Health & Wellness News

Advertorial

Home > Women's Health > Winter Wellness

I Thought Feeling Exhausted Every Winter Was Normal. A $25 Blood Test Changed Everything.

By Kate Lake | Melbourne, VIC

Last Updated May 24.2026

By Kate Lake | Melbourne, VIC

Last Updated May 24.2026

Summary: I spent three winters blaming hormones for my exhaustion, my brain fog, and the heaviness that arrived every June. My GP never tested for it. A naturopath friend suggested one thing. A $25 blood test confirmed it. Here’s what I wish someone had told me years ago.

Summary: I spent three winters blaming hormones for my exhaustion, my brain fog, and the heaviness that arrived every June. My GP never tested for it. A naturopath friend suggested one thing. A $25 blood test confirmed it. Here’s what I wish someone had told me years ago.

It starts every year around the same time. Late May, early June. The mornings get harder. Not just colder, heavier. I’d set my alarm for 6:30, sleep through to 6:28, and still feel like I hadn’t slept at all. 

The tiredness wasn’t the kind you fix with an early night. It was deeper than that. I’d sleep eight hours and wake up feeling like I’d slept four. By 2pm I was done. Not sleepy, exactly. Just empty. Like someone had quietly unplugged something inside me. 

My hair started thinning around the brush. My lower back ached in a dull, persistent way that no amount of stretching seemed to touch. My mood dropped; not depression, not sadness, just a heaviness that arrived in June and lifted sometime around October. Every year. Like clockwork.

I’m 51. I live in Melbourne. I assumed it was menopause. My GP agreed. She said it was probably hormonal. She suggested I try managing my stress better. I went home feeling like it was my fault.

I mentioned all of this to a friend over coffee one afternoon in July. She’s a naturopath; I know, I know. But she said something that stopped me mid-sentence. 

- Have you had your vitamin D checked? 

I hadn’t. I’d had my iron checked. My thyroid. My hormones. My B12. But not my vitamin D. 

 

She said something I’d never considered: almost every symptom I was describing: the non-restorative sleep, the low mood, the afternoon crash, the back pain, the hair thinning; overlaps perfectly with vitamin D deficiency. Not instead of menopause. Alongside it. 

- You’ve been told it’s hormones. Some of it probably is. But some of it might not be. And nobody’s checking the other thing. 

Three sentences. Three years of assumptions challenged.

I booked a private blood test the next week. It cost me $25 at a private pathology clinic, my usual GP doesn’t offer standalone vitamin D tests without a referral. 

My result came back at 28 nmol/L. The optimal range is 75 to 150. I was severely deficient. 

The pathology nurse wasn’t surprised. She told me that in Victoria, nearly half of all adults are vitamin D deficient by August. Forty nine percent. In the sunniest country in the world. 

I thought about that on the drive home. I’d spent forty years being told to slip, slop, slap. I’d avoided the midday sun my entire adult life. I worked indoors. I wore SPF 50 on my face every day, even in winter. I’d done everything right for skin cancer prevention; and in doing so, I’d quietly starved my body of the one vitamin it can’t make without sun. 

In Melbourne in July, the UV index regularly drops below 3, the level the Cancer Council says is too low for your skin to produce any meaningful vitamin D. In January it sits above 10. My body had been working with essentially zero sun-derived vitamin D for four months of the year, and I had no idea.

Dr Nellie Torkamani, Jean Hailes endocrinologist: “It doesn’t present with bone pain, and you can have no symptoms until you have a fracture. It’s very important to be vigilant about it and most especially after menopause.”

Dr Nellie Torkamani, Jean Hailes endocrinologist: “It doesn’t present with bone pain, and you can have no symptoms until you have a fracture. It’s very important to be vigilant about it and most especially after menopause.”

“I was at 31. After 9 weeks my levels are at 82 and I wake up actually feeling like I slept.” 
 Margaret T., 58, Hobart

If this sounds familiar, click here →

When I told my GP about the blood test result, she wasn’t surprised either. She said she sees it all the time. So I asked the obvious question.

- If you see it all the time, why didn’t you test me?

She explained something I’d never heard of. In November 2014, Medicare changed the rules around vitamin D testing. Item 66833 on the Medicare Benefits Schedule now restricts rebated testing to documented high risk patients; people with osteoporosis, dark skin with limited sun exposure, malabsorption conditions, or certain medications. 

A 51 year old white woman in Melbourne who’s tired every winter doesn’t tick any of those boxes. Even though, according to the ABS, 49% of Victorian adults are deficient by August. The research confirms it. After the 2014 rule change, vitamin D testing in Australian general practice dropped 47%. From 40.3 tests per 1,000 consultations down to 21.4. Nearly half the testing, gone overnight. Not because the deficiency went away. Because the rebate did. 

