How to Manage Perimenopause Exhaustion While Working from Home

I didn’t know I had perimenopause exhaustion until one of my friends told me. (You’ve read that correctly. Not the GP, but one of my friends.) After a long road of misdiagnosis, it turns out that all my anxiety and exhaustion came down to mother nature calling on my door: this extreme fatigue, anxiety, panic attacks and headaches came all down from perimenopause. I already knew about menopause, but I had no idea about the previous stage. Also, I had no idea that it can start, in some cases, in your 30s, not only well after you’ve hit your 40s.

A month ago I posted on LinkedIn about the iceberg of success. You know, what you can see it’s the fancy. What lays hidden is all the nasty… It’s no only that people don’t see all the sleepless nights, effort and sweat you put into things. Also, add to this an extra women have to go through: perimenopause! While my business has been happily booming, my body has been unbalanced thanks to it. Yet, I’ve continued with success. But because I don’t want you to be in the dark as I was, I’ve decided to be very vocal about this and share my experience with you (especially in my newsletter where I’ll share also a course about how to manage thing thing!)

Perimenopause Exhaustion… What on Earth!?

Perimenopause is the transitional phase leading up to menopause, which officially begins after you’ve gone 12 consecutive months without a menstrual period. This transition can start several years before menopause, often in a woman’s 40s, but it can also begin earlier or later depending on individual factors like genetics, lifestyle, and overall health. As your body starts producing less strogen, your strength levels go to hell.

Perimenopause sucks. Perimenopause exhaustion is the pits, especially if you have planned something and the only energy you have left is for boiling some water for your morning cuppa.

Although commonly associated with hot flashes, perimenopause encompasses much more than temperature dysregulation. The decline and fluctuation of estrogen levels can impact mood, energy levels, and sleep quality. Additionally, you might notice changes in your menstrual cycle’s frequency and flow. Some women may experience heavier periods, while others have lighter or irregular ones.

In short: it heavily depends on your luck, and so far, it sucks. That doesn’t mean you can’t find a balance and feel you’re back.

Shitty Symptoms of Perimenopause

Fatigue and low energy: Due to hormonal imbalances, you might experience bouts of extreme tiredness. In my case it feels like someone pushed an invisible button and I need to take a nap or I’ll end up with a panic attack due to exhaustion.
Hot flashes and night sweats: Fluctuating estrogen levels often cause sudden increases in body temperature during the day or excessive sweating at night, interrupting both daily activities and restful sleep. Since I don’t have these at all, the GP erased from the possible causes of my anxiety and exhaustion perimenopause from the menu. Don’t be fooled! That you don’t have the hot flashes, doesn’t mean you aren’t f***ed.
Mood swings and irritability: Hormonal changes can lead to mood swings, anxiety, and even feelings of depression or anger. I found myself crying a river with an average movie while Netflix and chill. Something that has never happened to me before. Crying in corners for no reason, and being angry at the walls without any causes. I thought I was going bananas, but nope. It was the frigging perimenopause.
Sleep disturbances: Insomnia or irregular sleep patterns can make of you a perennial zombie. This has been one of the worst symptoms so far.
Irregular periods: A hallmark of perimenopause, menstrual cycles can become shorter, longer, heavier, or lighter—and unpredictability can be a new norm. I used to be a clock! I knew what day it would come. I still had to go through all the hideous cramps, mood swings, and pain, but at least I had it on my schedule. Now, it’s a flipping carnival you never know when and how it’ll appear.
Brain fog and memory issues: Many women notice difficulty in concentrating, forgetfulness, or feeling mentally “foggy.” In my case, I work with a schedule and I plan everything there. So, it’s no surprise to no one that I write everything I want to do there! Also, I’ve always been a bit forgetful with stuff (like putting a pen somewhere and then not remembering where I’ve put it). So, in this regard, I don’t feel a difference.
Anxiety: Some women, like me, have the bad luck of experiencing anxiety and panic attacks if it goes bad. My particular case, when my body is super exhausted, I go into anxiety-ville and things go dark there. Perimenopause can provoke anxiety, which in turn can make things worse and make a hell of a vicious circle!

These are the most common symptoms that you can experience. You don’t need to experience all of them to feel shitty. Also, if you already had bad periods to begin with, insist in getting checked properly and don’t allow your GP to dismiss this as “normal” for women or being misdiagnosed as only having anxiety. Seriously: get checked! Pester them if necessary until you’ve been correctly checked if you’re feeling like hell.

Thank God I’m Working From Home as a Coach, Content Creator, and Freelancer!

Working from home comes with a set of perks: no commute, flexible schedules, and the ability to create a comfortable workspace. Just before having this invisible hand of perimenopause exhausting me to wuthering heights, I jumped to being my own boss after a traumatic redundancy in the last company I worked for (that saw almost all my division decimated to ridiculous numbers) due to relocation. This has been godsent, seriously. Now, I can manage how many hours a day I work with clients and I can nap if necessary between calls. Something unthinkable if I was still in a 9 to 5!

Yet, you might find some days are too hard to handle. Specially if you’re suspecting you’ve started with the “menopause” and are having trouble defining what’s happening to you. If you had bad luck, like me, of going to the GP and not being diagnosed correctly, don’t despair! I know it’s hilarious to go back and tell them you think you’ve got the perimenopause… It stops being funny when they tell you it’s normal and there’s nothing they can do. They actually can help you!

