Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: CrispyChick on May 06, 2024, 02:59:16 PM
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Is brain fog more a peri symptom as things change, or a post meno symptom?
Or maybe both. Joy!
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Personally for me both. I had this symptom in peri, when my progesterone was falling. And had it again, when estrogen started dropping in meno.
It so hard to navigate by symptoms what is going wrong, but definitely something is falling down. ???
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Post meno for me.
Anxiety was my main peri ( still is) x
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Both for me. I find testosterone does help but don't think my brain will ever work like it used to, sadly
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Both for me. I find testosterone does help but don't think my brain will ever work like it used to, sadly
Mine neither :'(
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Dr Lisa Mosconi, an American neuroscientist has done a lot of research into women's brains, including what happens to them during the menopause. She has recently written a book on the subject and has done talks on the subject - see below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJZ8z_nTCZQ
Declining oestrogen affects many parts of the brain. For most women, the brain does adapt to lower levels over time but some women never get back to where they were before peri. I personally wish I had started HRT earlier when I first started getting symptoms in peri, as I feel it may have halted some of the decline.
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You are stuffed If HRT is off limits then. You just have to accept a gradual decline in brain function?
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No, as I say, most women's brains do adapt over time to having lower oestrogen levels, just as for many women, other symptoms of menopause like hot flushes do stop after a few years. The brain is very adaptable and finds new ways to adjust to lower oestrogen levels, like increasing blood flow. For some women, however, the brain never does quite recover to it's former level but it doesn't mean it goes on declining, other than it would anyway from the general ageing process
You can read more about it here, in a article she wrote in the Guardian recently.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/23/neurology-professor-lisa-mosconi-menopause-brain-book-interview-hrt?ref=mc.news
At the moment, there is not enough research to say whether HRT helps stave off dementia. HRT has definitely helped my brain function, in particular testosterone and I wish I had started it earlier but I've no way of knowing for sure if I'd be in a better place now if I had. My cholesterol is high, so the blood vessels in my brain are probably clogged up with that!