andrea@confidentconversations.co.uk
How does menopause affect mental health?
October Awareness Days
Menopause is more than hot flushes and night sweats. For many women, the transition can bring unexpected changes to mental health, including anxiety, depression, and low mood swings, even an increase in the risk of suicidal thoughts. Understanding the connection between declining hormones and poor mental health can help you recognise these changes and get the right support or resources in place.
How Hormones Affect Your Mental Health
Oestrogen and progesterone, the primary hormones that decline during menopause, play crucial roles in regulating neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that control mood, sleep, cognitive function and more. When hormone levels fluctuate wildly during perimenopause and eventually decrease, the delicate balance of these neurotransmitters is disrupted which can cause challenges for midlife women.
The Neurotransmitter Connection
Serotonin, often called the “feel-good” neurotransmitter, is significantly influenced by oestrogen. Lower oestrogen levels can reduce serotonin production and receptor sensitivity, potentially leading to depression, anxiety, and irritability. This explains why some women experience depressive symptoms for the first time during perimenopause.
GABA –the brain’s primary calming neurotransmitter, imagine this as the brake, stopping the engine from racing away, does the job well with the help of progesterone. So it would make sense that as progesterone declines, GABA activity decreases, which may contribute to increased anxiety, racing thoughts, and difficulty sleeping – ie a decreased ability to do the calming, slowing and stopping.
Dopamine, which we know is responsible for motivation and pleasure, is also affected by oestrogen fluctuations and this can have a negative impact for us on concentration, motivation, and the ability to experience joy – not great right? But knowing this is what might be happening for you makes it easier to understand and get the help that is right for you.
Recognising Mental Health Changes During Perimenopause
These fluctuations during perimenopause are perhaps the reason why so many women tell me that they notice increased anxiety, persistent sadness, irritability, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, or changes in sleep patterns. Obviously we need to look at it in context though, as if you have things going on in your world that are making life challenging too, then perhaps the answer isn’t all around your hormones, and we should never be looking at symptoms like these in isolation and saying “My mental health is poor because of my menopause” – that would not be something I’d recommend.
When I work as a menopause coach with clients, I always encourage them to look at the bigger picture and consider the hormone decline in the context of what is happening in their life right now, thinking about external or environmental stressors too. My experience as a coach tells me that often it’s not just the hormonal shift that is causing the full mental health picture!
Such symptoms can range from mild to severe and may feel overwhelming, especially when combined with physical menopausal symptoms, and if we think about the impact that those physical symptoms can also have, the whole shifting landscape can definitely contribute to our feeling down, and as I said, even suicidal in some cases.
Finding Support For Mental Health Issues
If you’re experiencing mental health changes during menopause, you’re not alone, sadly. In some recent UK research, it was suggested that as many as 8 out of 10 women experience a negative effect on their mental health during perimenopause especially and 1 in 10 even had thoughts of suicide during this time. My own experience of menopause, following a number of stressful years with a divorce that kept on giving, a house move that was challenging and a financial situation that caused me grief, eventually took me to a very dark place where I intended to end my life. Eventually I was able to get the help I needed and for me, as with many other women, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) helped by stabilising hormone levels and supporting neurotransmitter function. I also made a difference to my own situation too by making small tweaks in my lifestyle choices, and I believe that whether you are on HRT or not, there are definitely benefits to be had through lifestyle changes.
Lifestyle interventions can include things like taking regular exercise, time spent outdoors and in nature, better stress management, adequate rest, relaxation and sleep, and a nutritious diet – all of these lifestyle levers can support brain health during this transition and make a real difference to our mental health and wellbeing.
My experience over the years has taught me that it is often a combination of resources that makes the difference and that combination will be unique for each woman. Working with healthcare providers or a menopause coach such as myself who understand the menopause-mental health connection is essential. Treatment options may include a combination of HRT if you are able, maybe antidepressants if necessary, exploring professional help such as cognitive behavioural therapy, taking time to examine those lifestyle factors that make a difference during menopause, or indeed a combination of approaches tailored to every woman’s specific needs.
Remember, menopause-related mental health changes are happening due to the hormonal decline and the impact that it is having on your brain chemistry. This is not your fault and you are not a failure. We need to talk more about this issue and make sure that all women realise that with proper understanding and support, you can navigate this transition while maintaining good mental health.
If you would like to know more about this chain reaction of hormones on brain chemistry which in turn can lead to the 8 out of 10 women experiencing poor mental health, then please join me in our free Masterclass – Menopause & Mental Health; Small Shifts, Big Impact which is online and free in October – you can register for your free place over here:- https://actuallyshecan.co.uk
If you are keen to run a session like this in your business, please drop me a note – whether you want to help female employees with their wellbeing, or perhaps you are aware of the 3x increase in tribunal cases with menopause at the root and want to keep your managers informed, we would love to help.
Hope to see you at one of the sessions soon!
Take good care
Andrea x
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