The psychological changes that may happen during hormonal decline come in a few guises. Some may well come and go in waves, some may last a while, but putting them in to perspective is crucial.

∞ There are the thoughts we mull over about ageing and what that means to us within our culture and society. If conception was part of your life plan, and that can no longer take place, then that could also have an impact on your mental health.

∞ Stress related anxiety symptoms can have a knock-on effect and perhaps your personal productivity & objectives are not being met. This is the time to re-align your targets and consider some new time management skills or build-in delegation of certain tasks. This can be super-hard for most women to ‘let it go’, let alone a menopausal one. But if you have a collection of projects/systems that you want to continue to work on, then you may have to create a flexible plan for yourself. Please don’t think you can ‘cope’ as you were. This re-structuring may only be for a few years, but I recommend you make a contingency for this sooner rather than later.

Do not ‘struggle on’ – regardless of how many of the 360˚ segments you adopt. Super Girl is changing and so must her super-hero super powers. Without due care and attention this is the point your brain may explode!

∞ Depression-like times or a feeling of sadness that you just cannot explain to anyone. These are the ones that make you feel like you are quietly and slowly going mad.

∞ Falling into the same box you also have the weird, unfathomable ‘unable to remember things’, which can attach itself to the sudden lack of confidence in your capabilities, because your cognitive ability has gone out the window. (At least that’s how it feels)

“Without due care and attention this is the point your brain may explode!”

Those last two in particular are both directly related to the levels of oestrogen circulating to our brain. In fact you have not become any less intelligent and it’s beautifully explained in the insightful TED talk by Lisa Mosconi, called How Menopause Affects the Brain –https://youtu.be/JJZ8z_Ntczq

The bottom line – You are not going mad!