Challenges

Hot flashes get most of the attention during perimenopause, but common symptoms can also include forgetfulness and mood swings. So why do hormonal changes affect your brain? Here’s a look at the three phases of menopause — and whether you should talk to your doctor about hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Phase one: perimenopause
Memory issues can definitely emerge during this time, but the reasons why are still being studied. One factor could be hormones. During perimenopause, your hormones run wild, and that hormonal unpredictability may affect your brain and your mood. Women’s brains like hormonal stability and predictability so they don’t respond well cognitively or mood-wise to fluctuations, explains Pauline Maki, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and former president of the North American Menopause Society.
Hormonal unpredictability, however, is only one part of the menopausal brain fog cocktail. Hot flashes, sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression can all be part of an interconnecting puzzle that prevents women from feeling like their normal mental selves. How do these factors interconnect? Hot flashes, for example, can interrupt not only work activities, but also sleep, which affects concentration.
While the transition to menopause differs for every woman, the keyword is “transition.” The symptoms you experience are only temporary and will most likely end soon after menopause, says Kejal Kantarci, a professor of radiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
“During the transitional phase, due to the fluctuations in hormones and adaptation of the brain to lower levels of estrogen and other hormones, cognitive difficulties may emerge, but they do not remain for the rest of a woman’s life,” says Kantarci.
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