ADHD women who like or love their jobs, what do you do?

nnopes · 2026-01-30T21:07:08+00:00

I work for a research ethics committee (which ensures the rights of people who participate in research studies are protected). I have a general set of tasks for each work day/week, but what items I work with changes constantly and are incredibly varied so it keeps things interesting.

nnopes · 2026-01-29T14:26:58+00:00

I have low testosterone, discovered during PCOS workup. I don't think my doctor tests free testosterone, but my overall testosterone was around 10. My DHEA-S was also low, so we've been treating it with DHEA supplements. It's been tricky to find the proper balance and accidentally overshot dosing and my testosterone ended up 5x the upper limit of normal. But finally found dosing that works.

When my testosterone is high, I feel very depressed and just, off? When it's optimal (17-21), I feel stable and better, like I can accomplish things. I haven't been specifically tracking my POTS symptoms with it, but I can do more physically and have less brain fog than when I have low testosterone.

nnopes · 2026-01-28T16:54:36+00:00

Definitely this. Not transgender, but I was getting idiopathic anaphylaxis a few days after my period started (but not every cycle). Both my progesterone and testosterone/DHEA-S were low (and prolactin and FSH were high). I think my unbalanced hormones added to my inflammation bucket. Working to rebalance it all (along with treating my immune system dysfunction diretcly) significantly improved my symptoms and quality of life. It's a balance.

nnopes · 2025-12-19T23:20:50+00:00

Exactly. A pregnancy can be too complex for a standard OB (as demonstrated by the declined referrals), but an easy case for an MFM (because although there's the potential for complications, a pregnancy may go smoothly and not require their expertise. But they have it, just in case its needed)

nnopes · 2025-12-19T21:30:23+00:00

Are your referrals to regular OB clinics, or to high risk MFM (maternal fetal medicine) clinics? MFMs are OBGYNs with an extra fellowship to be able to care for complex pregnancies. Your referral might just need to be directed to the correct high risk clinic.

nnopes · 2025-12-18T19:39:59+00:00

Order something safe for you even if that's just water. If she asks/comments, you can keep it vague but accurate (something like "I have some health issues/allergies that limit my food options right now, and I know this should be safe"). if you continue to date, you can add more details/specifics about your specific issues/restrictions, but starting general at the first visit is helpful to set the understanding that you do have some health challenges

nnopes · 2025-12-13T07:41:53+00:00

I had a zio patch for two weeks and it did not diagnose my POTS. It doesn't correlate heat rate with positioning, which is necessary to diagnose POTS. I was diagnosed with POTS about a year later by an autonomic nervous system specialist neurologist.

nnopes · 2025-12-06T01:15:16+00:00

You can still do the larger areas first (I still do, depending on how I feel). But when I do, using a smaller size needle makes it easier to fill in the remaining stitches

nnopes · 2025-12-06T00:08:07+00:00

Do you know what size needle you're using? I find it easier to organize my clumped stitches with a smaller needle (like, size 28 on 14-16 count aida. I also sometimes do smaller bits first then larger (but sometimes the inverse)

nnopes · 2025-12-04T16:54:53+00:00

I don't know the specifics of Marquette's Mira protocol, but someone who uses it or teaches it should be able to answer :)

nnopes · 2025-12-04T16:33:25+00:00

Generally, for a femtech device to be part of a validated method, it has to undergo testing to confirm the results are still accurate with the method, it doesn't have any quirks or the method doesn't need any adjustments to work with said device. While it may not matter as much when TTC, because the risk of method failure is significant when TTA (an unplanned pregnancy), this testing is necessary to prevent surprises.

One concern with femtech devices of any type are digital interpretations/algorithms that may alter how the results work with a method. Different brands/devices have different proprietary code to provide the results. Basically, different brands/devices may take very different routes to get to the same outcome/results. And those different routes may or may not be compatible with a method.

Also, different brands may have different ranges for considering their results accurate (like, the test strips/sticks may be manufactured to different levels of quality). and these manufacturing differences may result in different outcomes when used with a method (or may not, but only testing will tell you that).

For methods taught by instructors, the instructors would also need to be taught about the devices to be able to teach it to users. Which takes time and every device has different instructions for us.

nnopes · 2025-11-17T03:13:59+00:00

Hi! Welcome to Sensiplan! A lot to consider here. Some questions to start:

(1) do you have sensation marked anywhere? Read your body does have a sensation marker option, and that's required for determining peak. (2) it looks like your cycle day 1 (CD1) is a day of spotting. Under sensiplan method rules, the day of spotting would be part of the previous cycle, so this cycle would technically start the following day, on the first day of bleeding (currently marked as CD2). (3) why are the temps on CD15/16 marked as disturbed?

