Perimenopause - I can't remember anything anymore!

[spikeyplantation]

I've struggled with retaining information for as long as I can imagine. I was finally diagnosed with ADHD at 40 and suddenly everything made sense. I started taking ADHD medication and it was life changing. I was so efficient and excelled at my job.

Fast forward 4 years and peri-menopause has hit me hard. The brain fog is killer and my ADHD medication no longer works most of the time. I feel like I've got back to square one before meds.

Aside from brain fog, lack of motivation to do anything and lack of efficiency I'm struggling to remember important things at work.

I will be on Teams calls with senior stakeholders one day, but then the next day someone will reference that same call we had the day before or something that was discussed in detail and I sit there blankly without a clue what they're talking about. I genuinely can't remember the call or anything that was discussed. This has become a massive problem for me because I don't make any progress on actions or projects that come from the calls.

What can I do? Will HRT help with this? I spoke with an HRT specialists but she was hesitant to put me on full HRT because of other existing medical conditions, so she put me on the birth control pill which has a lower dose of hormones that's meant to help with my anxiety. Problem is I'm too anxious to take them because of the potential blood clot side effects.

I'm stuck and not sure what to do. Has anyone else experienced such bad memory loss with peri?

i can relate. I found magnesium helped a bit - you need to take the right supplement though. Magnesium L-threonate can cross the blood brain barrier and so helps the most with brain fog.

Yes. Brain fog has been awful. Testosterone helped me and I've used it on its own, without the oestrogen and progesterone alongside. Agree with pp on magnesium L-threonate. Sleep is also important but can be hard to come by in peri.

HRT really helped my brain fog.

Could have written this!

And now I can’t even remember what you wrote 😵‍💫😁

I write important things down in a notebook. My memory is terrible at times but then other days it’s perfect and I can remember everything,

tomorrow I have a meeting in a different department and I’ve written it down to remind me that I’m in another place of work tomorrow. …just in case.

dh And our children take the piss about my notes but they really do help,

Last year, I got into someone else's car (same model, colour as mine) and the lady very kindly said "you need some HRT love" and I replied "I'm already on it!" It's actually very concerning at times.

What existing medical conditions? There’s very few that are contraindicated for HRT - some cancers, sometimes a family history of certain cancers, high blood pressure and blood clots are the main ones (although there’s less of a risk of blood clots with transdermal HRT than with the combined pill).

There is less oestrogen in HRT than in the combined pill so that doesn’t make any sense as an explanation as to why you can take the pill but not HRT:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/hrt-or-the-pill-for-perimenopause#:~:text=Estrogen%20doses%20in%20birth%20control,or%20the%20age%20of%2050.

I have ADHD and menopause sent the ADHD symptoms off the scale. Symptoms such as brain fog and lack of motivation were better within a week, other symptoms improved over time and with increased dose.

If you don’t have a contraindicated medical condition (see below) I would be pushing for HRT. See another doctor if the one you’ve seen isn’t helpful.

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/menopause/prescribing-information/hormone-replacement-therapy-hrt/#contraindications-cautions

Practically speaking, are minutes taken or recordings made of these meetings?

This was me.
Oestrogel changed my life.
I have my moments but the anxiety and tumbleweed moments have reduced enormously. It’s worked for several of my friends. Hope you get your hands on some soon. Life will be better then.

Same HRT has helped massively.

I'm on hrt and creatine and think they've made a difference. So has sleep, which unfortunately I'm now medicated to enable me to achieve (mirtazapine).

Op do you have Microsoft planner? You can add tasks in there and it emails you when it’s due or over due. It really helps me.

Is there good minutes being taken? If not then you might have to start taking your own, I like one note for the separate folders.

Both are very simple and easy to use

Another vote for HRT. You need bioidentical oestrogen and progesterone. The combined pill is not HRT - I was on it for years but still experienced loads of peri symptoms. I came off it and started HRT, and life is a lot better now

Sorry to jump on this post but just interested re HRT and ADHD as I’m waiting for an official ADHD diagnosis and am on HRT (for around 3 months now) but the ADHD symptoms which I now realise I’ve had all my life are through the roof now, I have the Mirena and have Estrogel which I thought would take the symptoms down 😕