Pre menopause/ menopause - can it cause bad mental health issues?

[holidayssoon]

This is a serious question. Does the pre menopause/ menopause mentally affect you as in literally make you go a bit mad? I have a long term friend around menopause age. In the last 6-9 months she has gone extremely strange to the extent where her partner thought she might seriously be having mental issues. Her entire behaviour is entirely out of character, she repeatedly threatens divorce, has distanced herself from her children, has become extremely lazy (out of character), blames everyone else for any priblems, will not take responsibility for anything and is really not herself at all. She refuses to go to see a doctor.

Today a colleague of mine suggested that she might be premenopausal and these could be extremely bad symptoms. I have no idea if this is a thing or indeed it is a common thing and should be grateful for peoples thoughts on this if they have some experience. Thank you.

[spacepyramid]

I don't know if it's common but the menopause can be a time when women have issues with anxiety/depression/stress, yes. It's a major change after all.

[Snog]

A relative is a psychiatrist- he says there is most definitely a higher incidence of mental health issues for women around meno.

[JamieFraserskneewarmer]

Yes - it definitely is. I got to 53 without ever having mental health issues and then the menopause kicked in! Now on antidepressants just to feel like I have reclaimed myself.

[SunnySomer]

Yep. I went extremely strange, had a very clear action plan to leave my (blameless) husband and child, had exceedingly black thought (to the extent of whether there was any point being alive) - all resolved in the end with hrt.
I didn’t realise it was an issue - I thought the rest of the world was unreasonable- until the black thoughts passed briefly and I had a moment of clarity which made me go to the doctor.
In hindsight it’s very frightening.

[JinglingHellsBells]

I'd not label your friend's behaviour as a mental health issue. It sounds more like she has a short fuse and is stressed. And yes this can be a sign or menopause. Not a lot you can do other than draw her attention to it and suggest she talks to her GP- although unless she wants to try HRT there isn't much point seeing her dr.

[palindromeam]

Yes. She could do with seeing a sympathetic GP who understands peri- menopause. NICE guidelines are clear that anti depressants aren't always the answer but HRT. There are risk factors for HRT but it can help with all symptoms including mental health issues.

That said I have gone down the route of antidepressants. I am no longer checking right move to work out where I can afford to live after the divorce and able to cope with my children again.

It's bloody hard.

[JinglingHellsBells]

That said I have gone down the route of antidepressants. There are also risk factors with ADs as well. People seem to forget or dismiss those and focus purely on risks of HRT when in fact the risks of HRT are lower than being overweight, drinking a glass of wine daily and not exercising. Just needs perspective.