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Menopause, Hormones & ADHD: What We Know, What Research is Needed

Menopause and ADHD – both associated with impaired cognitive functioning and emotional dysregulation – share a unique and complicated relationship. Anecdotal evidence tells us this in spades, but scientific research is paltry at best. Here, learn what we do know about estrogen, hormonal fluctuations, and menopause in neurotypical women — and how that may help inform clinical approaches for women with ADHD.

4 Comments: Menopause, Hormones & ADHD: What We Know, What Research is Needed

  1. Typo: Not “break cancer” but “breast cancer”… =)
    Talking about hormone receptor positive breast cancer here obviously.

  2. Thank you so much for bringing this important topic to mind.
    As a break cancer patient, I wonder about the effects of SERMs like Tamoxifen or of aromatase inhibitors on dopamine and ADHD symptoms, by reducing the estrogen available. I find NO studies on this.
    Obviously, all the data say that tamoxifen reduces mortality in breast cancer patients. But here’s my question: We also know that ADHD significantly reduces life expectancy. So I wonder if it wouldn’t make sense to do studies on people who have both ADHD and hormone receptor positive breast cancer – possibly the advantages of reduced tumor growth because of Tamoxifen etc. are outweighed by increased ADHD symptoms in some survivors. If that were true, ADHD diagnosis should be included in the cost-benefit calculation of taking anti-hormonal drugs – or psychiatrists should be informed that people who take Tamoxifen might need higher doses of stimulant medication.

  3. I think that you have articulated this issue better than anyone could have, bennettm327! If I bring this up to any medical professional, they want to run out of the room, especially when I mention how I used to take generic Adderall, how it used to work and how it is no longer prescribed in Massachusetts. There is a shortage while there appears to be a beneficial crisis and pressure from federal agencies to just eradicate this drug. Yes, people who work in the medical field are struggling too. They are being run ragged and I understand. With that having been said, as a forty-five-year-old woman who is going through early menopause and is being denied her medication, I do not understand why so many GPs do not want to have this discussion. Thank you ADDitude for covering this topic.

  4. ADDitude, I commend you on keeping the topic of women with ADHD at the forefront. But PLEASE, our lives do not end at Menopause, and once again your author and their sources fail to mention Post Menopause – a period that can last 35 to 45 years. Where is your consideration of today’s population of girls and women as a WHOLE instead of, until recently, only up to Peri Menopause?
    Due to advances in treatment in the past 20 years, ADHD has largely been studied for children since it did not exist in the DM for those of us growing up before 1980. Therefore there are huge numbers of adults diagnosed in the past 10 years, of every age, and those of us diagnosed after Menopause, would greatly appreciate being acknowledged.
    Yes, we all know that the medical community has no economic incentive to study women over 50 for anything. But surely your magazine, as the primarily current literature on ADHD, could do a bit of pro-active research with neurologists, gynecologists, psychiatrists, and even the wellness community, to be able to offer even a tiny bit of insight as to life with ADHD AFTER menopause?

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