ADHD in Perimenopause and Menopause #shorts

So, if you have a woman that is coming to you that's in perimenopause or menopause and says like, "Look, I think I have ADHD. I can't focus. I don't know what's going on. I can't remember things. I'm feeling off. " If they're already on hormone therapy and they're already you having that estrogen coming back into their system, are they also able to go on to a medication for ADHD? Absolutely, they can. So, yeah, so there's the hormonal piece of restoring that even though HRT or hormone replacement therapy is not an established treatment for ADHD. I just have to say that just qualify. — that again actually because I think the people because I will say this, I do know that I had severe brain fog and I do know that when I went on estrogen it helped me regain my confidence and I felt like I had less brain fog, but that is not what it is for. That's right. It is not a treatment for ADHD. Okay, but given how impactful it is, given all the work that it does in the brain, it stands to reason that replacing it will enhance your function if you get it replaced. That's basically just restoring your biology, getting HRT. Then there's the treatment though for what's still left over. And so, the main treatments are medication treatments are stimulants and non-stimulants. So, the stimulants, the main two categories are methylphenidate, Ritalin is a brand name, and the amphetamine-based drugs, Adderall, Vyvanse, and whatnot. Now, those can be good or bad. There are some people who can take stimulants and it's like the lights turn on and everything's wonderful for them. However, it doesn't always cleanly work like that. They have lots of side effects and people can lose their appetite, which if you're overweight, you might be happy with that, but that's still not great. But, it can disrupt your sleep. Some people can get crashes with their emotions after the medication wears off. They're not always easy to take, but they can be a very good solution. And one good thing about them is they work for a certain period of time. It's not like antidepressants where you need to take them for weeks consistently every single day to see what the effect is going to be. With stimulants, they're like pain pills. You take them, they work for 3 to 5 hours, or if you take a long-acting, it's longer than that. And then when it wears off, it's out of your system or it's done. Okay. — So, you for some You know, I have some patients who know that afternoon meetings are really where they slip. They're good in the morning, so they don't want to be on something all day long. So, they'll take a short-acting stimulant just in the afternoon, just on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when they have these meetings. So, stimulants are able to kind of laser focus in on these times.