This made me chuckle!!

Sexy Boy - Air

I was on orilissa for 6mths. It’s a pill, but the results are the same.

Emotionally, it was much easier to handle than pmdd. A steady state of slight depression, was just so much better than the 10days of intense, spirally depression.

Physically it did kinda suck. I put on between 5-10lbs, and that was just my new norm. Sleep issues, exhaustion, and hot flashes were the wort part though. I took sleep meds, that kinda helped, but it was a lot of kinda adjusting. Regular exercise helped some, but it was always fighting exhaustion to do it.

It wasn’t like super terrible. These were the side effects I had and dealt with, but they didn’t like fully overwhelm my life. The hot flashes were a lot, but it was also summer and humid and I don’t temperature regulate well in the best of conductions.

It helped, once I found a therapist who understood. They helped me recognize ways that I can figure out my emotions, instead of just expecting me to already have that skill.

I struggle most with rhetorical questions, but it’s kinda in the same vein. I start answering or responding to something that wasn’t a genuine question. Just like with hyperbole, you are responding to something that wasn’t a genuine suggestion. They are both based in literal thinking.

But yeah, it’s one way I kinda suck in social situations. I dunno. I can recognize it after the fact, but never before.

I’m so sorry. I was checking back on here hoping you got good news. Infertility is unfair.

Two things work well for me. If I can’t get away, boxed breathing can help me calm where I am. It’s breathing to the count of 4. Breathe in 4 counts, hold 4 counts, exhale 4 counts, and hold 4 counts. I do that as I slow down my counting. So each subsequent 4 count is slightly slower.

If I have like 20mins of alone/quiet time I do progressive muscle relaxation. This is a little trickier, and when I first started I used YouTube walk throughs to help. But you basically got through your body and tense, then release, each muscle throughout your body. You start with your toes, and slowly work up your body. It sounds silly, but it’s super grounding and calming. You release so much tension you didn’t you know have.

In general though, and I know how kinda annoying this advice cos I hated getting it before I started giving it, but yoga has really helped my ability to ground and regulate myself. I specifically do 26+2 hot yoga, but I’m sure most would work. But this has been super helpful with helping me gain control of my nervous system.

Progesterone helps support pregnancy. I did IVF, there was no number too high to support pregnancy, there were many number too low.

So I would def keep taking it, especially if you want to get pregnant.

The 11 does look darker!!

And fwiw, let me offer you this positive data point. My beta was 45 at 9dpt with my third, and while I was also a super anxious about the number, the pregnancy was perfectly healthy!

Good luck!! Hopefully your next beta eases some anxiety.

Also, if yoy haven’t Sneaker Pimps, his previous band, is definitely worth checking out! Their first album, Becoming X, has a different vocalist, but is like a quintessential trip hop album. Their whole catalog is amazing, but this first, with Kelli Ali vocals is by far the most popular. I’ve been a fan of IAMX from the get go cos I was such a huge sneaker pimps fan.

Oh, I also went through a pretty intense muse phase. They are probably the band I’ve seen most besides IAMX.

So faves is such a hard thing, cos he has such an epic catalog. I really love the more cabaret stuff, like president, Bernadette, big man, sailor, but also love insomnia, I come with knives, animal impulses, everything is burning.

Which I really dug the modular stuff he was doing for a bit post pandemic. I even flew out to LA to see a roof top show. And there are a few tracks I really love on the new album. But, the last 2.5yrs my brain has been stuck on another artist. But the first single of the double album, The X ID, was my autistic anthem for a bit 😂

He was late diagnosed, after terrible burn out from insomnia. He talks about it frequently on his Patreon!!

He has been my fave for decades now!! I even have an {X} on my arm!!

IAMX

He was previously with the sneaker pimps, but it dark wave/dark cabaret/electronic.

Welcome!

Had my last at 45, so im now 47 with a 1.5, 5, and 7yr old. I love it!!

