ADHD Weekly, March 5, 2025

Ask the ADHD Health Team

Question: I feel really scattered because of menopause. My ADHD symptoms seem worse, especially things like motivation and my working memory. My anxiety and panic have also gone up.

I read a new study that compared women with and without ADHD and how they rated their ADHD symptoms during menopause. The study said that women with ADHD didn’t feel that menopause made their symptoms much worse. But that doesn’t match what I’m experiencing.

Can you help me understand why my experience is different? Am I the only one noticing more ADHD symptoms during menopause?

ADHD Information Team:

You’re not alone. Many women going through menopause have told us their ADHD symptoms are worse. Hormone changes can make it harder to stay organized, motivated, or remember things. You may notice it’s tougher to focus, start or finish tasks, or keep track of several things at once.

If you’ve had ADHD symptoms before and they feel stronger now in this stage of life, it might be a good idea to talk with your doctor. The doctor can help you review your ADHD treatment plan, make sure it still meets your needs, and make changes if any are needed to help with your changing symptoms.

An ADHD Expert Weighs In

Research on how perimenopause and menopause can affect ADHD symptoms is important to understand. We brought your question to Jane Indergaard, DNP, RN, a retired associate professor of nursing and scholar in residence at Concordia College. She also serves on CHADD’s board of directors and editorial advisory board, and she was a cofounder of the award-winning Red River Valley CHADD chapter. Dr. Indergaard has more than four decades of clinical nursing practice and thirty-seven years in higher education. Her expertise includes translating research into practical clinical and educational applications.

Dr. Indergaard: The research you refer to, Examining the Link Between ADHD Symptoms and Menopausal Experiences by Lauren Chapman and her colleagues, presents a timely and valuable study examining menopausal symptoms in women with and without ADHD. Their finding: Women with ADHD did not differ significantly in self-reported menopausal symptoms at the group level compared to women without ADHD. That finding has caught some public interest, particularly given a growing clinical narrative that menopause reliably worsens ADHD symptoms. That publicity may be why you learned about this study.

For many women living with ADHD, this study’s conclusion may feel confusing or even dismissive of very real struggles during this life stage. The study compared groups of women with and without an ADHD diagnosis and looked at their menopausal symptoms at one point in time. On average, the groups looked similar. But this does not mean that menopause doesn’t affect ADHD symptoms, or that women with ADHD who report worsening of their symptoms during menopause are not correct.

These are two different questions:

• Do women with ADHD report more severe menopausal symptoms than other women?
• Does perimenopause make ADHD symptoms harder to manage than they were before?

The study only answered the first question. It could not look at how women’s symptoms changed compared to their own earlier baseline. In other words, what the study could not examine was whether menopause makes ADHD symptoms worse for an individual woman compared to how she functioned earlier in her life. Many women with ADHD describe feeling more forgetful, more emotionally overwhelmed, or less able to cope during perimenopause and menopause.

In fact, the study found something important: that women who have more difficulties with attention, emotional regulation, and executive functioning—whether or not they had an ADHD diagnosis—tended to have a harder time during menopause. This helps put into context why many women without ADHD report “ADHD-like” symptoms during menopause, and why women with ADHD may feel especially stretched during this period.

So, if a woman, patient, or client reports feeling more forgetful, more overwhelmed, or less able to cope during, that experience is still real—even if a study doesn’t show big differences between diagnostic groups.

The study also did not look at hormone therapy or test whether stimulant medication helps during perimenopause or menopause, so it does not contradict reports that treatments like hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or ADHD medication can be helpful for some women.

Research and clinical reports have demonstrated that some women without ADHD (neurotypical women), do experience ADHD-like symptoms during menopause. And interestingly, studies that gave these women small doses of stimulant medication demonstrated subjective and clinical measured improvements, depending upon the medication. However, a key understanding about this is to note that hormonal fluctuations in menopause do not “cause” ADHD. They simply amplify existing, underlying vulnerabilities for some women.

The bottom line

This research doesn’t say “menopause doesn’t affect ADHD.” It says that women’s experiences during menopause are varied, personal, and not fully explained by diagnostic labels.

Do you have a question about ADHD or are you looking to find support from professionals or peers? Call CHADD’s ADHD Helpline, Monday-Friday, 1-5 PM ET, at 866-200-8098. Or email us at Customer_Service@CHADD.org, subject line For Health Information Team.

Read more about menopause and women with ADHD

• How the Gender Gap Leaves Girls and Women Undertreated for ADHD
• Frenzied, Frazzled, and Overwhelmed: The Interaction of Hormones and ADHD in Women in Midlife
• Awareness of Sex Differences Can Better Help Girls with ADHD
• Getting Older with ADHD: What Does Normal Aging with ADHD Look Like