Perimenopause and ADHD

Perimenopause is getting a lot more attention lately. One of the specific things that is getting some much needed attention is the appearance of ADHD during this time. I frequently get asked if you can “get’ ADHD later in life. The answer is yes and no. No, because the symptoms have been there since childhood, you just didn’t know it. Yes, because suddenly your compensation strategies stop working and the symptoms become apparent. For women, the most common times that ADHD presents itself is college, motherhood, and perimenopause. There is an additional reason ADHD is likely to show itself during perimenopause. The production of Dopamine, the chemical that is deficient in the ADHD brain, requires estrogen to be produced. As we start to lose estrogen, we start to lose dopamine. For a woman who already had lower Dopamine but was able to manage the symptoms this produced, the drop means that these symptoms can no longer be ignored.