Menopause and the Mind.

By Tina Winchester

Menopause has long been a topic that women lie about.

Post-menopausal female family members tell us that it’s something that you just have to go through, discreetly, and that we must simply get on with it. We’re told that the stages of menopause are a natural part of life. Older female friends and family members, when recounting their own experiences, say things like “it’s not that bad! It’s just a few hot flushes”. This simply isn’t true!

Let’s start with peri-menopause. This is the transition women go through before they are officially considered “in menopause”. Perimenopause symptoms can surface up to five years before any physical symptoms of menopause. The myth is that menopause begins when periods begin to change, or stop. Psychological symptoms during perimenopause are most often the first to emerge, and can be debilitating.

When women experience anxiety, depression, memory loss, brain fog, panic attacks, hot flushes, insomnia – these are neurological symptoms. They start in the brain. Peri-menopause and menopause is a restructuring of the brain, much like a renovation. The brain is telling sufferers “I’m under stress”. Brain energy levels can actually drop by up to 25% during this transition.

Dramatic changes in your hormones during menopause can impact your mental health as well as your physical health. You may experience feelings of anxiety, stress or even depression.

Peri-menopausal and menopausal symptoms may include, but aren’t limited to:

- Anger and irritability.

- Anxiety.

- Forgetfulness.

- Loss of self-esteem.

- Lowered confidence.

- Low mood, and/ or feelings of sadness or depression.

- Poor concentration – often described as ‘brain fog’ and/or “lost words”.

Many women experiencing perimenopause or menopause will also experience insomnia, or problems with sleeping. Lack of sleep and fatigue can also make symptoms, including irritability, ability to concentrate or anxiety, much worse. In fact, it’s often these sleep changes that are the first symptoms of the menopause cycle a woman might experience.

A symptom that is rarely, if ever talked about is that women may also experience intrusive and negative thoughts, and for some sufferers, even

Building on your knowledge of even the basics of how the brain and the process of menopause are so heavily interlinked goes a long way towards seeking treatment, and simply understanding what’s happening.

Estrogen production is central to reproduction, but did you know that the hormone is central to the brain’s operation too? Brain function is heavily governed by reproductive hormones such as estrogen, so a dramatic decline in estrogen levels during perimenopause through to postmenopause will, of course, affect mood and cognitive ability.

Hormone levels are often at their lowest around 3am, and as peri-menopausal and menopausal women are already combatting a dramatic drop in hormones, they may experience intrusive, paranoid, or even suicidal thoughts in these early morning hours, but improved mood in the afternoon when hormones are at their highest. This variation goes through cycles throughout the day and night, and certainly throughout the month.

If you are going through these changes, the first thing to do is to start listening to your body.

If you’re over 40 years old and you start to feel not quite yourself or experience anxieties that aren’t normal for you, start monitoring this. Women have cited anxiety symptoms that are often unique to them, such as not wanting to drive at night, feeling overwhelming worry, experiencing paranoid thinking, or even simply feeling a bit “down”.

Monitor when these symptoms occur, on which days of the month and if your periods or menstrual cycle are changing at all. Go online and research symptoms of menopause, as they can be very wide ranging. Heart palpitations, aching joints, burning mouth, itchiness, electric shock sensations and other physical symptoms you wouldn’t necessarily attribute to peri-menopause are often a direct result of the process. Physical symptoms, such as changes to periods, may also not occur for some years after the onset of psychological symptoms.

Consult with a doctor and don’t allow yourself to be dismissed with the old adage that “this is a natural stage of life women go through”. There is nothing natural about suffering. If symptoms persist and begin to affect your life, medical intervention may be required.

Menopause has an unfortunate social stigma associated with it that was and is contributing to irreparable damage to many women’s lives. This sadly increases the risk of mental health decline and even suicide. Menopause isn’t just about “suddenly feeling hot” or “the odd mood swing” - it’s so much more than those often-superficial societal understandings. Peri-menopause and menopause is a health issue that affects everyone – whether you’re a woman over the age of 40, a husband, a son or a co-worker of a woman undergoing these biological changes.

Mentally Well Workplaces is proud to be launching our new “Menopause and the Mind” campaign, and subsequent new training offerings to end the stigma around menopause in the workplace, and to support women going through this natural process. Make sure to sign up to our newsletter and follow us on social media to stay up to date.

Tina Winchester is the Mental Health Director for Mentally Well Workplaces and a Principal Master MHFA Instructor www.mentallywellworkplaces.com.au