Rage, Brain Fog, and Midlife Neuroscience: Your Brain on Hormones Part 1 of 1
The Luminescence Podcast with Schuyler GrantShow Notes
You're capable. You're high-functioning. And then something shifts. You can't remember words, you're snapping at everyone, you're lying awake at 3am soaked in sweat, or you're so flattened by anhedonia that nothing feels worth doing.
In this episode of the Luminescence Podcast, Schuyler Grant sits down with Dr. Sarah de la Torre, Dr. Somi Javaid, and Elena Brower to get personal and then scientific about what perimenopause and menopause actually do to the brain. Dr. Somi opens with losing her speech mid-presentation on stage. Elena talks about white-hot rage that arrived at 47 with no warning. Dr. Sarah describes the moment she realized she could no longer tolerate the chaos she'd always managed with ease.
They discuss:
How estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone regulate dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and glutamate — and what happens when these hormones fluctuate wildly
Why perimenopause can look like depression in one woman, anxiety in another, and new-onset ADHD in a third — and how clinicians tell the difference between hormonal changes and underlying psychiatric conditions
How hot flashes and night sweats are actually a brain regulation problem, not just an ovary problem — and why sleep fragmentation is both symptom and accelerant
The real cost of untreated menopausal symptoms — 900,000 women left the UK workforce, and $1.8 billion lost in the US economy
How GLP-1 medications are unexpectedly quieting anxiety and rumination in midlife women — and why neuroinflammation might be the missing link
For any woman wondering if she's losing her mind, or if there's a reason for the rage, the fog, and the 3am spiral.
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