A short read for the woman holding her GP's blood results in her hand, told everything is "within normal range," and quietly certain that something has been missed.
The very first scene of This Is Perimenopause is a beautiful woman called Lorraine walking into my clinic with her GP's blood results in her hand.
My doctor tells me I'm fine. Everything is within normal range.
— Then the tears came, and she said: "I'm just so tired of being exhausted."As I looked at Lorraine's results, I could see immediately that there were big gaps in her blood work. The blood work your GP typically orders provides some information, but it often does not include the critical data you need to see what is going on in your body at a deeper level.
Five biochemical patterns, every one of them treatable. None of them had been identified.
Each one driving symptoms she had been carrying for years.
Here is what I want you to understand. "Within normal range" is a reference based on the general population, and on those who get their bloods tested most often: the sick and the elderly. It is not an optimal-function reference.
A woman can sit quietly at the bottom of the range for years while the very symptoms she is asking about are being driven by deficiencies a deeper panel would reveal in one visit.
You are not broken. You are not imagining it. You are not going crazy. These symptoms are real, they are biochemical, and they have a traceable cause. Perimenopause is a biochemistry problem, not an aging problem.
None of these require permission, a prescription, or perfect conditions. They are the first quiet acts of taking your own data seriously.
"Within normal range" and "feeling well" are two different things, and both of them deserve respect. Write down the symptoms you are experiencing, the exhaustion, the weight you can no longer shift, the mood changes, the sleep disruption, alongside today's date. This is the beginning of your own data, and it matters.
It is in the resource section of This Is Perimenopause. If you have three of the nine primary indicators, you are very likely in perimenopause, especially if you are over 35. This is your body's signal that it is time to support yourself through this transition.
You are not going crazy. You are not alone. Millions of women are living exactly what you are living right now, and most of them have been told they are "fine" too. Your symptoms are real and they have a biochemical basis. That is the first piece of ground to stand on.
Use the Perimenopause Symptom Tracker in the resource section of the book. The timing of your symptoms is often directly related to where you are in your menstrual cycle. The patterns become visible quickly once you start writing them down, and those patterns are powerful information.
The foundational blood panels I use in the Vitality Clinic go much further than a standard GP panel. They look at insulin resistance, anaemia, inflammation, autoimmune thyroid conditions, nutritional deficiencies, hormones tested on the right days of your cycle, and markers that often sit subclinical for years before they register on a standard panel. You deserve the precision of a fuller picture of your biochemistry.
"Within normal range" is not the same as thriving. Your body has been telling you the truth all along. You are not broken. You are not imagining it. You are in perimenopause, and that is not an ending; it is a shift in your biochemistry, and it responds beautifully when someone actually looks at what is going on.
Precision is not a luxury; it is the thing that makes the difference between feeling dismissed and actually getting better.
This is how we work, five quiet pieces of the same picture, brought together so we can see what your biochemistry is asking for.
The full foundational blood panel, and where relevant, the DUTCH test, so we see your hormones, gut, thyroid, and inflammation in one picture.
The Heal, Seal, and Repair Protocol with the Ideal Foods List, customised to your biochemistry.
The Perimenopause Symptom Tracker, cycle tracking, and food diary, so your patterns become visible.
The botanical, nutraceutical, and psychobiotic medicines I call rocket fuel for your results.
Because your biochemistry is not anyone else's, and your treatment plan should not be either.
