HRT Diary - month 2 - day 27 positive - hydration and skin

 Firstly, I’ve been super remiss at keeping you updated and there are observations and differences which potentially could be linked to each other and are without doubt a positive HRT thing. 

Skin - about a week ago I’ve thought to myself ‘oh my face feels smooth and soft’. Lovely, that’s nice. Then laying in bed I was rubbing my feet together and thought. Wow they feel really soft. Again didn’t think too much about it until the next night when I thought the same thing. Realising, I hadn’t had a pedicure for a few months and this was very different. I’ve noticed over the last 3/4 years that the skin on my feet was getting quite hard and in the last year I was getting cracked heels. In fact even looking up online for creams to buy about 3 weeks ago. Well…. No longer needed. I know they say skin changes are a big symptom, but it happened to subtlety and who would have not assumed hard skin comes with age?Well ladies maybe for some it does… but for sure for me it’s hormones. My feet feel back to how they did 10 years ago. Amazing!

Hydration - is something I have struggled with for a long time. I cannot at some points drink enough water. When I was running last year for about an hour I was coming back and drinking a professional hydration sachet and water but it wasn’t enough and I’d get a debilitating headache anyway. I read a few books and in the end would crunch a tablespoon of chia seeds with breakfast, drink water and that would make it better. (Chia seeds retain water for you). But it was an issue. As was when I drank, etc. If a drank white wine. I would drink at least 2 pints of water through the night and this wouldn’t be enough. I had this conversation with a doctor at one of my husbands cycling events a couple of years ago about my struggle to hydrate enough and he had no answers. A complete mystery. The headaches after running, eating hot foods, too much garlic, etc would be like your worst hangover. It was difficult and I drink well over 2l of water a day.

Well, following a conversation with my beauty therapist last week… starting about the soft feet and then she was talking about her hot flushes and how they are making her so dehydrated. Lightbulb moment! I haven’t been dehydrated for over a month. Hadn’t even crossed my mind.  Which coincided with me no longer having night sweats. Of course! My body had been using so much water to keep me cool, this is why I was dehydrated all the time. Ta da! So thank you Jo and hope this blog helps you with the doctor conversations you are going to have. 😘