10 Jun
Hi all. I've been lurking for a while, reading through threads at odd hours when I can't sleep, and I keep thinking I'll post and then not quite doing it. So here I am finally doing it. I'm Michelle, 53, and I think I'm somewhere in menopause although I haven't had a totally clear conversation with my GP about exactly where I am yet. That's on my list. The thing that's brought me here, if I'm honest, is work. I'm a manager and I've always been someone who could hold a lot in my head at once, run a meeting, remember the details, find the right word. And over the last year or so I've noticed I can't quite do that the way I used to. I'll be mid-sentence in a meeting and the word just... isn't there. I've started keeping notes for things I never used to need to write down. I sit on the commute in the morning trying to mentally prepare for conversations that I would have just walked into before. I don't know if it's brain fog from hormones or burnout or just being 53 and tired. Probably some combination. But it's quietly frightening me and I haven't really said that out loud to anyone. I've got two teenagers at home so there's not a lot of quiet space to figure any of this out. I'm trying to be practical about it, writing things down, keeping track of when the fog is worse, whether it's connected to sleep or what I've eaten or where I am in... whatever this is. I don't know if that's helping yet but it feels better than doing nothing. I suppose I'm here to hear from women who've been through this and come out the other side still feeling competent. That would be really reassuring right now. Thanks for having me x