The first sign that something was wrong was fatigue. Then I started forgetting where I was away from my phone and keys, but I just had to find them in the fridge or kitchen cupboard. The breakpoint came when I went for a cup of tea before an important interview, but after 45 minutes I returned to a series of increasingly frustrating emails asking why I didn’t call. I was potting the house plant instead.
As a woman in my early 40s, I knew this, called the perimenopause. But was my symptoms related to this, or was it just a product of getting older, or was it simply a mental load of juggling work, family, and social demands?
While it is difficult to tease what is perimenopause and what life is, the stage to menopause can result in some surprising symptoms, especially name recalls, concentration, and cognitive symptoms of difficulty placing keys in the fridge.
“We know now that up to 62% of all menopause and postmenopausal women report these. [cognitive symptoms]this can be severe enough to cause fear around early onset dementia.” Lisa Mosconidirector of the Women’s Brain Initiative at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
Although long ignored or rejected as an inevitable consequence of aging, the neurological symptoms of menopause have ultimately attracted scientific interest. It is becoming increasingly clear that brain changes will occur during this period, and some are ultimately positive. More than that, these changes indicate that menopause may provide a significant window…
Source: www.newscientist.com