I sat there thinking about that. Four winters. Four years of sitting across from my GP with every symptom on the list. Fatigue. Low mood. Brain fog. Back pain. And the system had decided I wasn’t worth testing. 

I wasn’t angry at her. She was following the rules. But I was quietly annoyed that nobody had told me the rules had changed, or that a $25 blood test could have explained three years of feeling like a shadow of myself.

My first instinct was to go to Chemist Warehouse and buy vitamin D. So I did. I picked up Ostelin, the most recognisable brand on the shelf. 1,000 IU per tablet. Standard dose. 

Then I called my naturopath friend. She said two things that changed my thinking completely. 

First: 1,000 IU is the minimum maintenance dose. It’s what you take to stay where you are. If your levels are at 28 and you need to get to 80+, 1,000 IU is like trying to fill a swimming pool with a garden hose. Some doctors prescribe 10,000 to 50,000 IU to move the needle. The 1,000 IU gummy from the supermarket isn’t wrong. It’s just not enough. 

Second: most vitamin D supplements don’t include vitamin K2. And without K2, your body can’t properly direct the calcium that vitamin D helps you absorb. K2 activates the proteins that send calcium to your bones and keep it out of your arteries. 90% of formulas on the pharmacy shelf leave it out completely. 

She also mentioned something that stuck with me. Most of the D3 in those pharmacy bottles is extracted from sheep’s wool grease and dissolved in soybean or corn oil. I’d been so careful about what I ate, what I put on my skin, what cleaning products I used in my home. And every morning I was swallowing a capsule in soybean oil without a second thought.

What Women Across Australia & New Zealand Are Saying

Rated 4.81/5 by 2,350+ verified buyers

Photo of Christine L.
Christine L., 52 Verified Buyer

"I was taking a pharmacy brand for two years, 1,000 IU, and still felt terrible every winter. When I learned that 1,000 IU isn't even close to what you need to correct a deficiency, I switched to FRAME. 10,000 IU, K2 included, no wool grease. My afternoon crashes have almost disappeared."

Photo of Anne K.
Anne K., 49 Verified Buyer

"My naturopath told me my vitamin D was probably low. My GP said it wasn't worth testing. I paid $35 out of pocket and came back at 24. Severely deficient. I was furious nobody had checked in four years of me saying I was tired. FRAME has been my daily non negotiable since July 2025."

Photo of Diane W.
Diane W., 55 Verified Buyer

"Down here in the South Island our winter sun is basically useless for vitamin D. I switched from a supermarket brand to FRAME because it actually has the dose that makes a difference. Four months in, my energy is back, my mood has lifted, and my last blood test was 91."

Photo of Robyn S.
Robyn S., 61 Verified Buyer

"I'd been tired every winter for years and just accepted it as part of getting older. A friend told me to get my vitamin D checked. I was at 29. Started FRAME in June, by September I felt like a completely different person. I genuinely didn't know this was fixable."

Photo of Margaret T.
Margaret T., 58 Verified Buyer

"Tasmania in winter is grim for vitamin D. Three winters I blamed menopause for my exhaustion. After 8 weeks on FRAME my levels went from 31 to 82 and I wake up actually feeling like I slept. The difference is night and day. I wish I'd known years ago."

Your winter doesn't have to feel like this.

Theirs stopped feeling like this the moment they found out why.

300 softgels. Less than $0.18/day. The clean vitamin D your winter has been missing.

 Try FRAME Risk Free 

             Try FRAME Risk Free              

Free Shipping • 60 Day Money Back Guarantee • Third Party Tested • 10 Months Supply

That same friend mentioned FRAME. She’d been taking it herself since the previous winter. I looked it up that night. 
 

She explained it like this. Vitamin D's main job is to help your body absorb calcium. It's very good at it. But absorbing calcium and directing calcium are two different things. Without vitamin K2, that newly absorbed calcium doesn't always end up in your bones where you need it. Some of it can settle in your arteries and soft tissue, where you don't. K2 is the nutrient that acts like a traffic controlle, it activates the proteins that send calcium to your skeleton and keep it out of your arteries. Vitamin D opens the door for calcium. K2 tells it which room to walk into. Take D without K2, and the door is open, but nobody's directing traffic.

10,000 IU of vitamin D3 per softgel, plant based. 200 mcg of vitamin K2 as MK-7 from Italy, the most clinically studied form available. Dissolved in coconut oil, not soybean or corn oil. Third party tested for purity. 300 softgels per pouch. Less than $0.18 per day. 

I ordered it that night. One pouch.

By week three, I noticed the afternoons were easier. The 2:37pm wall wasn’t gone, but it was lower. By week five, I was sleeping differently. Not longer deeper. I’d wake up and actually feel like morning, not like I’d been hit by something overnight. 

