Is It Depression or is It the Menopause?

Many women hit midlife and run into a wall of low mood, brain fog, anxiety and overwhelm, not to mention fatigue and joint pain, just as their periods are stopping and their life stressors such as sulky teenagers, aging parents and changing physicality are ramping up. Common complaints in midlife include “I don’t feel like myself any more” and “I don’t think I can cope.” Is it simply a lack of estrogen, as a woman’s periods grind to a halt, driving all this? Is it enough to be called depression in the clinical sense? Is it permanent? Is it fixable? If so, how? The answers are more complicated than you think and the treatments may be influenced by where in the world a woman lives and what kinds of practitioners she sees. <h2>Is it depression?</h2> The first port of call for many women is their GPs, who receive little training in women’s hormones, especially hormonal changes in the latter part of women’s lives. A 51-year-old (the average age of onset of menopause) woman visits her GP complaining of low mood, hot flashes, feeling overwhelmed and fatigued, and her GP says, “Ah, you sound depressed. Let me give you antidepressants.” He prescribes an antidepressant such as <a href="https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/menopause/effexor-for-hot-flashes" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Effexor</a>, which actually suppresses the <a href="https://www.rxlist.com/vasomotor/definition.htm" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">vasomotor</a> effects of fluctuating hormonal levels and curbs the hot flashes, and maybe the woman feels a little bit better in herself and maybe she doesn’t. The treatment works, sort of. <a href="https://medium.com/wise-well/is-it-depression-or-is-it-the-menopause-4ea819340cf4">Read More</a>