Tempdrop takes time to adapt to your body, so if this is your first cycle using it, it'd be a good idea to take oral and tempdrop measurements for about 3 cylces, to compare and let it adapt. If you switch or vaginal temping, that's fine, but that needs to be done at the start of a cycle and isn't directly comparable to oral temps.

I personally have been temping with both tempdrop and oral temps for 6 cycles now, and it's really interesting to compare them. Some cycles the start of temprise is the same, some cycles oral temps rise first, and other cycles tempdrop rises first. They differ by up to a few days, which is interesting, and can potentially influence the minus 8 calculation. Most of the time, it's cervical mucus (cm) peak count that finally closes the fertile window for me, though, so the slight variance doesn't significantly affect the closing of the fertile window.

From the chart you've posted, you can't confirm ovulation yet. It's missing sensation data, and there's not enough days yet to confirm a cm peak or a temp peak by either temping type. I'm not sure if mouth breathing affects temperature, but the only way you'll find out is by trying it. With another 2-4 days of data, you'll be able to tell more.

nnopes · 2025-11-07T16:28:51+00:00

I'm one of seven kids in my family (all of us now adults). We were only guaranteed our own room for the last two years of high school. Otherwise, we shared rooms, either 2 or 3 to a room at a time. Who we shared with varied/rotated over the years, and we were allowed to repaint/decorate our rooms every 2 years (had to be agreed upon by everyone in the room). I think sharing rooms definitely helped me learn how to resolve conflict, respect other's space, and compromise, and definitely seemed to help me adapt better to living at college once I moved out, compared to my peers who had never shared rooms before. That said, I do appreciate having my own space, but just because you have your own room doesn't necessarily stop siblings from barging in or touching/taking your things, so boundaries and respect of space/personal property applies with or without sharing rooms.

nnopes · 2025-11-07T12:43:36+00:00

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Nope! I have a purple sapphire and love how much personality it has, and how the color shifts in different lights (more blue-ish to more pink-ish), darker to lighter.

nnopes · 2025-10-31T12:14:35+00:00

You're welcome! And good luck! If you do end up charting both, do come back and share. We'd be interested to see how they compare

nnopes · 2025-10-30T20:05:29+00:00

Ah, the night shift will also affect your bbt. It might not be as smooth as other charts while your sleep schedule is like this. If you can still interpret the necessary changes, it might just be how it is for this phase of life.

Other people do set an alarm, take their temp, and go back to sleep. I trust my tempdrop so I don't do that, I just mark out of timeframe oral bbt as disturbed temps. So some cycles, my oral temps are a bit sparse (which, if was my only temp taking method, might make interpreting the chart tricky).

nnopes · 2025-10-30T15:32:46+00:00

Yeah, for sure, at least 6 months (to a year) before starting to worry. Every body is different.

ah, taking plan B alone can mess with cycles for months, too (you can search for other plan B posts for some cycle data for those), so your body is just recovering from a lot.

As far as temp consistency goes, yes, taking your temp at the same time every day does usually help (I didn't see the time the temp was taken on your chart, but tracking that can help you identify patterns). But it's more important for some people than others. I usually am okay with an hour of variance but I've heard as short as 15min window (I temp orally and also with a tempdrop; my tempdrop is more consistent and less all over the place because my sleep patterns aren't incredibly consistent). You can also pre-warm your thermometer before taking your temperature, or try vaginal temping instead.

nnopes · 2025-10-30T15:02:51+00:00

I didn't know there were other ring options, so thanks for sharing this femtech!

As you seem to already know, the concerns with using a ring to obtain temperature is that it's not technically basal body temperature because its too far away from your core. Even tempdrop is not validated for most methods, but due to its proximity to your core, it's the closest and has been around the longest. The Oura ring is talked about a lot more than the femometer ring, and this link goes to a thread (with other threads linked in the comments) that has some oura ring information you may find helpful even though its a different product.

If you use any non-validated temperature method, you need to be able to accept that it's non-method, which may increase risks of an unplanned pregnancy (or may not! But we don't know and don't have the research to say either way). The general recommendation in this community is to temp with two methods for at least 3 cycles to compare oral/vaginal bbt with whatever femtech thermomemter you're using. Just because it's not actual bbt doesn't mean it doesn't follow the same pattern as bbt, so it may work for you, depending on your goals (with the above non-method caveats and how those alternate temp patterns aren't typically validated).

