If you’re in your 30s and experiencing brain fog, anxiety, or waking up at 2 am for no reason, you’ve probably blamed it on stress or burnout. But if your periods are also unpredictable, your body might be trying to tell you something else: perimenopause has entered the chat. Also read | Perimenopause ‘isn’t same for everyone’: Radiologist shares why you shouldn’t rely on online trends to manage symptoms
Dr Gupta pointed out that early signs are far more covert While hot flashes get all the attention. It turns out that shifting hormone levels impact everything from your nervous system to your joints. Oestrogen and progesterone regulate your sleep architecture. As levels drop, Dr Gupa highlighted, you might experience lighter sleep or early waking — even without night sweats. Oestrogen directly supports neurotransmitters. Fluctuations can lead to memory lapses or word-finding struggles. “These are not early dementia and they are not imagined.
Because these issues seem so common, women routinely brush them off.
“Hot flushes and night sweats are what most people associate with perimenopause, but the symptoms that most often go unrecognised are of a different kind,” she said, adding, “These include sleep disturbance without obvious cause, cognitive changes such as difficulty concentrating and memory lapses, new-onset anxiety or mood instability, joint pain and stiffness, and changes in skin and hair texture. “Women frequently attribute these to stress, overwork, or ageing in general, and that delays recognition of a hormonal pattern,” Dr Gupta said. They are documented neurological effects of hormonal transition,” Dr Gupta said.
