Is menopause making me foggy?

Q:

I’m 53, healthy and going through menopause. But I have a major case of brain fog—trouble concentrating, coming up with the right word or remembering important information. It’s frustrating and embarrassing. What can I do?

A:

If it makes you feel better, you’re hardly alone with these challenges— this is a common complaint among my patients. Menopause-related changes in brain function stem from the dramatic drop in estrogen that occurs at this stage, but the good news is that they do go away. In fact, research has found that while 60% of women report memory problems during the menopausal transition, their performance usually rebounds to premenopausal levels once they move into postmenopause. Somehow the postmenopausal brain adjusts to having substantially less estrogen to work with, but it can take awhile.

In the meantime, getting enough sleep and regular exercise, even walking briskly, can enhance brain function. And research suggests that supplementing daily with 100 mg. of soy isoflavones can improve general thinking abilities and visual memory in postmenopausal women. Another study found that regularly taking 75 mg. of resveratrol, a plant-based estrogen, twice a day improved postmenopausal women’s performance on tests of verbal memory and other mental challenges. Finally, supplementing with the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA has been shown to improve memory and learning abilities in postmenopausal women.

If these measures don’t relieve your brain fog, talk to your doctor about whether you’re a candidate for shortterm low-dose hormone replacement therapy, which can boost brain function, or whether another medication could help you.