Women with adhd
Some women also experience a worsening of their ADHD as menopause sets in.
In the years leading up to menopause and the years after, the level of estrogen has decreased. Therefore, the production of dopamine is not only affected in fluctuations, but it is generally decreasing.
Here, many women find that they have to look at their ADHD again. They feel that it is necessary to find new or additional coping strategies to live a better life with ADHD.
There are now 3 experts - one from Norway , one from Sweden and one from Denmark - who wants separately to do more research about adhd/add women and peri meno pause, menopause ect
Some of them also do research on the affect the menstrual cycle has on women with adhd / add
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ADHD and ADD in females and the influence of hormones - before puberty, as a teenager, the first menstraution, childbirth, pre meno pause - menopause. (Lotta Borg Skoglund from Karolinska Institute)
"We overlook girls with ADHD because we look for symptoms that are common in boys. Girls and young women lose the opportunity to receive effective treatment because most studies of drugs and dosages have been conducted on boys and men. Both biological differences and a society that still has different social and cultural expectations for girls and boys, women and men, contribute to this.
Women's hormonal fluctuations and ADHD / ADD
ADHD symptoms do not exist in a vacuum and this is especially true for women. Unfortunately, there is not much knowledge and research on how hormonal fluctuations affect ADHD. And we know even less about how the body's own hormones can be affected by or even affect a treatment with medication. But there are exciting experiments and theories that can help us understand more about what many girls and women with ADHD describe.
Animal studies have shown that estrogen stimulates the brain's dopamine cells and is important for the production of dopamine. Natural fluctuations in the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone during the menstrual cycle affect several of the areas of the brain involved in making decisions, in social skills and in being able to control emotions. That is, many of the features that people with ADHD have difficulty with.
The effect of stimulant drugs also seems to be affected by sex hormones, and studies suggest that the effect may be different / more pronounced in the first part of the menstrual cycle (follicular phase). Where estrogen levels rise and progesterone levels are still low compared to the last part of the cycle where the effect of estrogen is attenuated by rising progesterone levels.
Unfortunately, no major studies have examined whether ADHD symptoms vary with the hormonal fluctuations, nor anyone looking at a possible need to adjust medication or doses accordingly. Eg. it may even be the case that some women with ADHD would get better from medications that even out hormone levels during the menstrual cycle.
Thus, a large gap in our knowledge is about how natural hormonal fluctuations can change and in some cases exacerbate the underlying ADHD symptoms.
Case: A and the recurring aggressions
A was diagnosed with ADHD already in primary school. It was very unusual for girls to be diagnosed with what was then called ADHD, but A had many of the symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity that are usually more common among boys at the group level.
It took many years before A put two and two together and began to see a pattern in here relationships. After another failed love affair, she received a tip from a friend about downloading a 'menstrual cycle app'. A pattern of recurring periods of extra low self-esteem and pessimism, discomfort with body contact, particularly high sensitivity to impressions and an aggression that was very easily aroused, appeared one to two weeks before she was going to have her period.
The certainty that it is actually about biological phenomena has in itself helped her not to panic and impulsively make quick decisions
In hindsight, A can easily identify several relationships that were interrupted during periods when she was negatively affected. Quarrels that she bitterly regretted, and relationships that she could not save and afterwards mourned for several years. It has by no means become easier over the years, quite the contrary. At the age of twenty, it could be a few days before menstruation.
Now that she's forty-plus, it's more than two weeks, that's more than half the month.
Her ADHD symptoms are intensifying and the defense mechanisms and strategies she has developed are not adequate these weeks. For A, the solution was to keep track of her cycle using a menstrual app and, together with her doctor, tailor a treatment plan in which she adjusts her ADHD medication to the different phases of her menstrual cycle.
The certainty that it is actually about biological phenomena has in itself helped her not to panic and impulsively make quick decisions that in the long run lead to unwanted consequences, during the periods when she is more vulnerable."
www.partnersinstories.se/lottaborgskoglundADHD: THE JOURNEY FROM GOOD GIRL TO BURNT OUT WOMAN
