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Are These Symptoms of Menopause or ADD/ADHD?
Some women who have had undiagnosed ADD/ADHD all of their lives find that worsening symptoms send them to their doctor’s office looking for answers. But ADD/ADHD-like symptoms do not always indicate the presence of the condition. If you have only recently developed symptoms (and they haven’t been present since childhood), then menopause is probably the culprit. Talk with your doctor about symptom relief.
If you’ve been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, menopause’s effects on the condition often require treatment adjustments. Work with your doctor to increase medication dosage, or to try an extended-release med, get more exercise (which can sharpen focus and, in the process, reduce the odds of developing osteoporosis), and consider hormone therapy. For many women, the best course of treatment is estrogen, for three to four months, followed by 10 days of progesterone.
Complicating matters is the fact that about 85 percent of women experience some sexual dysfunction after menopause. Just when you could use humor and support from your partner to cope with “swiss-cheese brain,” you may find that your relationship becomes more strained.
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