Brain Fog and Menopause

Original photo by David Kanigan

I write about menopause because I understand firsthand what women go through in menopause. I’ve suffered from many of the same side effects of menopause due to hormone deprivation therapy for prostate cancer. This post is especially poignant for me because I’ve been suffering from brain fog for the past three weeks and have been unable to get this post done. My brain fog is mostly cleared so here we go!

Brain fog is a real thing that can happen to women anytime after peri-menopause starts, and I mean ANYTIME including post menopause. I’m not a doctor but I know a thing or two about brain fog. I have experienced brain fog for days at a time. Notice I say DAYS, not moments or hours. I mean that I have days that I can’t find words in the middle of conversations and everything has to grind to a stop. I’ve looked to my wife Pam many times for help finding a word. After being together for 49 years, she’s pretty adept at reading my mind and suggesting the word that I’m trying to think of and can’t. Thank God for her help. When it comes to memory issues, I often can’t remember where I parked the car after shopping. Thank you Volvo for the panic button on the remote which sends the car’s alarm screaming to provide some direction. I’m embarrassed to write that I’ve often had immense difficulty concentrating and getting simple tasks done. I’ve even been unable to comprehend the Sunday paper comic strips when my brain fog has been severe. At my worst, the Sunday comics built up for three weeks until my brain fog cleared and I was finally able to read them. Brain fog can get in the way of almost every aspect of daily life. Ordinary tasks like going to work, helping the kids with their homework, shopping, driving, enjoying a movie and even simpler things like trying to pick out clothes to wear all are at risk. Brain fog and fatigue have resulted in my temporarily suspending all my flight activities as a pilot. That sucks worst of all for me!

Image courtesy of Cleveland Clinic

There is an interesting interesting and unfortunate relationship between hot flashes, fatigue, and brain fog. Hot flashes can wake up a woman at night and make it difficult to get back to sleep. That disruption of sleep often results in fatigue which then leads to brain fog. Also brain fog all on its own can cause severe fatigue, which can make all of life difficult.

As I understand it from doing research, brain fog is at least associated with, if not directly caused by, a decrease in estrogen and or testosterone. Levels of both can rise and fall erratically during perimenopause and stay dysfunctionally low into post menopause. Thankfully, some women can benefit greatly from clinician prescribed hormone replacement and enjoy a higher quality of life free of brain fog. If you experience brain fog, I suggest you discuss the matter with your gynecologist and address whether or not hormone replacement therapy might be appropriate for you.

Cleveland clinic has an excellent article on brain fog with more information. Here’s a link: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/brain-fog

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