Pre-order ADHD and Women by Dr. Jolene Brighten http://drbrighten.com/adhdandwomen and discover how hormones shape focus, motivation, executive function, and emotional regulation.
This conversation is about one of the most misunderstood areas in women’s health: how hormones interact with the brain. Dr. Brighten explains why estrogen is not just a reproductive hormone, why dopamine is not just a “pleasure chemical,” and why hormonal changes can influence motivation, reward, focus, working memory, task initiation, emotional bandwidth, and the way your brain responds to stress.
You’ll also learn why perimenopause can be such a blindsiding experience for women who previously felt like they were “holding it all together.” Estrogen doesn’t always decline in a neat, straight line. It can fluctuate, surge, and drop, and those changes can feel disruptive for the brain, especially if you already have ADHD, PMDD, premenstrual exacerbation, depression, anxiety, chronic stress, trauma, or a history of traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Brighten also makes one point very clear: this is not a “go start hormones” episode. This is a “your brain symptoms deserve a real differential diagnosis” episode. Hormones matter, but so do thyroid function, iron status, sleep, B12, vitamin D, insulin resistance, metabolic health, inflammation, medication response, stress load, and your lived experience of symptoms.
This Episode Is Brought to You By
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Thank you to our sponsors for supporting The Dr. Brighten Show and helping us bring evidence-informed women’s health conversations to more people.
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🌟 Grab my free hormone friendly recipes here! https://drbrighten.com/hormonekit/
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