The wild hormonal swings of perimenopause and marked estrogen drop of menopause correlate to more severe and sometimes new symptoms of ADHD in women. As they enter perimenopause around age 47, women will begin to experience irregular, extreme, and worsening drops in total estrogen and progesterone levels.
Levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), which stimulate the ovaries to produce estrogen; and luteinizing hormone (LH), which triggers ovulation, also vary considerably.
These fluctuating estrogen levels help explain the sometimes extreme mood and cognitive problems that many women, ADHD or not, experience in the lead up to menopause.1 These symptoms also happen to overlap with and mimic the symptoms of ADHD.By menopause (average age, 51), estrogen levels have dropped about 65%.
The loss of estrogen leads to a decrease in serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain. During the menopausal transition, women report moodiness, sadness, irritability, fatigue, fuzzy thinking, and memory lapses.
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