46 and genuinely cannot work out if what's happening to my brain is perimenopause or just... five years of running on empty catching up with me. probably both. probably some horrible combination of both. the thing that's getting to me most is the words. i'll be mid-sentence in a meeting, talking to people i've worked with for years, and the word just... evaporates. i stood there last tuesday going 'the thing, the document, the, you know the one' and my colleague had to finish my sentence for me. she was kind about it but i wanted to disappear through the floor. started keeping a notepad open in every meeting now. not to look organised, just to survive. i write the key words down before i have to say them out loud. it helps, actually. not perfect but it stops the absolute panic of feeling like my vocabulary has gone on holiday without me. also been trying to eat something proper at about 3pm because by 4 i'm basically useless. a handful of nuts or some cheese and crackers or whatever i can find. don't know if it's doing anything but the 4pm collapse feels slightly less catastrophic than it did. what i actually want to ask my GP is whether there's any connection between oestrogen dropping and the cognitive stuff, because i've read things but i don't know what questions to even ask. has anyone gone in and had a useful conversation about this rather than being told it's stress? x