What's your energy like? Is this normal?

[Anonymous]

In mid-40s and just can't seem to get through 14 hours in a day without totally collapsing. I used to be able to wake up early for work and and still be up for socializing with friends and hours of driving kid around. Have a child in middle school who is wondering why I am so tired starting at around dinner time on and it's not ordinary tired but sheer exhaustion. I do go to the gym around 5 times a week and eat healthy. Not underweight or overweight, just very normal.

What do your energy levels look like during the day? Is this the new normal or something to check with doctor?

[Anonymous]

Yeah this seems 100% normal. Welcome to middle age. You will probably have to cut an activity like reduce your gym trips to let your body recover more.

Spoiler: It doesn't get better as you get older, either.

[Anonymous]

Always check with doctor if it’s a change. It may or may not be normal. Differs for everyone.

For instance I feel energized by working out. But on days I commute to the office I am pretty tired by 7 pm. Way more than if I worked from home and went for a run. It’s mental as much as physical for me.

[Anonymous]

Have you had bloodwork recently, specifically iron levels.

[Anonymous]

I think it's pretty normal. When I was 25-35 I used to be able to wake up at 7, work all day, then work on our house until 11pm. Now I'm dead at 8pm.

[Anonymous]

I’d also ask for thyroid levels to be checked. I’m sluggish if my TSH is below 3 although the carts say that’s within range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In mid-40s and just can't seem to get through 14 hours in a day without totally collapsing. I used to be able to wake up early for work and and still be up for socializing with friends and hours of driving kid around. Have a child in middle school who is wondering why I am so tired starting at around dinner time on and it's not ordinary tired but sheer exhaustion. I do go to the gym around 5 times a week and eat healthy. Not underweight or overweight, just very normal.

What do your energy levels look like during the day? Is this the new normal or something to check with doctor?

Have you had a physical lately? This level of exhaustion seems concerning. I don't want to alarm you but my neighbor dealt with this exhaustion for a year, then it turned out to be Stage 3 breast cancer. She lived for 5 years after that.

[Anonymous]

I went through this in my late 40s. It started like you said, and then it got to the point where I was exhausted at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I also struggled with sleep, especially waking up very early, like 3-4 AM, and not being able to fall back to sleep.

Estrogen controls your circadian rhythm, and mine was off, shifted earlier. Could this be part of it? Your body thinks it’s time to go to bed at 6 PM (and then you wake up early and can’t fall back to sleep).

Also, sleep in general just becomes an issue for all of us as we get into menopause. If you don’t sleep well chronically, it’s not surprising that you’re tired at 6 PM.

For what it’s worth, I was doing all the right things, but the exhaustion was still there. The only thing that truly helped me was starting HRT.

Besides this, check your vitamin D and ferritin levels. It’s not enough for them to be normal according to regular standards. If they’re on the low end of normal, that’s a problem. It’s easy to address, though, all you have to do is supplement.

[Anonymous]

Zero energy also have other medical issues and medicine that causes major fatigue so I'm barely making it. Never thought it would be this bad.

[Anonymous]

What kind of energy? Like I can do it but I just don’t want to…

[Anonymous]

Just wait til you hit 60. Nothing like this kind of tired and brain fog.

[Anonymous]

I have a ton of energy but just want to left alone. Sometimes my family is exhausted and tap out early on a hike or beach walk and I can go forever, leaving them all behind byeeeeeeeeeee