44 and I genuinely cannot work out if something is actually happening or if I've just finally hit the wall after years of too much. Like. The anxiety is new. Not stress-anxiety, I know what that feels like. This is more... ambient? Waking up at 4am with my heart going and nothing specific to worry about. My periods have gone a bit weird, shorter cycles, one that was only 22 days which has never happened before. And the brain fog is embarrassing, I'm a project manager, I live by my brain, and lately I'm losing words mid-sentence in meetings. But then I think: two kids, demanding job, not enough sleep, too much coffee to compensate for not enough sleep. Maybe this is just... that. Maybe I'm being dramatic. I've started writing things down because I couldn't tell anymore what was a pattern and what was just a bad week. Sleep, caffeine, how the day felt. Cut my afternoon coffee a bit and genuinely don't know if it's helped or if I'm just having a better fortnight. I want to go to my GP but I don't know how to say "I think I might be perimenopausal" at 44 without sounding like I've been down a Google rabbit hole at midnight. Which, fine, I have. But still. Does anyone have words for how they actually framed it? Without sounding like you've self-diagnosed off TikTok? x