I thought I was losing my mind. It was My Hormones

I lost my left socks for about two years.

I genuinely thought they were going to another planet. I'd forget sentences mid-way through saying them. I'd walk out of the house and immediately wonder if I'd turned the stove off. I'd spend ten minutes looking for my glasses — and they were on my head.

And then there was the anxiety. My poor husband had to put up with me constantly hitting the imaginary brake while he was driving. Over nothing. Every corner, every merge, every roundabout. I wasn't anxious about anything specific. It was just this low hum of worry that sat underneath everything, all the time.

I remember thinking — quietly, because I didn't really want to say it out loud — that maybe something was seriously wrong with me. Maybe this was early dementia. Maybe this was just who I was now.

It wasn't. It was my hormones.

And in a weird way, figuring that out was a relief. Not a complete fix — but a relief. Because at least it had a name. At least it made sense.

What brain fog actually is

Brain fog isn't a medical diagnosis. It's a description — and if you've experienced it, you know exactly what it means. That mental cloudiness. The words that won't come. The feeling of being slightly behind yourself, like your brain is running on a three-second delay.

Research published in April 2026 in The Lancet — from Monash University, the University of Melbourne, and University College London — found that brain fog affects up to two thirds of women going through menopause. Two thirds. And yet it remains one of the least discussed, least understood symptoms of the entire transition.

Many of the women in that research described fearing they were developing dementia. Some had stopped working. Some had lost confidence in their own judgement. Not because their cognitive capacity had actually declined — but because their cognitive efficiency had shifted, and nobody had told them why.

Why it happens

Your brain is not broken. But it is responding to a significant hormonal shift.

Oestrogen plays a far bigger role in brain function than most people realise. It supports the production of serotonin and dopamine — the neurotransmitters that regulate mood, focus, and memory. It influences how efficiently your brain uses energy. It affects your sleep architecture, your stress response, and your ability to process and recall information.

When oestrogen starts fluctuating — as it does during perimenopause, sometimes erratically and unpredictably — your brain feels it. Not in a dramatic, sudden way. More like the signal getting a bit patchy. Things that used to feel automatic start requiring more effort. Words that used to come easily take a moment longer. The mental sharpness you've relied on for decades feels like it's gone slightly soft around the edges.

Add disrupted sleep into the mix — which is its own symptom of hormonal change — and you've got a compounding effect. Poor sleep impairs memory consolidation, reduces processing speed, and increases emotional reactivity. If you're waking at 3am and not getting back to sleep, your brain simply isn't completing the overnight maintenance it needs. The fogginess the next day isn't in your head. It's the result of incomplete brain restoration.

Then there's cortisol. Chronic stress — and the hormonal transition itself is a physiological stressor — elevates cortisol, which directly impairs memory formation and recall. The anxiety and the fog aren't separate problems. They're connected, and they feed each other.

What it looks like at work

I hear this from clients constantly. They're sitting in meetings and can't hold the thread of the conversation. They read the same email three times and still can't absorb it. They second-guess decisions they would have made confidently a year ago. They wonder if their colleagues have noticed. They wonder if they're becoming less capable.

They're not. They're experiencing a neurological response to hormonal change — one that is temporary, manageable, and absolutely not a sign of decline.

But when nobody tells you that, it's easy to draw the wrong conclusion.

What actually helps

Sleep is the foundation. Even small improvements to sleep quality have a measurable impact on cognitive function. Reducing caffeine after 2pm, keeping your bedroom cool, and getting morning light exposure are not small things when it comes to your brain's overnight restoration.

Blood sugar matters more than you think. Your brain runs on glucose, and unstable blood sugar creates unstable cognition. Prioritising protein and fibre at every meal, and reducing high-sugar foods especially in the evening, can make a noticeable difference.

Certain nutrients are non-negotiable. Iron deficiency — common in women with heavy periods during perimenopause — directly impacts cognitive clarity and sleep quality. Low vitamin D is linked to reduced melatonin production and poor sleep. Folate from green leafy vegetables supports nervous system function. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for brain health.

Strength training supports brain health. Resistance training increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) — essentially fertiliser for brain cells. It also improves insulin sensitivity, reduces cortisol over time, and supports sleep quality.

Stress management is not optional. When cortisol is chronically elevated, your brain physically cannot form and retrieve memories as efficiently. Even ten minutes of genuine downregulation has a physiological impact.

The thing I want you to take from this

If you've been sitting quietly with the fear that something is seriously wrong with you — that your sharpness is gone, that you're declining, that this is just who you are now — I want to be the one to tell you: it's not.

What you're experiencing has a biological explanation. It has a name. And for most women, it improves once hormonal fluctuations stabilise and the right support is in place.

You're not losing your mind. Your hormones have changed the rules. And once you understand that, you can actually do something about it.

If you want to talk through what that looks like for you specifically, I offer clarity calls — no obligation, just a conversation.

You can book one through the link in my bio.