Women deserve a medal!

Isn’t it enough we endure periods, swinging hormones and childbirth?  Or that we turn into hormone-deprived brittle bags of bones after menopause?

No. Now a new study confirms brain fog in menopause is real. It’s that time in early menopause when remembering one’s … oh yeah, name …  is a challenge. And it hits many women at the prime of their careers, sometimes starting in early 40s.

“It was horrible,” a 57-year-old women from Glenwood Springs, N.Y, told ABC News .

“I could not remember words. Even a word like ‘cat’ might not come to mind. I’d have to go through the alphabet to come up with the word. And words I’d spelled all my life, I’d think I spelled them wrong.”

In the story, Menopause: Hormones Can Help Memory and Lift Brain Fog, ABC reports that  “brain fog” seems to roll in as their menstrual cycles wane in their forties and fifties. Many fear it will never lift, signally the end of their professional lives.

Research published this week in the journal Neurology confirms that women do, indeed, lose their intellectual edge in peri-menopause — the five- or six-year period leading up to the last menstrual cycle. But the ability to learn rebounds in the later phases of menopause. And the good news is hormones can help.

There should be a medal!

Really, we should all get a medal.  So I  decree that the 28th day of every month should be nominated International Hormone Day,  where all women, young and old,  should be recognized for Endurance in the face of Hormones.

My friend Nicki R. says she wants her medal to last at least a week, or else! Don’t ask.

You are welcome to download the medal I made for this blog and send it to any deserving hormone enduring woman you know.

You can read the full study on Neurology. It is by  A. Greendale, M-H Huang, R. G. Wight, T. Seeman, C. Luetters, N. E. Avis, J. Johnston, and A. S. Karlamangla, Effects of the menopause transition and hormone use on cognitive performance in midlife women, Neurology 2009 72: 1850-1857

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