As your hormone levels change, your brain function may show signs of faltering. This can be a frustrating and unsettling side effect of the menopausal process, and sometimes it's best to relax and realize it can also be normal.

Difficulty Concentrating

If you're approaching fifty, and it seems as though you aren't quite as sharp mentally as you used to be, it's probably because you aren't. Though fuzzy thinking, forgetfulness, difficulty concentrating, and memory problems are common complaints of perimenopausal and menopausal women, these issues are linked as closely with the aging process as they are to changing ovarian functions. Today, doctors and health care professionals recognize that certain cognitive problems are due to depleted estrogen levels and other changes in the aging brain.

How does this fuzzy thinking manifest itself? In ways you've probably experienced most of your life, for example, losing your car keys, forgetting what you were about to say, recognizing a face but failing to recall the name, searching fruitlessly for the right word, being easily distracted, or losing your train of thought. As women reach the age of menopause (around age fifty), however, they can suffer an increase in these sorts of problems. You may have heard people refer to these lapses as “senior moments,” and if you're approaching the age of menopause you're likely to be experiencing them yourself.

While you can't stop your brain's odometer from registering the passing years, you can slow down and repair many of the issues that contribute to fuzzy thinking and other cognitive roadblocks. See Chapter 7 for more information.

Memory Loss

As your estrogen rises and falls during perimenopause, memory may be impacted. This is usually transitory and will improve once the body adjusts to new lower levels of hormones. It is a symptom that women can find annoying, or even alarming, if they are worried about dementia. Although some memory loss is very common with aging, especially short-term memory, these initial memory lapses should not be a cause for alarm unless they are serious enough to affect day-to-day activities. Stress can make memory problems worse, so take that into account when you are assessing whether this is a problem for you.

Insomnia

Interruptions in normal sleep patterns are common complaints of perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. During the years approaching menopause, many women find that they wake once or twice during the night and then have a difficult time returning to sleep. Other times, women find that it takes longer for them to fall asleep when they go to bed at night or that they awaken an hour or two earlier than they used to. Whatever form it takes, insomnia leaves women feeling tired, irritable, and out of touch with their surroundings.

Fortunately, many women find that insomnia is a transient problem that may last no more than a few months. For others, insomnia during perimenopause may be so severe that it hampers their performance and sense of well-being during the day. Chapter 7 offers a number of options for minimizing insomnia when it strikes. As always, if your symptoms become severe, consult your doctor or health care professional. You can combat insomnia, so don't allow it to drag you down during this important transition phase.

Migraines and Other Headaches

Some medical experts will tell you that migraine headaches aren't truly a symptom of menopause. Nevertheless, many women who have never experienced a migraine in their lives begin having them during perimenopause. These hormonally related migraines are often experienced by younger women in the first few days of their periods, or during pregnancy. In both cases, fluctuations in your body's estrogen levels seem to be a cause.

Though both sexes suffer from migraines, women are three times more likely to have them. Migraines are intensely painful headaches thought to be associated with constricted blood vessels in the brain. Women who suffer migraines describe them as pounding headaches that can cause nausea, vomiting, and a strong sensitivity to light, noise, and odors. Some migraine sufferers — about twenty percent — report a certain premonition, or aura, for several minutes before the actual pain begins. This aura can include flashing lights, certain odors, changes in their vision, or numbness in a hand, arm, or leg. Migraines usually last four or more hours, and they can last as long as a week.

Migraines aren't the only kind of headaches that seem to accompany perimenopause. In general, women report having more frequent and severe headaches during this time. These are usually simple stress or muscle tension headaches, and are often relieved by over-the-counter analgesics such as aspirin and acetaminophen.