Listen to the Episode Here
Or, listen on your favorite app: YouTube | iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Pocketcasts
Episode Summary
What if the brain fog, overwhelm, time blindness, racing thoughts, and shorter emotional fuse showing up in your 40s aren’t just perimenopause?
For many women, ADHD has been hiding in plain sight for decades.
In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with women’s hormone expert and author Dr. Jolene Brighten to unpack why ADHD looks so different in women, why so many girls learn to mask their symptoms, and why changing estrogen levels during perimenopause can make those coping strategies suddenly stop working.
Dr. Brighten explains how ADHD in women may look less like the stereotypical hyperactive child and more like people-pleasing, perfectionism, constantly running mental lists, interrupting because you’re afraid you’ll forget your thought, chronic overwhelm, and appearing completely put together while internally struggling.
They also dive into the fascinating overlap between ADHD, perimenopause, PMDD, sleep, mitochondrial function, glucose metabolism, neuroinflammation, and emotional regulation.
And perhaps most importantly, they discuss what women can actually do: how movement can support brain energy, why sleep matters so much for the ADHD brain, how to build habits that work with your executive function instead of against it, and exactly how to advocate for a proper evaluation when your concerns are dismissed.
Because if your brain suddenly feels harder to manage in midlife, there may be more going on than “just hormones.”
DR. JOLENE BRIGHTEN
Dr. Jolene Brighten is a board-certified naturopathic endocrinologist, women’s hormone expert, educator, and bestselling author whose work focuses on helping women better understand the relationship between their hormones, brain, and overall health.
Her newest book, ADHD and Women: A Guide to Optimizing Your Hormones and Thriving with ADHD, explores how female hormones can influence ADHD symptoms throughout puberty, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause.
In this conversation, Dr. Brighten brings both clinical expertise and personal experience to the complicated intersection of ADHD, hormonal transitions, PMDD, emotional regulation, sleep, and women finally receiving answers after decades of believing they simply needed to try harder.
IN THIS EPISODE
- Why ADHD in women can hide behind people-pleasing, perfectionism, and looking “high-functioning”
- How declining estrogen in perimenopause can make masking ADHD symptoms much harder
- Why girls with ADHD are often diagnosed with anxiety or depression instead
- The connection between ADHD, mitochondrial function, brain glucose metabolism, and neuroinflammation
- Why movement can temporarily improve focus and cognitive performance in the ADHD brain
- How sleep disruption can compound brain fog, emotional dysregulation, and ADHD symptoms
- Why ADHD and PMDD so often overlap and may worsen during perimenopause
- How hormones may influence impulsivity, mood, executive function, and premenstrual ADHD symptoms
- What to track and say to your doctor if you suspect ADHD but keep getting dismissed
QUOTES
“Build pleasure into your day.”
“It is not just a hormone story.”
“High functioning is the label that society puts on women so that they can feel comfortable asking for more from her.”
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now
ADHD and Women by Dr. Jolene Brighten
RELATED EPISODES
769: Is It Perimenopause or Something Else? How to Finally Connect the Dots with Dr. Mariza
744: The Midlife Brain Reset: How to Protect Your Memory, Focus, and Mental Sharpness Starting Now
661: When “Normal” Isn’t Normal: How to Be Heard (and Taken Seriously) at the Doctor’s Office
Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!
Download the free Energy-Boosting Cheat Sheet now to learn how to unlock abundant health and energy that lasts—in only seconds every day!
