing little toddler gal who most of the time specializes in driving her round the bend. Having given up the working mum role when she hit 12 months (she was the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief for an online lifestyle platform) she’s sat on both sides of the fence as a working and then stay-at-home mum and like many, has grappled with the issues which come hand in hand with both scenarios. You can follow Talya on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.