Everybody wants eyes on them, I just wanna hear you sing that top line.

They need to stop the spectacle and just enjoy the music.

If your tubes may be blocked, I’d start there. The laparoscopic surgery was so easy, so much easier than the hsg.

Like genuinely, I did IVF, I had three transfer with perfect embryos. My first two kids each took one transfer, and we got the hormones and everything perfect every time. Finally I did the hsg, it was inconclusive, but I opted to do the surgery. Since I was doing IVF they just took them both out. I got pregnant the next transfer.

Blocked tubes can cause hydrosalpinx in addition to not allowing the egg through. The Mira can help with timing, but if you are having physical issues, not amount of timing is going to fix that.

The thing thanks stress level indicates the most for me is what part of my cycle I am in. During my luteal phase, it reads stressed no matter I do. When I’m in my follicular phase, I’m easy to calm. It def has to do with the predominant hormones effects on my physiology, but not exactly a stress indicator.

So some ways of delivering estrogen are a cancer risks, however there are some options that have lower risks. I’m in perimenopause, and they do prescribe estrogen for perimenopausal symptoms, though a lot of drs are still uninformed and believe it to be a cancer risk.

So education and understanding is one issue. But when you add in estrogen, you do have to also take progesterone to balance it, so it’s not just as simple as adding it in when it’s cyclically lower. It also doesn’t exactly get rid of pmdd symptoms. Perimenopause definitely has effected my pmdd and going on hrt put it back to the devil I know, but it didn’t improve it any.

But there are some other options around this, things like orilissa or Lupron put you into chemical menopause, which can help symptoms, but you have to balance risk of low/no estrogen. There just isn’t like a straight forward safe way to balance hormones.

But I know this cos I had the exact same thought. I even have like a hormone monitor to try and see if there is a way I can better balance it just for me.

Couldn’t agree more!! Loretta Young Silks is a fave, but the whole album is great!

You seem to have a grasp they have some risk when transitioning, but do you grasp the risk of not transitioning? I mean this genuinely. Do you understand why this is so important to her?

Do you think your child doesn’t grasp the risk or do you think your child does, and has decided that continuing to live as the incorrect gender was worse?

We are in a red state too, I understand the fear. But you seem to want there to be an option that doesn’t exist. The option of your kid not being trans. But they are, so you have two choices then affirm and support them and face the risks together, or what? Force them down a path that we know where it can end, look at the suicide rates of trans kids. There is a very genuine risk in that as well.

Before you go shutting down your child, you need to understand your child. You want her to understand the risk she’s taking for wearing a skirt, maybe first try and understand the risk she’s taking for not wearing a skirt.

And it’s okay to be want to protect our kids, and for this to be scary, we are parents. But you need to lead with curiosity and acceptance. Start there. Be on the same team, so you can genuinely help protect her.

Cycle tracking in the Apple Watch was much less accurate than on my oura. I find the Apple Watch a much more robust fitness tracker, but it also always pushes you. The oura gives you goals that are more related to your state of being. Like there is no feature of Apple that currently would ever recommend taking it easy to let your body recover.

For sleep tracking my watch is more generous with sleep, and less generous with deep sleep. The oura feels more accurate to my experience, but the watch does have some features like sleep apnea detection and what not the oura doesn’t.

I love my watch enough for other stuff I wasn’t gonna get rid of it, but the cycle tracking lacked enough I needed something else to do it. But turns out I do like my oura more for some things. If I had to chose one for general usage, it would be the watch. It’s just useful for a lot of things. But for the things you list specifically, I do prefer my oura ring for those features.

Pretty similar. Intrusive thoughts about my kids. Sometimes it’s just mom guilt, but often it’ll be like partner will mention taking them somewhere, and suddenly a million ways that could be harmed while out with him enter my mind. Normally I’m stoked for the time at home alone.

I loved it, but kinda cos it creeped me out a bit. I remember seeing it so many times the summer it came out!