Menopause brain fog

I frequently get emails from patients telling me that they know they are experiencing "brain fog", "goofiness", "mental incapacity", "I'm addled" or any other term to describe a decline in cognitive functioning.  I empathize with them, because besides being post menopausal, I have Attention Deficit Disorder, and I have often said "hey, try being ADD and hormonally imbalanced at the same time, it's a very special type of hell!".  The progesterone I take transdermally helped my cognitive functioning immensely------before I went on it, I had started feeling like I was "stupid", and logically, I know I'm not-----I have two graduate degrees in education, earning the most recent one less than 10 years ago.  Getting my thyroid running optimally has also had a positive effect on my brain function.  It's very scary, because when the cognitive changes start happening, the first thing I think so many of us think is could it be early onset Alzheimer's or dementia.  Also, too often when we bring concerns like this to a health care provider, women get blown off with "you're just going through menopause, it's normal", "you're just stressed out, relax", or any of another half a dozen lines. 

About 10 minutes ago I responded to an email from a lady who apologized for asking some questions that were partially answered on the blog ------ she said she was feeling "addled". I told her no need to apologize, I can talk about hormones all day long (just ask any of my friends) and I am always happy to respond to question emails.  I hit the send button, then went back to the inbox-----and the article on my news feed was this one about menopausal brain fog.  Well, holy cow, talk about great timing! It's a brief article, but I thought it was worth sharing.