I started having trouble with my hormones several years ago, but I just attributed it to perimenopause.  I wish I had known then what I do now.  Due to a breast biopsy in 1993 which turned out to be non-malignant but still put me in a higher risk category, I said that I would never take hormone therapy.  I had PMS every month which I grew to dread.   And I didn’t know until last summer, but I started having symptoms of fibromyalgia a few years ago during perimenopause.  I knew my body was changing because things I used to be able to do I could no longer do without my muscles knotting up and bothering me for a week or so.  It wasn’t the soreness a person feels from a good workout.  It was different.  And then last year when our dog tripped me and caused me to fall, fibromyalgia set in full force.  The three months during the summer  were difficult and depressing.   Not only did I have extremely sore, bruise-like places in different places from my neck down to my ankles, but I had chronic fatigue and other symptoms that go along with it.  That’s when an answer to prayer occured and I was able to go to this wonderful doctor who had been through a lot of what I was going through herself.  After consultation and saliva testing, I went on a natural compounded progesterone prescription and some nutritional supplements.  I had said I would never use hormones, but this natural progesterone made a huge difference in the way I feel.  I’ve been using it for a year now and my fibromyalgia symptoms have eased tremendously.  Also, I have a wonderful husband who gave me daily muscle rubs summer before last which helped ease the aches and pains.  But I’ll have to write about that in another post.  I’m just so thankful to feel as good as I do now.