It’s far too easy for hormones to be overlooked when it comes to mental health symptoms such as low mood, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, feelings of low self-worth and reduced self-esteem. We know it’s very common for perimenopausal and menopausal women to experience a decline in their mental health, particularly when hormone levels fluctuate so much during perimenopause. In fact, 98% of the women we see in our Newson Health Clinic report psychological symptoms so we now have Dr Louisa James working in the team, who is an NHS consultant psychiatrist with a special interest and knowledge in female hormones and mental health. On my podcast this week, Louisa joined me as the guest and we talk about the importance, and power, of asking patients about their hormones during a psychiatric appointment. To listen to the podcast, search for episode 255 on the Dr Louise Newson Podcast on your favourite streaming app, or click the link. The full episode is also available to watch on my YouTube channel. drlouisenewson.co.uk/255-men…

I have generated a word cloud of menopause symptoms based on a large survey of nearly 6,000 women we did recently - the larger words are the more common symptoms.  Notice how many of the most common symptoms are related to the brain!

It was brilliant being back on @thismorning this week for their menopause clinic. One of the viewers who phoned in was a 39-year-old woman experiencing hot flushes and anxiety, wondering if it could be menopause causing her symptoms.    Although hot flushes can occur during perimenopause and menopause, symptoms affecting our brains are actually usually more common. In fact, 98% of women we see in our Newson Health clinic report symptoms affecting the brain - such as brain fog, poor memory, fatigue, irritability and mood changes. So, it’s really important that we consider changing hormones when women experience symptoms such as anxiety and low mood. We often suggest trialling HRT to see if it helps, as antidepressants will not be effective for low mood associated with menopause.