However, you can start helping yourself. And if you’re not keen about taking sleeping pills (I’m not) or are waiting to see if you need hormone therapy, please keep reading.

How to Start Managing Perimenopause Exhaustion

You won’t get rid of this on your own. However, you can learn how to manage the exhaustion, sleepless nights and stress that comes with it with these hacks:

Meditation – Make Some Headspace

One of the first things that will come to your head is: “Am I that old!?” As I said above, you can be unlucky and be in your 30s and start a 10-year journey of perimenopause. So, although it points to age, start by just acknowledging that you body decided to push that invisible button and go back to “highschool days”. Remember when your period first came? Remember how anxious and irritable you where? Those were the days where you were growing, right? So, take this as an opportunity to grow… only in a different way.

I downloaded the App Headspace because the referral to help with my anxiety from the GP was a total disaster. I had to wait for the first call for over a month until someone would call me. So, before that I decided to take things on my own: Meditation. (And after the call with the anxiety service, I decided to keep up with meditation since I was then referred to paid services because they considered I was managing myself on my own quite well…)

Meditation isn’t a solution that will give you results straight away. It’s a practice. Mindfulness will help you with those moments when you’re feeling like shit and manage how you react to them. I started just meditating 10 minutes a day. Then I up the game to 15, and now I’m over 30 minutes a day. I meditate almost every day, only missing some if completely necessary. The more I practice, the better I feel when I’m okay, and the less rubbish I feel when I’m not.

Power Naps

Before perimenopause knocked on my door, I was a perfect night own capable of working for hours without feeling any tiredness. I could have an all-nighter and recover the next day without any issues. Now? Forget it! I need to sleep 8 hours a day (no more, no less) and I have to hit the bed in between as many times as I need during bad days. This means I need to nap during the day once or twice depending on my energy levels.

I seriously feel like being in a videogame where you have to rest for a bit in order to bring your energy up! At the beginning I couldn’t understand the new cues that my body was sending me about being tired. Why? Because perimenopause comes suddenly and your brain isn’t ready! I was acting like I had no perimeno-whatever and work as usual!

Meditation helped me being more tuned with my body, which in turn helped me to see what slight cues my body was sending me now. So, I started to do power naps every time that I felt a bit “funny” after working during the morning. So, my routine is completely not 9 to 5 friendly! I work for 4 hours, then stop, nap, eat, go for a walk, and come back to work again.

Some days I need more than one power nap to go through the working day. And that’s okay. (I’ve noticed that the previous days of the period arriving each month are the ones when I’m in my lowest and when I need more rest).

Change Your Diet – Eat a Lot of Protein!

If you want to have more energy, you’ll need to eat more protein. Yes, more than you used to! I’m not saying to eat more chicken or fish. In fact, the thing that I found out that brings me lots of energy are very green leafy veggies accompanied with lots of mushrooms and beans.

My diet has changed dramatically. I do eat lots of veggy protein, and some animal protein, too. (But I lean on veggies most). I’ve cut all coffee and alcohol from the menu. I’ve discovered that they made my anxiety go wild in conjunction to perimenopause.

Go For Walks

I know, the last thing you want to hear is about moving more and doing exercise. Yet, going for some walks will help you. Now, don’t go all super Wonder Woman when you’re feeling like a rock star, because the next day perimenopause will remind you that you have no energy left! Just go for walks, or do yoga. Instead of doing a lot, do something that you can maintain almost daily and see how your energy starts coming back little by little.

Be Realistic When Making Plans

This part sucks, because it’ll remind you what you could do around this time last year compared to know. Remember, this is a journey. It doesn’t mean you won’t be back to similar levels or same levels. It just means that you need to take care of yourself and be realistic. Which means that, if you haven’t yet, you’ll need to say “no” way more often than you used to!

Setting limits for work and outside of work is essential to avoid crash-days. I call crash-days when you can’t move and you’re just a puddle of crying, anxiety and exhaustion. You don’t want those! The only way to avoid them is to be realistic about how much you can take and how much you’ll need to delegate (or postpone if you cannot delegate those tasks).

It also means that you’ll need to talk with your partner (if you have one) and enlist them into your journey. If your partner is a man, don’t be suspicious straight away! Just tell them what’s going on and how you can both navigate this time. If for whatever reason, you’re unlucky and you got a dick next to you, my condolences. You’ll have to think about that carefully in the near future.

Talk to Someone About It

I’m not saying to go full disclosure with the whole world on TikTok. I’m referring to have a friend or coach available to talk to you once in a while. Be gentle to yourself. Also be mindful of your friend. Do something for them in exchange.

Don’t keep everything that’s going on with you for yourself! Instead, talk about your perimenopause exhaustion with someone and share the load. Share it with someone who is also going through it, for example.

Creating a Business With Perimenopause Exhaustion

Is it possible to create a business while you’re suffering perimenopause exhaustion? Yes! You can! In fact, I’m going to share with you how on my newsletter! I’ll also release a new course (hopefully around March/April) where I’ll teach you, step by step, what to do to achieve your dreams while exhausted because you’re on the perimenopause, taking care of the kids, walking the dog, and paying the bills!

Many women I know have succeeded in their late 30s, glorious 40s and 50s! So, why shouldn’t you!?