ADHD, Progesterone and Hormones: Life-Changing Information Every Woman Needs to Know with Dr Jolene Brighten

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We talk a lot about hormones and ADHD. But this conversation goes much deeper.

What if the fatigue, anxiety, gut issues, difficult periods and the way your ADHD seems to shift throughout your cycle aren’t separate problems? What if they’re all giving you information about what’s happening in your body?

This week on The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast, I’m joined by Dr Jolene Brighten for a fascinating and powerful deep dive into the biology behind ADHD in women, and some of the connections we just aren’t talking about enough.

Jolene is a board-certified naturopathic endocrinologist, nutritionist, certified menopause specialist and bestselling author of Beyond the Pill and Is This Normal? Her new book, ADHD and Women: A Guide to Understanding Your Hormones and Thriving with ADHD, is out now.

And she does not hold back in this conversation.

We get into progesterone, histamine, endometriosis, PMDD and perimenopause, and what they can mean for women with ADHD. We explore why symptoms that appear unrelated may be more connected than we realise, why so many women have spent years being passed between specialists and why understanding ADHD as something that affects the whole body can completely change the conversation.

Jolene also shares her own story, from her son’s ADHD diagnosis to being diagnosed with endometriosis after 29 years of periods and later discovering she is autistic.

This is one of those episodes that may have you joining dots you didn’t even realise were connected. If you’ve ever felt as though your hormones, brain and body are all speaking different languages, this conversation could help you understand the bigger picture.

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In this episode, we cover:

Jolene's late diagnoses of ADHD, endometriosis and autism, and why accommodations are so often mistaken for success

Why fatigue and anxiety are among the most common symptoms of endometriosis, and how it can be present without any pain

The links between ADHD, endometriosis, PMDD and fibroids, and why medicine so often treats them as coincidences

How histamine and mast cells may be connected to 2am to 4am waking, irritability and emotional dysregulation

What happens to dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine and GABA when oestrogen and progesterone drop

Why hysterectomy and hormone suppression don't cure PMDD or endometriosis, and what this means for ADHD women

Body identical progesterone versus synthetic progestins, progesterone intolerance and why starting low and going slow can help

What research tells us about hormonal contraception and depression in ADHD women

Why movement is so powerful for the ADHD brain, and an honest look at why it can feel so hard to do

Alcohol, GABA and the luteal phase, and why we were never designed to be productive all the time

Timestamps:

00:00 - Welcome and introducing Dr Jolene Brighten

02:30 - Jolene's journey to ADHD, endometriosis and autism diagnoses

05:30 - Entrepreneurship, accommodations and the support nobody sees

08:00 - What endometriosis can look like, including when there's no pain

10:00 - Jolene's endometriosis story, from childhood gut issues to secondary infertility

15:00 - Mast cells, histamine and the brain, immune and hormone connection

17:00 - Kate's experience with endometriosis, adenomyosis and continuous