I thought perimenopause and middle age were making me exhausted. After years of searching for answers, I learned I had severe sleep apnea.

The author found out she has severe sleep apnea after a sleep study. Courtesy of Alesandra Dubin I've been exhausted almost constantly for years, even though I regularly get eight hours of sleep. I thought it was perimenopause, and tried various hormone treatments to solve the issue. I was shocked when my doctor told me I had severe sleep apnea after a sleep study. "You have severe sleep apnea ," the doctor told me in his office while peering into his computer screen at my data. I definitely wasn't expecting to hear that. At 48, I'd spent years assuming my exhaustion was simply a symptom of my stage of life. I was a working mom raising two school-aged children while juggling a busy freelance career in a chaotic industry. Like many women in midlife, I also suspected perimenopause was playing a major role.