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Women tend to live longer than men. According to the CDC in 2024, the average American lifespan for men is 76.5 years. For women, it is 81.4 years! But as you know, living longer doesn't necessarily mean we're living healthier. Throughout my education in geriatrics and my years of clinical practice, I've cared for many older adults dealing with chronic illness, cognitive impairment, physical immobility, and other conditions that strip patients of their autonomy and independen

Have you noticed more hair in your brush or shower drain? Maybe your ponytail doesn't feel as thick as it used to, or your part seems a little wider. Do you find yourself looking at old pictures and wondering when your hair started changing? Hair thinning is something I hear about frequently from women in midlife. While this topic of hair loss in midlife may seem like a cosmetic concern, our hair is an aspect of how we view ourselves. Changes in its thickness or appearance ca

Starting with the basics During perimenopause, your body begins a process of hormonal transition: your estrogen levels fluctuate, your progesterone declines, and your pituitary gland releases more FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) as the ovaries wind down, though FSH fluctuates so much month to month. In Part 1 of this series, “Am I Too Young for Perimenopause?”, we took a deeper dive into this process: its complexities, the symptoms involved, and the steps you can take to

Picture your average, healthy woman in her 40’s: Recently though, she’s started noticing some changes in her day-to-day life. Her periods may be arriving a little earlier than usual. She’s having more trouble concentrating or remembering things. She’s experiencing headaches or joint pain that she never had before. And her sleep isn’t what it used to be. With so much going on between work, family, and everyday responsibilities, it’s easy to attribute these changes to stress. A

Quick disclaimer before I get started: I'm a menopause specialist. I am not an ADHD specialist. An accurate ADHD diagnosis requires a comprehensive evaluation by a properly trained professional. This is not an attempt to diagnose, nor to advise readers on medication. First, to recap Part 1. ADHD, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, is a condition that starts in childhood and affects focus, organization, time management, and follow-through. In adults, it often looks l

There has been a lot more conversation lately about ADHD and brain fog during perimenopause. It seems to be everywhere, podcasts, social media, articles, and conversations in the midlife space. This information is great, but it has a lot of women even more confused about symptoms of brain fog and many are wondering whether what they have always thought of as perimenopause brain fog could actually be something more. We have known for a long time that women can notice changes i

In Part 1, More Than Just Feeling Hot: Understanding Hot Flashes, we talked about what a hot flash actually is, why it happens, and what is going on with your body's internal thermostat during perimenopause and menopause. Yet, not every episode of feeling hot, flushed, sweaty, or waking up drenched at night is necessarily menopause. If you're in your 40s or 50s, it's pretty easy to blame hormones and very often hormones are the reason. However, what if you're years past menop

We have all heard about hot flashes and have always associated them with menopause. They’re one of those symptoms we’ve joked about, laughed about and almost come to expect as just part of going through menopause. If you've had a hot flash yourself, you don't need anyone to describe one to you. Up to 80% of women have hot flashes at some point during perimenopause or menopause. For some, they're just slightly annoying. For others, they show up throughout the day and night and

Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms women experience during perimenopause. It can affect your quality of life, your memory, your ability to concentrate and be productive, or sometimes just your motivation to get dressed and do something. Fatigue also isn't usually coming from just one thing. Hormone changes, poor sleep, night sweats, heavier periods, low iron, stress, mood, nutrition, hydration, and metabolism can all play a part. When several of these are happening at

In my last post, I discussed what Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause, or GSM, actually is, the vaginal, vulvar, and bladder changes that come with declining estrogen, why it's so common, and why it doesn't get better on its own. If you missed it, I suggest going back and reading that first. Here I want to go over what we can actually do about it. GSM responds well to treatment. There's more than one path depending on your symptoms and what you're comfortable with, and it is

Long before I started focusing on perimenopause and menopause, I spent many years caring for older women in the hospital who were admitted with acute illnesses on top of their chronic medical conditions. One thing I saw over and over again was recurrent UTIs. So many times, a UTI would become part of an already complicated hospital stay, and I would hear from the patient or her family, “Oh, she gets UTIs all the time,” or, “It seems like she’s on antibiotics for them througho

Some women that come to see me will tell me, "For a week or two every month, I just... I don't feel like myself." She'll describe getting angry over nothing, crying for no clear reason, feeling so heavy she can barely get out of bed. Then almost overnight, it eases up and she's fine again. Until next month, when it starts all over. She's often frustrated and exhausted by all of this, usually without the support or understanding she actually needs. Many of these women have PMD

If you read part one, you know why perimenopause can make you feel anxious, foggy, or like you're one bad night of sleep away from losing it. Maybe that shows up as anxiety, maybe it shows up as rage you don't recognize in yourself, snapping at your kids or your partner over something tiny and then feeling awful about it an hour later. You also learned the science behind it and why it's not a personal failure. I want to talk now about what actually helps. The question I hear

Why Perimenopause Can Make You Feel Like a Different Person Part 1: What Is Actually Happening and Why Have you ever found yourself thinking,"What is wrong with me?" Maybe you've noticed you're more anxious than you've ever been. You're snapping at your partner over something that normally wouldn't bother you. You feel overwhelmed by things you've handled for years. Maybe you just don't feel like yourself anymore, and you can't quite explain why. I want to tell you that if th

Has your digestion suddenly started doing things it never used to? Have you been bloated more often after meals? Have you noticed more constipation one week then running to the bathroom the next? Maybe you've just felt "off" for months, and no matter what you eat, your gut doesn't seem happy. If this is you, you are not alone. I hear this from women in midlife all of the time. Many of us think of menopause as hot flashes, night sweats, or sleep changes. However, one thing we

So many women I talk to have spent most of their lives trying to be smaller. For some of us it started young. The first diet in high school, counting calories in college, always feeling like our bodies were somehow not quite right. For others, it did not really kick in until midlife, when the body started changing in ways that felt completely out of our control and the response was to restrict even more. Either way, by the time most women walk into my office, they have some v

What Nobody Told You About Cholesterol and Menopause Let's start with some statistics that still don't get said enough. 1 in 3 women will die from cardiovascular disease. It kills more women than all cancers combined, and approximately 1 woman dies from it every 80 seconds in this country. Nearly 45% of women over 20 already have some form of it. I don’t mean to scare everyone, but this is so important to know. One of the biggest changes during menopause is often one you can'

If you're reading this, there is likely a midlife woman in your life who seems a little different lately. You might have noticed that she is more tired than usual, maybe she's not sleeping, maybe she's more emotional, more forgetful, or just doesn't seem like herself. Maybe she even has been giving you some dirty looks. You could be wondering what happened. However, the truth is, she's probably wondering the exact same thing. Men, this one is for you. Perimenopause and menop

Have you ever walked into a room and completely forgotten why you went there? Have you been in the middle of a conversation and suddenly lost your train of thought? Maybe you just can’t find the word you have been searching for and then it pops into your head an hour later?Women describe it differently, but I hear the same symptoms over and over in my office. "I feel like I'm in a fog.” "My brain doesn't work the way it used to." It's hard not to wonder if you're stressed,

One of the most common concerns I hear from women in my practice is, "I'm exhausted, but I can't sleep." Sleep changes start during perimenopause. Some women have trouble falling asleep. Others fall asleep without much difficulty but find themselves staring at the ceiling at 2 or 3 in the morning, unable to get back to sleep. Some wake up multiple times throughout the night, while others spend eight hours in bed and still wake feeling exhausted. Sleep disturbances are one of