By week eight, my mood had shifted. Not dramatically. Just the heaviness had lifted. The June fog that I’d accepted as normal for three years was clearing. I could concentrate past 3pm. My back didn’t ache when I stood up from my desk. 

I booked another blood test at three months. My vitamin D was at 89 nmol/L. Up from 28. My GP looked at the result and asked what I’d changed. I showed her the FRAME pouch. She wrote down the name.

Take a look of what’s in every FRAME softgel:

10,000 IU Vitamin D3; plant based, bio-identical to sunlight

200 mcg Vitamin K2 (MK-7); clinically studied form, sourced from Italy

Coconut oil carrier; not soybean, not corn oil

300 softgels per pouch. Less than $0.18 per day

Third-party tested for purity, every batch

60 day money back guarantee. No questions asked

10,000 IU Vitamin D3; plant based, bio-identical to sunlight

200 mcg Vitamin K2 (MK-7); clinically studied form, sourced from Italy

Coconut oil carrier; not soybean, not corn oil

300 softgels per pouch. Less than $0.18 per day

Third-party tested for purity, every batch

60 day money back guarantee. No questions asked

It’s May again now. A year later. Winter is a week away and for the first time in four years, I’m not dreading it. 

I still take FRAME every morning. One softgel with breakfast. I don’t think about it much anymore. It’s just part of the routine, like brushing my teeth. 

But I think about those three winters I lost. The mornings I dragged myself through. The afternoons I wrote off. The mood I accepted as normal. All because a $25 blood test wasn’t offered, and a vitamin that costs eighteen cents a day wasn’t in the right format on the pharmacy shelf. 

If any of this sounds familiar; the winter tiredness, the brain fog, the heaviness that arrives every June and lifts every October, please don’t do what I did. Don’t wait three years to find out. Ask for the blood test. Or just start with what I started with: a clean, properly dosed vitamin D3 with K2, and see what changes in eight weeks. 

I wish someone had told me sooner. Now I’m telling you.

They Started Last Winter. Here's How They Feel Now

Rated 4.81/5 by 2,350+ verified buyers

Photo of Karen P.
Karen P., 54 Verified Buyer

"My story is almost identical to Sarah's. Tired every winter, GP said hormones, never tested vitamin D. I was at 33 when I finally paid for my own test. FRAME brought me up to 87 in three months. I feel like I got three hours of my day back."

Photo of Linda M.
Linda M., 59 Verified Buyer

"Tasmania in winter is grim for vitamin D. I was on a pharmacy brand for years, 1,000 IU, thought I was covered. I wasn't even close. FRAME's 10,000 IU actually moved my levels. My sleep has improved more than anything else. I wake up and my body actually feels rested."

Photo of Jenni R.
Jenni R., 47 Verified Buyer

"A friend in Christchurch sent me the link. I was sceptical but my energy had been terrible since April. Got tested, low as expected for the South Island. Started FRAME in June, by August I felt like a completely different person. The K2 is what convinced me, most brands don't include it."

Photo of Pauline D.
Pauline D., 56 Verified Buyer

"I'd tried a few different pharmacy brands. None of them made a noticeable difference. FRAME is the first vitamin D I've taken where I actually felt something change. My afternoon crashes are gone. My mood is steadier. And I like knowing exactly what's in it."

Photo of Michelle H.
Michelle H., 50 Verified Buyer

"I work in an office with no natural light. I wear sunscreen every day. I'm the poster child for vitamin D deficiency and I didn't know it until I read something like this article. ACT is 49% deficient in winter. I was one of them. Not anymore."

Your body has been running on empty every winter. Now you know why.

The only question is what you do next.

One clean softgel. 300 days of protection. The winter vitamin D Australia & New Zealand were missing.

 Try FRAME Risk Free 

        Try FRAME Risk Free        
Free Shipping badge Free Shipping
60-Day Money Back Guarantee badge 60-Day Money Back Guarantee
Plant Based badge Formulated especifically for AU & NZ
3rd Party Lab Tested badge 3rd Party Lab Tested

References: 
Australian Bureau of Statistics, National Health Measures Survey 2022–24. 
Gonzalez-Chica D, Stocks N. BMJ Open 2019;9:e024797. 
Cancer Council Australia, Vitamin D and Sun Safety guidance. 
Jean Hailes for Women's Health. 
Bonevski B et al., Int J Cancer 2012;130:2138–2145

THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT AND NOT AN ACTUAL ARTICLE, BLOG, OR CONSUMER PROTECTION UPDATE. Personal story. Individual results may vary. The statements made on this website have not been independently verified by any Australian or New Zealand health authority. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Please note, the profile images for the product reviews are stock photos and not a reflection of the real individual per their privacy.