Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Is it 'just' the Menopause?

I have been experiencing fatigue for many years now and every time I go to the Doctor, they say to me, "it's just the menopause". You'll just have to take HRT, and by now you should know what I think of that!

I've had blood tests and everything has been normal.
However after reading up a bit more, I insisted on having a specific blood test for folic acid deficiency (red blood folate) and guess what?
My folic acid levels are abnormally low and this leads to a certain type of anaemia called 'pernicious anemia', which amongst a host of other things, makes you feel very tired!
Usually it would show up on a regular blood test (as the red blood cells become larger), but mine was normal.

So, after all, it wasn't 'just' the menopause!