Ep014 - ADHD, Brain Fog and Estrogen
What if the problem isn’t burnout, age, or motivation - but estrogen?
In this episode of Running in Heels, we unpack the cognitive chaos that hits high-functioning ADHD women during perimenopause and menopause. The conversation moves beyond hot flashes and mood swings into the neurochemical fault line where estrogen and dopamine collide.
You’ll hear what the data actually shows - 94% of ADHD women report worsening symptoms, 70% call the brain fog life-altering, and nearly half don’t discover their diagnosis until their forties.
You’ll meet Elaine, a senior executive whose sharpness starts to slip as her chemistry rewrites itself, and you’ll learn why this isn’t personal failure - it’s biology misread by systems built for hormonal stability.
This episode explains how fluctuating estrogen disrupts executive function, why medication suddenly feels unpredictable, and how workplaces mislabel neurological volatility as burnout.
You’ll also learn what scaffolds actually work - cycle mapping, medication synchronization, load redesign, and language that turns shame into data.
This episode isn’t about fixing women’s brains. It’s about redesigning systems that still expect linear performance from cyclical bodies.
Key Topics:
- The dopamine–estrogen link and its role in executive function
- How perimenopause unmasks long-compensated ADHD patterns
- The difference between burnout and biochemical fluctuation
- Scaffolds that stabilize function during hormonal transition
- Why leadership and medicine must evolve beyond the male baseline
Ready to get more specific about your particular flavour of ADHD?
Check out the Executive Function Inventory. - Where are you right now on each of the 12 executive functions. An inventory that identifies which EFs are challenges (that need to be bolstered), adaptive (you've built accommodations for yourself), and strengths (to leverage to support your challenges. If you know, you can be intentional. https://www.mineelachand.com/adhd-adults-efi
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