Peri-menopause and Depression
Peri-menopause and Depression
Experiencing peri-menopause (the transitional years before menopause where our hormones are rising and falling) can bring on a lot of different symptoms including having a major impact on our mood.
What is depression?
Depression symptoms can range from unhappy mood states, to major depressive disorder, which encompasses cognitive (thought patterns) and behavioural symptoms that lead to distress and impact our ability to get things done.
Why does depression increase in perimenopause?
Perimenopause is a time in our lives that depression rates increase, with the risk being 2-5x higher when we are in our late perimenopause to early post-menopause time. Interestingly, the rates of depression actually drop once we are a few years into the next phase of menopause, which also helps us understand the risk might be related to the perimenopausal transition specifically - not just aging.
It’s thought that a few things are a playing a role when it comes to depression in perimenopause. The prevailing theory currently is that our changing hormones can unmask, or put those with risk factors for depression at the forefront. We will take you through some of those risk factors, how it comes up and how we can support you.
Risk factors for depression in perimenopause
Psychological Characteristics
Believe it or not, research has found some characteristics that may be related to an increased risk of depression in perimenopause. It’s been found that those who have more neuroticism (a tendency to experience chronic negative emotions), rumination, self consciousness, and pessimism have a much greater risk for depression. A negative attitude towards both menopause and aging (which are often related to traits of neuroticism and pessimism) and can actually predict anxious or negative mood states in women in midlife.
Social Factors
Having a strong social network can be protective against depression no matter what time of life we are in. Specifically, experiencing an increased amount of acute or chronic stressors, more daily hassles, reduced resources, and poor social relationships can put us at increased risk of depression. Often in midlife, depressed women are reporting a higher amount of interpersonal problems, negative life events happening to significant others, and more financial difficulties.
The antidote to this is having a few different types of support. This includes support that helps you with chores and getting things done, good social networks (close friends, relatives, and community memberships) and a good emotional support (someone to confide in). The most important in this - is the emotional support, as an adequate number of quality social relationships can actually protect peri-menopausal women from depression.
Adversity
Experiencing childhood adversity (such as abuse, neglect, unsafe environments and other significant early life trauma) can put anyone at higher risk life time risk of depression, but also those undergoing the perimenoapusal transition.
Health Related Factors
Certain health related behaviours are associated with an increased risk of depression in peri-menopause. With smoking, inactivity and sleep problems causing the most issues.
Sleep issues often arise in peri-menopause and can worsen our depression experience. It’s been found when we improve sleep for these people, their mood improves.
Depression occurs with higher frequency in patients who also experience more peri-menopause symptoms in general. Specifically some of the related symptoms are dizziness, headaches, tiredness, aches, stiff joints, incontinence and stressful life events.
How do hormones impact?
Estrogen impacts the structure, function and neurochemistry of our brain. It’s been found that most sex hormones in our body are related in some way to depression during peri-menopause. We don’t know yet exactly how these all interact with causing depression, especially since so many of our hormones are in flux during peri-menopause, but it’s thought that this fluctuation or change in our hormones combined with our underlying risk for depression (as defined by the above factors) can create the environment for depression to take hold in peri-menopause.
What can I do?
At Crafted Balance we support mental health through lifestyle, supplements, talk therapy, and medication if necessary. Our naturopathic doctors can incorporate specific mental health support alongside hormonal support to tailor a treatment plan that makes sense for your individual case.