From anxiety to outbursts of rage, fluctuating and low levels of estrogen during menopause can take its toll on mental health. We ask the experts to explain why sex hormones matter when it comes to mood, and what can be done to steady the ship.
Menopause mood
Within five months of having a life-saving hysterectomy, menopause psychotherapist Diane Danzebrink found herself on the brink of taking her own life. She shares her story on The Liz Earle Wellbeing Show: ‘I just thought, this isn’t living and if this is what it’s going to be like, I don’t want to be here anymore, because I’m too much trouble for everybody around me.’
She came within a hair’s breadth of driving out in front of a lorry. ‘My Jack Russell, Henry, barked at the crucial moment and it broke my train of thought,’ she recalls. ‘I gripped the wheel incredibly hard and drove home shaking, before telling my husband what I’d almost done.’
Things started to change for the better when Diane replaced the estrogen that had disappeared following her hysterectomy: ‘Once I put my first estrogen patch on, probably within about 48 hours, I started to notice a difference.’
A for anxiety
Though Diane’s case is severe, it’s not unprecedented. Research shows the highest rate of female suicide is found in women aged 45-54, the very same time of life when hormone changes occur. It’s estimated that 75% of women experience symptoms during this hormonal transition and, of that number, 25% experience severe symptoms. While the physical symptoms of menopause are disruptive and well documented (hot flushes, night sweats), it’s often mood disturbance that prompts women to reach out for help, says GP and menopause specialist Dr Rebecca Lewis. ‘It’s the number one reason women come to see me in clinic – not the hot flushes so much, or the muscle pains – it’s the psychological changes.’
Anxious thoughts and feelings are extremely common during perimenopause, says Dr Lewis. ‘Nearly all the women I see in clinic have experienced some degree of increased anxiety,’ she explains. ‘This can range from minor to very severe. Some women are housebound with anxiety and others report waking with a sense of foreboding about the day for no real reason.’
Anxiety certainly contributed to the desperate state Diane found herself in, back in 2012. ‘I withdrew from everybody, really,’ she describes. ‘I started to have panic attacks during the night. I wouldn’t answer the telephone, I wouldn’t see friends and I was too scared to open post because, as far as I was concerned, everything was going to
