Insight: As a deaf BSL user I didn’t understand my perimenopause symptoms without access to information (BSL)

A couple of years ago I started to go through a bad time with my mental health. It was a bit strange really because I hadn’t really gone through anything stressful or different but I just remember feeling like I felt different. Like a spark had gone out of me, or the world suddenly became more dark.

At first I thought it could have been winter blues. I was sleeping more, eating more sweets and heavy foods, but I noticed this feeling wouldn’t pass. When spring and summer came I felt the same. It was like I was always sad inside, even though I had nothing to feel sad about.

My partner told me to go to the doctors which I kept putting off because I don’t like medical appointments. I probably cancelled the appointment twice, in the end my partner ended up driving me to the car park of the surgery to make sure I went.

They took blood tests to check my levels of everything and they all came back normal.

I didn’t really even think to ask about my hormones. The doctor asked if I was still menstruating – I was and they were generally the same sort of time even though they are heavier and shorter. So I assumed I must just be getting older and tired!

So I plodded on for the past year or so, feeling miserable but just getting on with work and life, like you do.

It was only when my local deaf centre opened up a menopause library that I went along to it and watched a talk in BSL about it. I realised a lot of my symptoms were what they were saying.

I actually only went along because I felt miserable at home and didn’t have work that day, so I wasn’t expecting to get anything from it.

But I found it really useful. I learnt about peri menopause, and how women can have symptoms ten years before they actually start the menopause. Ten years! That’s where I am now – in my fourties!

There was a nutritionist who also did a talk about eating for the menopause with a BSL interpreter at my deaf centre and she talked about foods I didn’t realise affected you badly, and also foods that help your hormones.

I was doing all the wrong things really. Eating too much sugar, not exercising, treating my body like I did in my 20s! I don’t have children – so I really don’t have any excuse about not having the time or energy to focus on myself.

I found it really helpful to access information in BSL at my deaf centre. When I see things online in text I feel too tired to read them and understand them, but when it is in my language I understand it easily and it stays in my head!

I also think it was helpful to discuss these things with other deaf women together as I come from an Asian culture that doesn’t really open up about these things – my Mother wouldn’t talk to me about it in detail, she thinks things like these should be private.

I know that going through the peri menopause can really affect your mental health and make you feel awful. But it isn’t your fault! So if you feel like I was feeling, please go along to any BSL events about it you will learn a lot from it.

I have started walking more – I can walk to work and back – and I have made a few changes to my eating habits. I have also started a supplement that is meant to relax you and help your body deal with stress better because stress damages your hormones too.

If you are struggling with your hormones or think you are going through peri menopause, you can make changes and improve how you feel. It won’t last forever!

I think the number one thing for me to remember is to relax and stop worrying – I used to worry about everything and how I was feeling all the time and didn’t really talk to my friends about it. Now that we’ve all been to the menopause workshops it feels like a normal thing we can talk about.

I hope this helps any deaf women reading this struggling with their health. You can make improvements like me!

This blog has been written anonymously as part of the Insight series where readers are invited to share their story or news about their interesting job with The Limping Chicken. If you have a story to share please email rebecca@rawithey.com

Image courtesy of i-stock photos.