11 MONTHS OF MEDICAL MENOPAUSE.

It’s been a while since I updated my website and this blog, time slips away when you’re buried in a PhD with never-ending issues that keep popping up and trying to be a functional person. As time has slipped away, so has my time with medical menopause as it has now been 11 months since I started my Prostap depot injections and I had my last at the end of June.

It’s strange to think that it’s been 11 month since the endo clinic appointment and starting my Prostap injections, as it’s felt like I have had one life change after another during this time. I have found that my pain in this timeframe has been less severe and the flare-ups that I have had have been minimal and mainly induced from stress of various things that have occurred - I have felt more in control of my own body. This has meant that I have been able to get on with a lot of things and actually enjoy my time when I have been out and away, something that was an extremely rare thing for me. The worst part for me personally has been the hot flushes and if I was experiencing  any other side-effects, I haven’t noticed them - even my mental health has been better (but that could be because I have better support in my life). Hot flushes in the winter were okay but hot fishes in heatwaves? I never knew that I could sweat that much.

Reflecting back over everything that has happened in the 11 months is surreal. So much has happened and changed for me in my personal life, as well as more diagnoses - a tear in my hip as well as hip dysplasia (found that out a week after my endo clinic appointment). In October, the endo clinic referred me for an MRI to look for Adenomyosis and also check the endometriosis and/or scarring from my excision surgery as, at that point, it was too soon to go back in surgically which is why I decided to try the Prostap depot injections. I also had my coil changed in April, under general anaesthetic due to the pain from my endo (only 11 months overdue). All of this has now led to more waiting…I am still waiting to hear about my MRI form October and also the follow-up from my coil change whilst I’ve now had all of the injections that I can have. It’s the waiting game again. It’s always a waiting game except I’m waiting longer for a rarer clinic.

Life with endo and choric pain and health conditions is just a never-ending waiting game. Now that I have had my last injection and won’t be able to go through this process again for a long time, I’m terrified of what my pain could go back to.  As I am coming towards the end of my PhD, I’m using through as much as I can whilst my pain is still under better management before the possibility of more flare-ups and severe pain. I’ve done the most in the past 11 months for the first time in nearly 10 years, which is scary to grasp - I’ve felt more like a normal person except that I’ve had bursts of overheating. Now it is just about waiting to go back to the clinic and find out what is next for me. For now, it’s about focusing on getting through the last year of my PhD and trying to keep on top of my endo as the Prostap starts losing its effect on my body.

Self-portrait with the last Prostap3 Depot Injection - June 2025.