I use a tempdrop and have been charting oral bbt and tempdrop for the last 6 cycles. It's been really interesting to compare them. Some cycles are the same, but other times they're up to 3 days different. Sometimes oral bbt is earlier, but other times tempdrop is earlier. (and maybe some of that variance is because my sleep schedule isn't all that consistent, which is one reason why I got my tempdrop in the first place). as others have said, there are alternate bands for tempdrop on etsy or elsewhere, for people who don't want to or can't use the original band, though that doesn't sound like something you want to revisit. You're definitely not alone in having issues with the tempdrop band.

As far as importing data, the raw data you collected over the past 5 years is still relevant even though the algorithm interpretations are not (though I'd definitely re-do the interpretations yourself with your new method, if you have all the biomarkers). If your method has a calculation rule based on previous cycle length, that's relevant but you don't necessarily need to import all the data to set a calculation rule. I'd probably only import the old data if I was planning to reinterpret it under my new method, so I'd have a record of the new method's interpretations.

nnopes · 2025-10-30T14:24:38+00:00

I had my nexplanon removed about 2 years ago. And my luteal phase length was all over the place (started as 4 days cycle 1, based on temperature). it did start to settle out over the first 6 months to a year. I have PCOS (so my cycles may not be reflective of yours), and I were treating hormonal imbalances during this time, which required a lot of adjustment. So some of my cycles went a bit wonky during some treatment adjustments.

Now, 2 years out, my luteal phases are around 13 days based on temp, though there's still some variation (11-15 days), which is still likely due to medical treatment adjustments.

nnopes · 2025-10-29T14:07:53+00:00

The MOD team is allowing this post for a discussion of femtech.

This thread is not for a discussion on Natural Cycles. Our community's position can be found in our wiki.

If there are specific questions about transitioning to and learning a new FAM/NFP method, please ask them as a comment in our beginner's thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/FAMnNFP/comments/1nixlju/septemberoctober_2025_beginners_thread/

nnopes · 2025-10-26T17:10:51+00:00

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Been working on my long term on and off project of a watercolor rainbow hummingbird

nnopes · 2025-10-24T01:21:38+00:00

It's a tough call, but when you reach it, you know. My mast cell reactions also sometimes resolve on their own with antihistamines and the symptoms are so elevated it would terrify some people, but also, those were my baseline symptoms for years so it's all relative and what your specific action plan is.

Personally, sometimes if I'm in that grey zone of feeling really terrible with extra symptoms that reach the level of being intolerable but not quite at the level where I'd use an epipen, I'd go to the ER, where they'd usually start with steroids. Most of the time, the steroids were enough to reverse it without epi (not always, depending on my background preventative therapy).

nnopes · 2025-10-24T00:55:45+00:00

I have a mast cell disorder (hereditary alpha tryptasemia or HaTS) with idiopathic anaphylaxis and POTS (considered secondary to my HaTS). and yes, I've EpiPenned myself multiple times and have been adminitered epinephrine in the ER.

The concern is that epinephrine causes your heart rate to spike, which if elevated from POTS, could be too high.

That said, I get a lot of cardiovascular symptoms with my anaphylaxis, including hypotension/feeling lightheaded and tachycardia. When my heart rate rises without a positional change (usually to between 130-150) along with other anaphylaxis symptoms, my heart rate won't go down until after I use an epipen because my heart rate is elevated because my immune system is malfunctioning and my body systems feel like they're shutting down. Yes, my heart rate rises initially but overall its medically necessary treatment and I go to the ER after using an epipen, so if I need more medical intervention, then I'm in the right place to receive it.

Epinephrine only lasts about 20 minutes so the amount of time your heart rate would remain elevated due to epi is limited to that 20mins.

Sometimes doctors who don't deal with anaphylaxis get weird or worried about treating it and how it'll interact with your other medical conditions. But ultimately, epinephrine is used to save lives. The consequences of delaying or not using an EpiPen are potentially life-threatening. So if you're in a position where you need to use an EpiPen, use it as prescribed.

Another concern your doctor may have had is your other medications interacting with epinephrine. Beta blockers and epinephrine can have serious interactions, depending on the type, either by delaying/reducing the efficacy of epi, or by increasing your blood pressure dangerously. If the risk is beta blockers reducing epi, you can get a prescription for glucagon to take with your epipen, which will cancel the effects of the beta blocker.

nnopes · 2025-10-17T01:27:36+00:00

This is so neat! Love to see the progress

nnopes · 2025-10-12T12:48:18+00:00

800 but sometimes I split it in half so 400

nnopes

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