@anon808. It seems to me that you are doing everything you can to take care of yourself. It is frustrating that your gynecologist hasn't been much help to you. What does your therapist say? I'm not sure it makes a difference whether it's stress or anxiety. I think of stress as a physiological - your body's - response whereas anxiety is your body's reaction to that stress. If your therapist has helped you with strategies that reduce physiological stress then that has the potential to lower the level of anxiety. So, when I do a mindfulness practice, and I am following my breath that in turn brings down stress which in turn brings down anxiety. This is what I do when I wake up during the night and have difficulty returning to sleep. I don't always recognize that I'm feeling anxious but I *know* it's there.

Like you, I think I'd like to flip a switch and return to life before cancer and my hysterectomy. But since that's not possible and all I have is what's in front of me right now, I have to figure out a way to accept the present.

And like you, I look for strategies and skills that will help me. I cannot take HRT or any estrogen either. As my doctor said, "that's off the table". I wake up sometimes feeling really anxious in which I want to pull the covers over my head and stay there. Yet I will myself to get out of bed and move around. Just moving my body helps me.

When you see your PCP can you ask them if there are any other physiological things to check for that could be causing your symptoms? Would you like a referral to a doctor who specializes in menopause?

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