For women diagnosed with ADHD later in life, the transition into menopause can feel especially challenging. The overlapping symptoms of both conditions—such as forgetfulness, mood swings, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating, make it hard to know where one ends and the other begins. This dual challenge is often under discussed, leaving many women feeling isolated and frustrated.
Being diagnosed with ADHD later in life can bring a huge mix of emotions—relief at finally understanding yourself, but also grief for the years spent struggling without the right support. Add perimenopause into the mix, and the challenges can feel even more overwhelming.
ADHD already affects emotional regulation, focus, memory, and executive function, but perimenopause brings hormonal fluctuations that intensify brain fog, mood swings, anxiety, and fatigue. The result? Absolute chaos that can make work, relationships, and daily life feel even harder to manage. Managing tasks, deadlines, and meetings becomes more draining, and burnout is often the result. Workplaces are not always understanding of these difficulties so women often just “get on with it” to the detriment of their health.
Menopause can exacerbate symptoms of ADHD and the link with dopamine shouldn’t be overlooked. Oestrogen plays a key role in regulating dopamine which is essential for attention and executive functioning. As oestrogen declines during menopause, women with ADHD may notice a worsening of symptoms, such as being more distracted, irritated or (even more) difficulty staying organised.
At the same time, ADHD can complicate the experience of menopause. For instance, ADHD is associated with forgetfulness and procrastination which might make it harder to keep up with healthy routines that could help balance menopause symptoms. These include having a balanced diet, staying physically active and remembering to take HRT medication -that’s if you remember to get a repeat prescription; HRT meds and remembering to take the different medication in different ways at different times on different days is a whole other story!
Fatigue is another common experience shared by both ADHD and menopause. Whilst the menopause often disrupts sleep due to hot flushes or night sweats, ADHD frequently leads to sleep issues from difficulty winding down at night. This overlap can result in women feeling constantly exhausted, which in turn impacts focus and emotional regulation. If it’s all starting to sound a bit negative and/or scary then I apologise but sadly, for many this is the reality.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom; recognising the connections and overlaps between ADHD and menopause, can help women prepare better for this chapter of life.
Understanding around how ADHD and perimenopause interact can help with being kind to ourselves and finding the right support. Treatment is sometimes an option, whether it’s HRT, ADHD medication or therapy – getting professional support can make a huge difference.
Workplace adjustments can also help – flexible working, increased understanding and knowledge from employers and open conversations about both neurodivergence and the menopause can help. Connecting with others going through the same experience can be helpful, just being with others who ‘get’ your experience is enough. No-one should have to struggle alone.
This topic is something that often comes up in our post diagnostic workshops as many participants are late diagnosed, sometimes even having the realisation of their neurodivergence around the time of perimenopause.
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