I have written two posts in this unofficial series but today was the first day I looked up the official meaning of roulette. Of course I know what it means and I know how I mean it in this context but the actually meaning is pretty boring and doesn’t really convey what I mean.
What do I mean? Well quite simply you never really know what you are going to get from one day to the next with perimenopause/menopause. Today you feel like you can summit Kili by bed time and tomorrow you are crying as you stand under a cold shower trying desperately to cool down while your ears itch.
Currently everyday I am playing a game of “will I be cold or hot” and not because the weather where we are is unpredictable but because my internal temperature control seems broken and I am not sure how to fix it.
We have had a lovely, cold winter (for us) compared to last year when then weather didnt really dip much lower than 19C all winter. I was so excited to bundle up and for the most part I was able to but a few weeks ago, my night time thermometer seemed to malfunction and I am now sleeping in summer pjs and STILL getting hot. It is like the minute my body hits the bed it raises my internal temp by 10C. The really fun part is that when I get up to go to the loo I feel the cold but the second I am back on the bed – bam, hot. I do all the things – wear light pjs, have a light duvet, we leave our windows open – but still the heat rages on.
And it is not just when I sleep. The other day I left the house with a pretty light jersey on, but nothing underneath and a light scarf because I knew it was starting to heat up but there was still a chill in the air. Nope! My body saw the sun and said “we are going to heat you up right here, right now” – I could take the scarf off but obviously couldn’t take the jersey off. So there I was looking like I was trekking across the Sahara dessert while everyone around me looked calm and cool.
It is not enjoyable. It is made worse by that fact that you never really know when it may hit. There have been times I have been chilling on the couch watching TV and suddenly I am undressing because I am suddenly suffocating from the heat my own body is producing. ARGH!
I don’t have any advice to deal with this particularly challenging type of roulette other than to invest in a good deodorant and if you can keep a t-shirt and hoodie in your car.
