Got deleted from the menopause sub, hoping y'all can relate.
My patch days are Friday and Tuesday, I use testosterone cream daily. I am also on a GLP-1. This is all relevant, I promise.
Last weekend we had a big event at church and the days leading up to it my brain was already fried and I just...forgot my testosterone until Monday. I had been super irritable all weekend and just chalked it up to the missed T.
But I continued to feel off...irritable, and easily saddened. Tuesday was crazy at work and I didn't have time to shower between meetings (WFH) So I just put on the new patch quickly before my next call. I was hoping that might help a little but I got worse.
My husband's birthday was Wednesday and he's one of those never wants anything, stupid hard to buy for types. Won't ever buy himself anything. He gifted me an amazing, over the top experience for my birthday so I wasn't going to let his pass. I got him a midsize Blackstone. He tried to be appreciative but I could tell he didn't like it.
I was super moody the rest of the evening and it continued to spiral. Like I didn't even want to talk to anyone.
Remember the GLP-1 part? It sucks. The only good thing about it is the weight loss, but I got put on it because I developed a cardio metabolic disorder and now am at super high risk for stroke/heart attack. Also discovered I'm Insulin Resistant and probably have been for a long time. No amount of Statins, diet, or exercise will help, and I will be on this stuff for the rest of my life. I am on one of the smallest doses and I am rarely hungry. I'm also AuDHD and food is one of my triggers. I actually am seeing an RD to help me find things and ways to eat so that I don't lose muscle. I figured maybe my blood sugar was getting consistently low and started looking into OTC continuous glucose monitoring devices. I was also not losing any weight and actually gained on a couple days.
It really sucked because the previous couple of weeks I felt better than I had in AGES. Probably because I had figured out I wasn't drinking enough water and had more than doubled my intake and was finally hydrated for the first time in my life.
Last night I started feeling better, and I was pouring over my food diaries to figure out wtf I had done differently. Nothing stood out. I figured I'd just talk to my provider at my appointment next week.
This morning (Friday) I happened to scratch both sides of my stomach at the same time - one of those waistband itches? And discovered that I had TWO estrogen patches on. I never took off the Friday patch on Tuesday. I know that I wasn't getting a double dose or anything, and that whatever I did get was very small, but combined with the lack of testosterone for three days, it was enough.
Pretty soon I started to feel more like I had in the previous couple weeks. I'm sure some of it was psychosomatic but the fact that I started feeling better last night leads me to believe that the patch had finally exhausted it's supply.
So that's how I determined that my current dose of estrogen is perfect. As long as I'm not a dumbass and forget to take the old patch off.