Adele Wimsett

Exhausted? Anxious? Not sleeping? Messed up periods? Feel like a crap mum?

Well Sister, I hear ya!

This was me but at the time I was so desensitised to how stressed I actually was, I thought it was normal. I literally had no idea how screwed my hormones were and just thought it was normal to have all of the above symptoms and more, including PMT…as if somehow it was just par for the course of being a modern woman!! How wrong I was……

Having always been an activist for equality and a catalyst for change, I was in my early 30’s & in a senior position in the public sector (which although intensely aligned to my values, was stressful enough to burn anyone out!!) – I was constantly in my masculine energy to “succeed” with relentless action, ridiculous pressures and a toxic working environment. And as if I didn’t have enough on my already overflowing  plate, I thought I might as well add motherhood into the mix……well, why not?! I was a high achieving woman so was certain this would be a doddle….

I naïvely believed I could do it all and do it all well….pah! DAMN! No one could have prepared me for the relentless balancing act of trying to be all things to all people…and the GUILT!! Jeeeeez….the mummy guilt was suffocating – I felt like I was being a crap mum and crap at my job. No one was winning in this situation. I felt trapped on the monotonous hamster wheel of life – toddler, baby, hubby, career, social life, family…blah blah…and then chuck in all of the “shoulds” I (incorrectly) thought I needed to be doing for my health!?!? Enough was enough!!

I was quite frankly  burnout trying to keep all the balls in the air and my hormones let me know it. The problem was I just didn’t know what to do to help myself as I knew medication, including synthetic hormones, was not what I wanted or needed.

My hormones were literally screaming at me to STOP! The way I was living was not working for my mind or body; my lifestyle was literally making me sick. And I felt powerless to stop it, feeling totally out of control. At the time, my period had gone AWOL and it was not an issue to me at all – in fact it was one less thing to worry about…. Oh the irony……in reality it was a huge red flag to the state of my health, I just didn’t realise it.

Our menstrual  health is a reflection of our overall health & mine was a hot mess!!